Being Milton
I am an expert. I don't know things. In my field that's what makes you an expert - not knowing things, so having to work them out, check and verify, test and validate. If I was working always within my previous knowledge base, then I might know things - and sometimes I do - but even then I would have to verify, check my own knowledge, in cases where being right is critical. I am convinced that is what real experts do - we are critical of our own knowledge, questioning of our own understanding, suspicious of certainty. Of course I do know some things: I know the solution to a Laplace Transform, I know how to calculate the quantization noise of an Analog to Digital Converter from its bit length, I know the wavelength of 5 GHz radio waves in the human body, I know the size and shape of a water molecule, - but those are tools of the trade, not expert knowledge. As an expert I am usually asked to solve things that haven't been solved before: which is why I can't res