Your Competition: The Cult of The Non-Experts

It amazes us that there are people who have tried to become experts by reading the first 100 links of various topics that they were searching on.

They understand what the topic is about and how it works in terms of generality without the specificity behind it.

These same people rarely ever think about  contingencies and can barely think one move ahead.   

They go with their heart without understanding how it connects to the Big Tangible Picture and/or  ever contemplating on the consequences of failing.  

This same group of non-mindful people tell their followers to believe in magical thinking and that there is another chance for all situations. 

This is your competition.

How to Be An Expert in The World of Pseudo Experts

(updated at 16:16 hrs)

In the information economy, there are experts and pseudo experts.  

The fundamentals in selling this specific service do not change too often.  ...   The strategic attributes of price, quality, and good customer service do count   

In our "loud" economy,  noise prevails than signal.   Brand experience is about creating a subtle level of deception while .  Selling short term gratification to the naive. 


To be The Expert in a Noisy Setting 
He or she does not  waste much time on "twittering" or "facebooking"  

He  or she does not waste much inspiring people (Preachers who sell smoke, bells, whistles, snake oil and paper noodles, are great at this activity.)     They do not spent time telling people to join their community. Some of them belonged to this group.

They are focused on solving tangible problems while staying ahead of the curve.

Those who don't, usually do not know how things work and why it works.  But they are able to sell instant answers to the mindless audience.  Pursuing that option and succeeding is subjective because the quantity of quality competition. 

Paraphrasing what the late Bill Walsh said in an early 2000's commercial, "the best coach (strategist) is one who stays focused on the game while being mindful of its settings. ... He can see all 22 players in motion."

In other words, seeing how objects and events are synchronized for that grand strategic moment.

The Essence of the Expert 
The "real" experts are the ones who recognize the on-coming question while their counter-parts are focused on understanding the current answer.  

Depending on the configuration of the situation, they can perform that action without a technological mean!

q: Do you know what are the specifics for that methodology? 

So, how does one stays focused on the game while being mindful of its settings? 

Can You Truly Become The Expert?

It depends greatly on the following attributes:

• one's will to learn as much as possible;
• one's will to to persist and to succeed;
• one's network of subject-based experts;
• one's ability to prioritize and 
• one ability to connect the dots 
• one's ability to capitalize on the connection efficiently before the cycle of opportunity is over.

Having the skillset to assess, position and influence is important.  

Remember, the depthness of one's expertise will triumph over  experience.

More to come.

Are You The Expert?

In any business realm, there are the specialists, the gurus, the experts and so forth. There are also those who operate on the notion that life is simple and easy. They visualized the objective and everyone else performed the "wet work."

Most people do not want to comprehend the connectivity of a situation. Nor do they want to anticipate all of the best and worst case scenarios that could occur. Comprehending the possible exceptions for each specific scenario is too much of a chore.

By living through an assortment of simple principles and their simplification of life, they just want to be inspired with happy news and false hopes.  

In summary, this same group of people just wanted a projected result and return home with the intangible feeling of self-satisfaction regardless how insane the idea is.  

The Gist of The Expert 
To be the true expert who can reap the rewards, he must be able to connect the dots.

Comments From The Cook Ding's Kitchen

"Engineers vs everyone else in meetings. This isn't comedy, it's documentary.  ... BTW, red lines with invisible ink = red background and "invisible" ink.  ..."

Thriving in the Information Economy: Becoming the Ultra Class Expert

An ultra class expert is a person who comprehends the connectivity of a situation. He or she anticipates all of the best and worst case scenarios that could occur and comprehends what are the possible exceptions for each specific scenario.

Balancing numerous factors in a complex situation is always a challenge.

Click here for more posts on this matter.

Succeeding in the Information Economy as the Expert (Pt. 5)

(updated at 15:15 hrs)

These days, the expectations of an expert are quite low.  By visiting LinkedIn and the other sites, one might realized that the title of expert is all a farce.

Most of them are more of a specialist than an expert.

If there is a long dis-connectivity between that specific skill and the trend of the Big Tangible Picture (BTP), that category of an expert could become irrelevant.  Think about it.

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The first step to becoming the expert is to master the relevant fundamentals from level to level.

The next step is to understand one's own current situation and the state of the Big Tangible Picture before ever deciding on whether to connect to it or get ahead of it.

The true key to being the true expert is to identify the right position to seeing the complete configuration of the Big Tangible Picture while being mindfully aware of one's objective. Then, it would be easily for him to focus on his objective while being mindfully aware of the Big Tangible Picture.  ... Of course, mastering the relevant fundamentals come first.

More to come.  ...

Succeeding in the Information Economy as the Expert (Pt. 4)

The transition from being a novice to an expert is never that easy.  

Building a strong comprehension of the Big Tangible Picture (BTP) means implementing these following six steps:

1. Find a problem;
2. Identifying the model of the situation;. 
3. Developing the solution;
4. Practice the implementation of the solution;
5. Use the experience to build one's own expertise; and 
6. Return to step one to learn more.

Succeeding in the Information Economy as the Expert (Pt. 3)

                                                   Source: Softwarecreation.com  
                                                   (The site does not exist anymore)

The true expert sees the exception that lies within the singularity of the Big Tangible Picture (BTP). 

Succeeding in the Information Economy as the Expert (Pt. 2)

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.  ..."  --- Niels Bohr  Danish physicist (1885 - 1962) 

The true expert is a person who absolutely comprehends most of the worst mistakes which can be made in a very narrow terrain.  By understanding "the tectonic level" that operates behind each possible mistake, he knows the exception that could shift the gist of the situation.

"I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.  ..."  
-  Bertrand Russell

Succeeding in the Information Economy as the Expert

To thrive in the global economy, one cannot be a mono-focused specialist. Those days are gone. The abundance of information and the profusion of copycat competition have created an unstable level of uneven parity.

The Expert
The 21st century expert is proficient in the act of integrating relevant points of various subject matters into one grand picture. It also enabled him or her to capitalize on major opportunities while mitigating the risks.

Some of the current group of experts do not possess the insight, the foresight and the perseverance to be the ultra class expert. They usually talk a good game of "what the objective" should be about and what is the approach to solving it. 

As a big picture thinker, these experts usually rely on their network to do the detail work. The results are usually just "good enough."

Following are the requirements of the expert:

• Having the skill to define the dots;
• Connecting them together on time, on budget and on target.
• Staying focused on the target while being mindful of the relevant external points that influenced the terrain of the target. 

The completion of those three points usually guarantees the client that the expert's strategic advice is reliable, relevant and do-able.

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Extinction of the Expert

How the knowledge economy is changing the innovation game.

By Denise Gershbein

The age of the expert is over. Information is flowing at such an everyone, everywhere, everything, all-the-time pace that participation in the knowledge economy is no longer optional, or a value-add. It’s compulsory. And it offers an identity crisis for those individuals and companies who call themselves experts, leaders, innovators, and problem solvers.

In the knowledge economy, you can’t achieve expert or lead status just by having a compelling idea, a creative design, or a body of experience to call upon, no matter what field you work in. Unfettered access to information means an expected participation in a larger number of domain verticals. Expectations for the quality of the idea are higher.

But while individual participation and production across domains increases, the bandwidth of the individual to validate his or her ideas shrinks. Your idea or topic will always have a germ somewhere else, whether you know it or not. Audiences are smarter, more skeptical, and more judgmental. Facts can be checked and disproved easily, and audiences can crowdsource a verdict quickly and summarily.

Innovation is a neutral term: it simply means “new.” But new isn’t enough when the crowd can do better. Today, the question of innovation and achieving it through cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing is well beyond deep expertise or broad horizons. We’re beyond the lateral and the longitudinal, beyond the specialist or the generalist. We’re also coming to understand that the crowdsourced collective isn’t the whole answer. To paraphrase Malcolm Gladwell: You can’t crowdsource Shakespeare.

Convergence hasn’t delivered on its promise because it isn’t the solution: It’s only one step within a future-forward knowledge framework. Innovation is achieved after disciplines come together, when their organizing principles, themes, and guiding premises overlay in transparency and there is a resulting exponential accretion of knowledge and possibility.

The awakening to the power of our collective intelligence can be seen in the business media and the semantic gymnastics swirling around convergence, divergence, design thinking, innovation, and other catchwords. Convergence came on the scene when everyone figured out that there were other domains and verticals that needed to be considered in the practice of design; that there were other practices that could inform your own, other specialties to benefit from, shoulders of giants to be stood upon. Now, being “convergent” is like being multinational but not global. You’re on the big stage, but you haven’t achieved the statesmanship that comes with the full essence of understanding.

This awakening is likely a good thing, but it also means that the idea of a powerful collective intelligence is in its nascency. People don’t quite get it yet. Everyone is straining for the holy grail of innovation, but if everything is new, then change just becomes the norm and everything becomes disposable instead of special. Nothing is truly innovative in the finest meaning of the word.

Going forward, convergence must not be about the objects of design but about the process of creativity. Because of that it’s becoming harder to imagine a holistic, expert stance for an individual. True expertise and innovation increasingly depend on creativity and problem solving by community, or what we might call a “society of design.”

Does this mean experts, creative directors, and gurus are going extinct? It does if they try to hold on to the fading notion that they’re the central repository of expert knowledge. The fact is, encyclopedic knowledge is in the crowd, and specialized knowledge will rest with the individual. The leaders and experts of tomorrow have to be either polymaths (deep multi-domain experts), curators (those who collect or collate different domains), polyglots (the overlay and meaning makers), or all three.

Even then, effective leadership won’t come simply by collecting numerous disciplines under one roof. Nor will it come by buying a company for the purpose of associating oneself with expertise. True leaders and experts will have to support distributed knowledge networks by attracting polymaths, polyglots, and curators into their workforce, and by pursuing partnerships or collaborative consultancies externally. Leadership, expertise, and innovation will come from those who rise up to facilitate and speak the lingua franca of all domains.

http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/motion/extinction-of-the-expert.html

"An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field." --- Niels Bohr

Source: http://pathologyexpert.blogspot.com/2014/08/expert-mistakes.html

How Many Hours of Training Does It Take To Become An Expert?

Some of our associates have believed that the Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours rule will transform a novice into an expert.  They presumed that it is the golden rule for succeeding. 

Does reading the first 300 links of a Google search on Sunzi, does he/she become a Sunzi expert?  ... After performing the 10,000 hrs of any martial arts , does he/she becomes an expert of  "Karate?" or "Taijiquan?"   ... That is a myth that is pushed by people with poor and superficial analysis. ...

It is time for us to burst that bubble.

Filtering the Reality From Illusions

Following is an abridged listing of the reasons on why that rule is not valid in most cases:

• people do not possess the same learning aptitude;
• people are not born with the same economic resources; and 
• people do not always possess the same technical resources.

Those with the right attributes, might succeed early.  ... Will he/she succeed repeatedly?

Without having the right biological attributes, will he/she succeed?  The superficial expert who has no risk consequence in making a grand point, will say anything.   This is the society of high noise and low signal ratio.

Other Comments

Click here, here and here for other reasons why Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours rule is not always the absolute. 

Minor Jottings
Regardless of what the amateur experts say, it takes more than the reading of 300 links and a set of books for someone to be a strategy expert. By not able to assess the Big Tangible Picture, the "over-rated and over-stated" pseudo experts will fail.  It is only a matter of time.

By comprehending how the grand factors of politics, socialization and the economics interact with the grand setting of our information society, one realizes how challenging it is to succeed in this economy.

To compete against those with the greater set of resources, one must work a minimum of ten times as hard as the competition.  He/she must realize that understanding the technicality of one's profession is not enough. Those who can comprehending the philosophy, the psychology, the mathematics, the physics, the chemistry and the biology within one's profession, could secure the grander advantage.  It depends greatly on the "Five Critical Strategic Factors" of the situation.
  
Patience, control and persistence are some of the key factors to prevailing over the competition.  We will talk about the specifics behind that grand concept in a future post.

Life is rarely fair especially under a extreme competitive setting. Conclusively, the winner occasionally takes it all. The question is the duration of the expertise!? 

Updated on 06.02.2013

Jiang Tai Gong: The Supreme Strategist

An associate of ours wrote the following essay on Jiang Tai Gong for Jade Dragon.com. (With his permission, we took the liberty of optimizing some parts of it .)

Updated on 11.08.13

In our global society, Sunzi’s (Sun Tzu) Art of War is known as the most well-written and popular strategy classic from China. Some of the other popular Chinese military classics are Sun Bin’s The Art of War, Huang Shek Gong’s Three Strategies and Wuzi’s Art of War. Before Sunzi’s Art of War was written, there was Jiang Taigong’s (JTG) Six Secret Strategic Teachings (also known as The Six Strategies of War).

Jiang Taigong was a real historical character named Lu Shang (also known as Jiang Ziya) who, in the 11th century BC, became advisor to King Wen and his son King Wu, founders of the Zhou dynasty (1122-771 BC). He was supposedly instrumental in aiding the fall of the Shang Dynasty (approximately 1700 BCE - 1045 BCE) and in establishing the Zhou (1045 BCE – 221 BCE). He was the prime minister for the first Zhou emperor and his loyalty and farsightedness in governing spread his fame throughout China.

The legend of Jiang Taigong captured popular imagination. Jiang Taigong is honored throughout Chinese history as the first great military advisor and the father of strategic studies.

He was credited with the feat of writing the first military strategic book Liutao (Six Secret Strategic Teachings). Liutao has been considered a highly important and proven source for military wisdom over the centuries, where it continues to be held in high esteem among contemporary Chinese strategy professionals.

History

Note: The many interpretations of Jiang Tai Gong’s biography propelled this writer to focus on the apparent.

Jiang Taigong (first known as Lü Shang of Lù-shi clan) was later known as Jiang Shang, then Jiang Ziya and Jiang Taigongwang).

As Lu Shang, he served King Zhouwang, the last ruler of the Shang dynasty (16th to 11th century BC) as an expert in military strategic affairs. The Shang ruler was a tyrannical and corrupted ruler who spent his days carousing with his favorite concubine Daji and mercilessly executing or punishing honorable officials and all others who objected to his ways.

After many years of working for the Shang ruler, Lu Shang detested him so much that he hoped that some day someone would call on him to help overthrow this evil tyrant. One day the Shang ruler came up with the extravagant goal of building 'Lu Tai' (deer platform) palace that would glorify him as a deity. This task became such a burden to the people that the hungry and sick were dying in the countryside.

Lü Shang abandoned his post and left with his wife Ma-shi to go to the west. They suffered many years in poverty and his wife later left him. During that period, Lu Shang knew that he would have another opportunity that would utilize his talent. All he needed to do was to be patient. Lu Shang waited till he was 72 years old for the next opportunity to come along.

Source: aggas2nd.blogspot.com

Meeting King Wen
After his wife left him, Lu Shang went to Wei-shui River (near today’s Xi'an) to fish, knowing that the future Zhou ruler Wenwang (located in central Shaanxi) would come along one day and meet him. The opportunity occurred one day, when King Wen decided to go hunting in the area near the river, where he saw Lu Shang sitting on the grass, fishing with a bamboo pole that had a barbless hook attached to it. (Some claimed that there was no hook on the line.) The hook was then positioned a few feet above the surface of the water.

This unique act of fishing is based on Jiang’s theory that the fish would come to him of their own volition when they were ready. This action requires the fisherman to be patient and devise the philosophy of "if one waits long enough, things will come their way."

As King Wen of the Zhou state (central Shaanxi), saw Lu Shang fishing, he was reminded of the advice of his father and grandfather before him, which was to search for talented people. In fact, he had been told by his grandfather (the Grand Duke of Zhou), "… that one day a sage would come and help him to rule the Zhou state."

When King Wen saw Lu Shang, he immediately felt that this was an unusual old man and began to converse with him. He discovered that this white-haired fisherman was actually an astute political thinker and military strategist. This, he felt, must be the man his grandfather had mentioned. He took Lu Shang as his coach to the court, appointed him the role of prime minister, and then gave him the title Jiang Taigongwang (Hope of the Duke of Zhou). This was later shortened to Jiang Taigong.

The Lesson

One account of Jiang Taigong's life, written long after his time, said he believed that " … a country could become powerful only when the people prospered. If the officials enriched themselves while the people remained poor, the ruler would not last long. The major principle in ruling a country is loving the people through the reduction of taxes and slave labor. … " By following those ideas, King Wen immediately and rapidly strengthened the prowess and power of Zhou state.

After King Wen died, his son King Wu, who inherited the throne, decided to send troops to overthrow the King of Shang. But Jiang Taigong stopped him, saying: "While I was fishing at Panxi, I realized one truth—if you want to succeed you need to be patient. We must wait for the appropriate opportunity to eliminate the King of Shang."

Soon it was reported that the people of Shang were so oppressed that no one dared to speak. King Wu and Jiang Taigong decided this was the time to attack, for the people had lost faith in the ruler. ( You can find  that  specific point listed in Jiang's book)  A bloody battle was fought at Muye (35 kilometers from the Shang capital Yin, now Anyang in the Henan province).

With battle drums beating in the background, Jiang Taigong charged at the chief of the troops, with 100 of his men and drew the Shang troops to the southwest. King Wu's troops then moved quickly and surrounded the capital. Many of the Shang troops defending the capital were untrained slaves. They immediately surrendered, enabling Zhou army to capture the capital.

The Shang king set fire to his palace and perished in it. As for Daji, one version has it that she was captured and executed; another version was that she took her own life. At that moment, King Wu and his successors established the rule of the Zhou dynasty all over China.

Jiang Taigong was made the duke of the State of Qi (today’s Shandong province), which thrived with effective communications between the king and the people. He also assisted in building the economic state of Zhou dynasty.

After some time, Jiang Taigong retired from his post before King Wu became wary of him.

The Other Lesson

There are many variations related to the biography of Jiang Taigong. The two situations "Meet the King Wen" and "Advising King Wu" has been used on many levels to explain the significance of patience and control. The story also presents a sophisticated message that is applicable in any strategic scenario: "Wait until circumstances favor you."

Trivia (mainly rumors) related to Jiang Taigong:

• It has been said that Fan Li, Zhang Liang, and Zhuge Liang were also readers of the Jiang Taigong’s book for the ideas on the myriad approaches of prevailing over their rivals with great resources
• Wang Xu (also known as the Master of Ghost Valley) who started the first academy of military studies during the Warring states, taught the concepts of Jiang Taigong writings to his students. His top students were Sun Bin, Sui Chang and Zhang Yi
• Sun Bin also received this book first and later received the Sunzi text from his teacher Wang Xu
• In the river near Xi'an there is a big stone with an indentation that said this was the spot that Jiang Taigong resided in his act of fishing
• Rumors have stated that the following strategic classics were also attributed to Tai Gong: Huang Shi Gong Ji (Huang Shi Gong's Records) [later Sui Dynasty]; Huang Shi Gong San Lüe (Huang Shi Gong's Three Schemes); and Yin Fu (Concealed Symbols)
• Many legends on Jiang Taigong were collected in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and can be found in a fictional work Fengshen Yanyi (Tales of Gods and Heroes)
• There are various parts of China and Asia that honor the achievements of Jiang Tai Gong

Other Matters

During his retirement, Jiang Taigong took time to write a manuscript on how to effectively lead an empire based on his conversations with King Wen and later King Wu (who succeeded to the throne on Wen's death). This manuscript was Tai Gong Liu Tao (translated as “Tai Gong's Six Secret Strategic Teachings”). It is consisted of advices on how to organize a potential empire, military advice describing methods of insurrection and revolution that were instrumental in the overthrow of Shang dynastic rule, and a wide range of strategic insights and tactical instructions in every arena of human activity.

Six Secret Strategic Teachings (Six Secret Strategies of Conflict)

The Six Secret Strategic Teachings is a good book for "newbies" who are interested in strategic consulting and advising or understanding how the world works. 

These six chapters guided the readers in the art and science of effective strategy and leadership from a top to bottom mode.

The first two "chapters" deal with the duties of the organization and the natural transition of power to the principal rival if the organization fails. This scenario can be described as a "respective" interplay of "yin and yang."

1. The Civil Strategic Secret: The first chapter stresses the importance of recruiting talent, managing the organization, and valuing developing a proper relationship within your client and your own organization. Once the bond of absolute trust is established, they will do almost anything for you.
   
   
2. The Military Strategic Secret: The second chapter accentuates the importance of how to prevail over the opposition and how to build a territorial domain by the following actions: Cultivating yourself and organizing your own group in order to govern your external settings and pacify the world. The concept of "conquering without a single tactical battle" is also greatly emphasized. (It is similar to Sunzi's concept of "winning a war without a battle.")
   
   
3. The Dragon Strategic Secret: The emphasis is on how to lead wisely through various situations by understanding the developmental stage of the operational command, the organizational order, and the liaison.
   
   
4. The Tiger Strategic Secret: The emphasis is on the tactical essentials, including matters related to proper logistics.  
    #  Side note: Logistics is the prevailing factor that wins the grand war not the tactics.
   
   
5. The Leopard Strategic Secret: This chapter focuses on the tactical specifics for identifying the critical path toward the completion of one's objective
   
   
6. The Dog Strategic Secret: This final chapter focuses on the tactical specifics for trapping the target (i.e., encircling and intercepting). There are also good pointers on selecting and training the desired professionals for a team and coordinating the personnel's and resources toward the target.

This book was compiled into a single body of strategic work known as Wujing Qishu (also known as The Seven Martial Classics) during the Sung dynasty. It was designated as an essential material for the imperial military examinations and thus came to inexplicably affect subsequent military thought. Separately each of these seven classics complements each other in terms of strategic leadership.

This set of classics was read by military officials and high government officials for many hundreds of years. It also played a great role in the socialization of scholars, officials, and military officers.

Conclusion

The thoughts of Jiang Taigong have been known for 3000 years ago and we believed that it remains relevant for today's CEOs, managers, and leaders.

His concepts of effective strategy and leadership have been widely reinterpreted and applied in the corporate world today. A sound appreciation of Jiang's concepts is a requirement for both sophisticated and budding strategic leaders.

As mentioned before, reading this essay is a good fundamental start for those who wanted to start an uprising in their strategic setting.

# Side Notes

Two of the most important contents of this book can be found in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 (civil secret teachings and martial secret teachings). 

It delineates the art of "suggesting ideas and perspectives" to people.  These two chapters also outline what unique points to observe for.  Those who are in the consulting business, might find these points to be quite useful. 

One significant lesson that can be learned from reading Jiang's essay was the importance of "thinking grand " in one's own aspiration.

The other lesson is knowing the position where one stands in the political-economic-social value chain. By carefully reading this essay with a critical eye, one learns the reason behind that point. ....

The Three Categories of Strategists

Inspirational leaders have a tendency of emphasizing on bold and empty messages. The messages do not mean much to their flock after the broadcasting is over.

The next category is that small group of professionals are those who are obsessively focused on understanding the target, their logistics and the communications channels within the organization.   Their grand objective is to prevail with the maximum strategic effectiveness.

The last category are the massive group of strategists, which is usually consisted of amateurs.  They loved to discuss their favorite tactical measures. Some of them are just operating from a handful of tricks while the rest are "one trick ponies."  

So, which of the three categories are you positioned at?

Ruminations From the Compass Desk

We have noticed that the many so-called Sunzi experts have a tendency of telling their followers that all they needed to know about strategy was to follow the principles from the Art of War. Most of them do not know how to assess an opportunity with the Art of War principles.  Interestingly, most of them do not know much about the various operational measures and the unique particulars that are concealed within the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China. 

One reader of their view found this "pseudo expert" from the Sunzi's Art of War Cult to be quite amusing and shallow. His view is an extension of his "know how."

To prevail in any competitive situation, one must comprehend the specifics for mastering the means and modes.  Spending some time collecting the data, can be a challenge.

Side Note  (New  update:  10.26.14)
Click here on a modern day version of Jiang Tai Gong with a different twist.

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