I think the angle or perception of a poster is important. In terms of experience...it's all relative. In my job I have to deal with military folks who think that 15+ years of military service qualifies them in some way to provide academic advice to college freshmen, even though they've never seen the inside of a college classroom themselves and have only the vaguest idea of what a college major really is. They don't understand how the university system works, but they think that their experience somehow translates directly to it.Originally Posted by RTK
One of the keys to experience, in my view, is knowing what you DON'T know. I've met people both in and out of the military who are seriously expert in their very narrow lanes of knowledge, but then think that that expertness (yeah...not a real word I don't think, but it sounds cool) somehow carries over to every other thing they touch. We're fortunate here in that we have a great number of people who understand what they don't know and are willing to offer up what they do know to help others fill their own gaps.
That said, I also find the high school sophomore foreign policy "expert" annoying, but at the same time it's interesting to see what they know, what they don't know, and what they THINK they know.
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