# Time, Expertise, and Authenticity By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-09-01 If one pays attention, one can quickly become very knowledgeable about a system, process, or trade. This doesn't mean that one is good at these things. One simply understands how things work and can make sound recommendations. For example, one can quickly become technically knowledgeable about golf without swinging a golf club. Which club should be used depends on environmental conditions, distance to the hole, and the golfer's capabilities. This expertise is easy to conflate with execution expertise as one ventures further away from immediate physical outcomes and into knowledge work and management. Within management, technical expertise is very far from execution expertise, but distinguishing the two often takes a long time. Think of any poor manager and then recall what was thought of them during the interview. This person may be technically knowledgeable but hasn't figured out how to swing the club correctly. The only way to get good at swinging the club is to swing the club intentionally. A person in this situation represents everyone when we learn to transition knowledge to execution. Allowances should be provided in this case. However, the person may be a parrot and not truly knowledgeable. They know the things to say but don't know anything. It is virtually impossible to tell the two apart without a thorough analysis. On reality TV shows, the reason cameras keep rolling 24/7 is not because they think they might miss some action. Rarely is this the case, as the action is part of the game. The game forces action to occur at certain moments, so when to record versus not is predictable. The cameras record 24/7 because one cannot act or pretend forever. Eventually, the true self will emerge. When exactly that will happen is unpredictable, but it will happen. So, roll the cameras 24/7 to capture the real human drama. When assessing a person's understanding, expertise, and authenticity, let a lot of time pass, as it is too easy to be a parrot in the information age. #### Related Items [[Time]] [[Authenticity]] [[Expertise]] [[Work]] [[Skills]] [[Analytics]]