After seeing so many amazing experts during the research of this Chicago guide book I just worked on, I remembered a thought about the idea of expertise I had a while back.

To me, it’s always just made sense to find and make friends with experts. I love experts and I’d like to think that I’m and expert too (at least a few areas). And by expert I mean someone that is extremely passionate in their love of any topic. Whether that’s a professional expertise in software or engineering, or a personal expertise in sneakers. Many times you don’t get paid to be an expert in your area of interest. But it’s great if you are. So when I look for advice, tips or the inside scoop on anything (music, consumer electronics, fashion) I seek out those experts and make them my friends.

I’ve always been attracted to the idea of being a specialist. It’s inherent that you put yourself (and more importantly, your point of view) into a smaller group of the populace. And the greater expertise you gain in your field of interest the greater the potential for a demand for your point of view. Now of course, being an expert in the mating habits of the Peruvian mole rat might not get you on the guest list of many post-Oscar award night celebrations, but I’d like to think that within Peruvian mole rat circles, you were Big Man On Campus (BMOC).

I’d love to one day make a study (perhaps a documentary) about what common threads there are between all experts. Is there similar personality profile between experts in astrophysics and criminal psychology? Is it the pursuit of knowledge to the Nth degree? How much of one’s ego drives someone to be a specialist?