Manax comments on Learned Blankness - LessWrong
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Comments (186)
I've often seen this with hooking up computers, TVs and/or audio equipment. Many people seem to treat it as incomprehensible, even though with computers (particularly) it's just cable to connector, no real thinking needed. For a/v equipment it's just "flows" out-to-in.
Specialization is fantastic, but there is real value to cross-training in other disciplines. It's hard to predict what insights in other fields might assist with your primary. Also, even if you use a specialist, it's impossible to evaluate them if you blank-out in the area. For example, auto-mechanics often fall into this category, as mentioned in the article. If a mechanic tells you he "needed to replace the flooge inhibitor", and that was causing the car to "super-slafire", how do you evaluate if he's being honest without spending a lot of money & time doing experiments?
Indeed, but the field still needs to be somewhat 'close' to yours. See Innocentive where they make much of being outsiders - but it's not like the humanities are sweeping the industrial chemistry problems.