We are not Experts, Except for When We Are…

I want to take a moment and convince you not to trust us.

Now this may seem like a bad idea on my part. Why would I want you to not trust me? Aren’t I trying to convince you, the reader, to sign on to whatever I am selling? No. I am not. I am not selling. I am recruiting. And yes, that should be a red flag. I am selling an idea. And if you sign onto that idea, you will join all of us in the pursuit of that idea. So no, I’m not trying to sell this to anybody who will buy it. I am trying to find people who are a good fit for that idea, people who measure up.

And part of measuring up, means critical thinking skills. And those skills should make you very suspicious of any self-proclaimed expert you found on the internet.

We are not the experts. And we won’t claim to be experts. We are dedicated dilettantes, talented amateurs. What we do have is a road map. We have something that you can use to improve yourself. We won’t pretend we can be experts in all of the things on that road map. And you don’t need to be. You don’t need to be an expert. You should seek to be competent. Learn from experts but don’t feel obligated to master all of it. Become good enough, not perfect.

And at not point in any of this, do you need to trust us. Instead, test us. Critique us. Investigate us. But more importantly test, critique, and investigate our road map. You find us to be problematic. Many will. But even if you do, you may still find value in the road map we offer.

And that is why you shouldn’t trust us, and why that is a good thing.