Expertise

Expertise

Is interestingly tied to the estimated amount of time a person spends working on or learning something, whether chess (Chase & Simon, 1973) or a profession (Schön, 1983, 1987). Of course the complexity of the thing is an important factor in the amount of time required. If the thing is highly constrained, expertise would seem easier to achieve (e.g., tying my shoes); if the thing is complex, messy, and difficult to define, expertise is incomplete and ongoing (e.g., flying an airplane or making love). As a professional academic interested in workplace learning, for example, I learned in graduate school that Simon's early work on expertise involved chess playing and that Schön's work on reflective practice on-the-job represents some of the most influential research on the subject. Expertise, though, is messier than either Simon or Schön let on—lately, I've been speculating that experts can't exist, if by expertise we mean knowing everything about a particular thing or subject. I may be revealing that I am a victim of exposure to postmodern theory; I know just enough about the postmodern stance to use it against my own certainties.