Clay Shirky has some phenominally important observations on experts and expertise here in his criticism of a new initiative by Larry Sanger.
Clay makes an overarching point that recognition of expertise is basically an issue of deference. It’s an institutional and social construct. A fundamental question is whether we want to give defference to people or to ideas.
If you want to know what I think about experts go here, here, and here.
In searching for ways to lower costs in the Philippine power sector – a complex problem as opposed to a complicated problem – we need more of Shirky’s free flow of accessible ideas and less of Sanger’s institutionalized autocracy.