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Philon's avatar

Reading textbooks attentively, including doing the exercises, is unpleasant because it is hard work--so hard that most people will be unable to understand an advanced textbook. People want to read works (preferably short) with narrative flow--stories, especially stories with a moral; it is a minor bonus if the author is elite.

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Andrew Luscombe's avatar

I think you should stick to the dictionary definition of elite. The top experts are elite in their field. There is no elite vs expert conflict or rivalry or dichotomy.

I understand that there is a self reinforcing status thing going on - people pay attention to high status people and organisations because they know other people pay attention. It also applies to music, TV shows, car models, clothing styles, and all sorts of things. It amplifies status and power within limits,, and like many feedback loops with constrained amplification, leads to chaotic outcomes. So often the high status people and things are undeserving. That includes people publicly seen to be or presented as experts. It also applies to managerial type people too.

In the end there's a bunch of ostensible experts and managers who may or may not be good experts or managers, and their best abilities may or may not be in the field in which they ostensibly are able. There's also experts and managers who may be good, probably many more than can fit into the relatively few high status positions, and so lack the status of others.

So I think I can mostly see what you are saying, but is there a better way to say it? Is it about people anticipating what others will pay favourable attention to and skewing their output towards that, and the anticipation is often cynical or based on what is fashionable?

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