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How to be an expert in anything you like

by Kaplan
46 replies
Do nothing but read articles, watch videos and any other content on your chosen topic for 3 days and you'll know more than 95% of the population about the topic. If you want to be a bit more effective, on top of this read one bestseller book on your niche.
#expert
  • Profile picture of the author marcuslim
    That's quite true. Being an expert does not mean you need to have a PhD. It just means you need to be 2-3 steps ahead of others. Just by doing the things you mentioned, you can easily be 2-3 steps ahead.
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    Marcus Lim
    Silver Bullet Publishing

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  • Profile picture of the author payment proof
    Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

    Do nothing but read articles, watch videos and any other content on your chosen topic for 3 days and you'll know more than 95% of the population about the topic. If you want to be a bit more effective, on top of this read one bestseller book on your niche.
    LOL Kaplan. Your post made me crack up but it is so true!
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  • Profile picture of the author Galasso22
    Originally Posted by Adevictus View Post

    This could have been summed up in as much as: "If you want to learn something, research it."
    No matter how it's put I am still baffled at how many people don't research..... well...anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Scott
    This is the biggest load of crap in the world.

    Research IM for a few days. Are you qualified to teach anyone ANYTHING without real world experience? Hell no.

    Why do people think it's any different with any other market?

    This is exactly the kind of backwards thinking that floods niches with undercooked products filled with misinformation.

    -Daniel

    Before you teach something, you need to be good at it. And the ONLY way you can get really good is through experience.
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      "Make three correct guesses consecutively and you will establish a reputation as an expert."

      - Laurence J. Peter
      author: The Peter Principle, Therapeutic Instruction, Why Things Go Wrong
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    • Profile picture of the author The Great Gordino
      Originally Posted by Daniel Scott View Post

      This is the biggest load of crap in the world.

      Research IM for a few days. Are you qualified to teach anyone ANYTHING without real world experience? Hell no.
      It's not a 'big load of crap'. The OP didn't mention teaching, that's something you put into their post! Researching something for 3 days solid will indeed put you a long way ahead of others in a niche. It's what you do with it then that counts. There is no reason why you can't compile, edit, collate the information, and as long as you promoted it as such, then that doesn't have to be a bad thing. In fact, people often want the information collated precisely so they don't have to spend the 3 days. So if the demand is there it can be filled.
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  • Profile picture of the author gentryliving
    True indeed! Reading and reading makes you more knowledgeable.
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    • Profile picture of the author danfac2012
      Theoretically yes. Practically NO!
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      • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
        Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

        Do nothing but read articles, watch videos and any other content on your chosen topic for 3 days and you'll know more than 95% of the population about the topic. If you want to be a bit more effective, on top of this read one bestseller book on your niche.
        I agree following your steps will give you more knowledge than most people, but most people aren't experts. While there are always exceptions to rules, I think most of the time reading and studying doesn't turn you into an instant expert, only experience does that.

        You wouldn't want me to operate on you because I read about surgery, would you?

        All that studying will help you to become an expert that much faster as you gain experience though, so it's still good advice.
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        Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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  • Profile picture of the author Rick Britton
    go and read all about manual therapy, chronic pain, migraine, postural anomaly and the effects of high speed impact injury for three days

    then come to my therapy practice and interview and treat a client in 50 minutes and have them feel at least 80% better than they did when they walked in
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  • Profile picture of the author Olorin
    Problem is that with that type of immersive research, sure you will be able to regurgitate things that you memorized from seeing numerous times with insider speak so that you SOUND like you know what you are talking about - but you won't be able to actually THINK about anything outside of what you have learned, to analyze it and deduce new things.

    It takes time for things to sink in to a level where you can actually think about it in 3D as it were. Sort of being able to see the thin line before you but not realize its only the edge of a square. Certainly immersion research is a good start, however to BECOMING an expert - but it takes a good deal of it to actually BE one.

    To use a well worn story: After 3 days of intensive research you may be able to describe the tree trunk, the snake, the wall and the pipe you are touching - but never know that you are holding on to an elephant.
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  • Profile picture of the author FNHPWR11
    Memorizing is not quite the same as knowing. Think parrot.
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  • Profile picture of the author Willie Crawford
    With most things that I personally teach, expertise comes
    not from studying but from DOING over and over again.

    I'm certainly not knocking reading, researching, and studying,
    but "repetition is the mother of mastery."

    Willie
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    • Profile picture of the author WinstonTian
      Originally Posted by Willie Crawford View Post

      With most things that I personally teach, expertise comes
      not from studying but from DOING over and over again.

      I'm certainly not knocking reading, researching, and studying,
      but "repetition is the mother of mastery."

      Willie
      Willie nailed it down for ya.

      Repetition makes you subconsciously
      competent. And that's mastery of the
      highest level.
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      Cheers,
      Winston
      The Beginner's Doctor

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  • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
    Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

    Do nothing but read articles, watch videos and any other content on your chosen topic for 3 days and you'll know more than 95% of the population about the topic. If you want to be a bit more effective, on top of this read one bestseller book on your niche.
    Looking like an expert is one thing but the
    whole game changes when I start asking you
    questions... bad advice.
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    If you knew what I know you'd be doing what I do...
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    • Profile picture of the author jasperraff
      Put a 100% effort in everything you do. Hard work and determination will surely make one an expert on anything!
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Hi

    I had a teacher in an acting class who used the same ideas but with magazines (no real Internet back then). She presented the anecdote as an example of how to cram a subject in a hurry.

    She had a job in an office and was always lost with "the boys" sports talk at the water cooler.

    So she went out and bought every current sports magazine she could find on the rack and read through them all. She was very quickly able to handle the water cooler meetings and soon had more sports knowledge than most of the guys in the office.

    I didn't see anywhere in the subject or post where the OP said anything about "teaching" the information.

    If you are an offline marketer and about to approach hundreds of chiropractors, what's the first thing you do? Learn their business as quickly as possible.

    Mahlon
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  • Profile picture of the author JOSourcing
    Banned
    Sometimes I suspect these types of posts are the creative works of youngsters (with IM stars in their eyes, of course).
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  • Profile picture of the author datingworld
    Learning and then implementation
    it need a lots of study and more than lots of practical work before you get expertise in something.
    only reading will not help at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveSki
    Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

    Do nothing but read articles, watch videos and any other content on your chosen topic for 3 days and you'll know more than 95% of the population about the topic. If you want to be a bit more effective, on top of this read one bestseller book on your niche.
    Not exactly true....

    Reading only makes you book smart.

    The knowledge you gain from reading must be put into practice for you to become a master.

    Read and watch videos on Kung Fu for 3 days and then go challenge someone who has practice the moves in a dojo for 10,000 hours.

    And 10,000 hours of practice seems to be the magic number to become the best at anything.

    Cheers,
    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author tomako
    Reading about brain surgery for about 20 minutes, I've already started to feel like a real brain operating surgeon

    Joking, but it is so true that if you want to write/modify/re-write an article about some specific topic, you should at least read 10's of articles before, know the basics.
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  • Profile picture of the author mal129
    It's a great start to do this when you don't know squat about a particular topic. Fake it until you make it right? It's helpful to most when someone puts together an informative piece so we don't have to go looking for it. Imho, a true expert however, has been through the experience from beginning to end numerous times and refined his own unique expertise.
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  • Profile picture of the author Viramara
    Anyone can learn any knowledge within minutes, but to be EXPERT it takes repeated attempts to master, practice, and learn from mistake.

    "Repetition is the mother of all skill" (Tony Robbins)
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

    Do nothing but read articles, watch videos and any other content on your chosen topic for 3 days and you'll know more than 95% of the population about the topic. If you want to be a bit more effective, on top of this read one bestseller book on your niche.
    This assumes that the articles, videos and bestseller have the correct information. Given the state of the Internet right now, that bet has some awful long odds.

    You may acquire a fair bit of data, but you have no context in which to judge that data. You pretty much have to rely on "they couldn't put it on the Internet if it wasn't true..."

    It isn't what you don't know that gets you. It's what you're certain of, that just isn't right.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kaplan
      Lol I meant auto responder series. Stupid iPod,
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  • Profile picture of the author deelouise864
    Ya, actually I think you need to have some education to be considered an expert in specialized fields. One of the reasons people are not buying is because they aren't trusting. And pretending to be an expert when you're not is just adding to the confusion people have when they want to make a purchase. I am deleting this sort of junk from my emails every day.

    I have a website on weight loss and healthful living. I have a background in biology and chemistry and have nearly 20 years of experience. That's what makes an expert.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kaplan
    I don't understand why people are hooked on 'you have to experience it to be an expert'. You can be a research expert instead of a results from experience expert. By expert meaning you know more than the customer. Another effective approach, albeit a bit longer, read 3 best sellers on a given niche, summarise and extract the core framework/principles from each, collaborate them together in a workable way and there you have your own info product.

    As an example on IM, if you know how to setup a squeeze page with an autograph set series, you know something that the vast majority of the population don't. No matter how basic that seems.
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

      By expert meaning you know more than the customer.
      By the Oxford Dictionary definition, an expert is "a person
      with great knowledge or skill in a particular thing."

      3 days of study does not make anybody an expert.

      I've achieved expert status BUT I've had to sweat my
      balls off - for years - to do it.

      What you're referring to is a charlatan, not an expert.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
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      .

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      • Profile picture of the author Kaplan
        Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

        By the Oxford Dictionary definition, an expert is "a person
        with great knowledge or skill in a particular thing."

        3 days of study does not make anybody an expert.

        I've achieved expert status BUT I've had to sweat my
        balls off - for years - to do it.

        What you're referring to is a charlatan, not an expert.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
        For some definitions I've found it helps to not go to the dictionary. As an example, I prefer Tim Ferris's definition of laziness which can give someone a paradigm shift, "laziness is living a non ideal existence". Far more useful than any dictionary definition.

        If I know how to make a dollar, I'm an expert to someone that's never made a dollar. Or if ive never made a dollar I can interview 10 people who have made a dollar and be a research expert. As a crude example.
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        • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
          Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

          For some definitions I've found it helps to not go to the dictionary. As an example, I prefer Tim Ferris's definition of laziness which can give someone a paradigm shift, "laziness is living a non ideal existence". Far more useful than any dictionary definition.

          If I know how to make a dollar, I'm an expert to someone that's never made a dollar. Or if ive never made a dollar I can interview 10 people who have made a dollar and be a research expert. As a crude example.
          If you use a word like "expert" people will respond to its traditional meaning. If you want to change the meaning to suit yourself, it helps to inform people of that so we're not talking about two different things.

          But if you KNOW how to make a dollar online you have that crazy thing so many have been talking about ... experience. If you haven't actually made that dollar yet, then all you have is a theory.
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          Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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        • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
          Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

          For some definitions I've found it helps to not go to the dictionary. As an example, I prefer Tim Ferris's definition of laziness which can give someone a paradigm shift, "laziness is living a non ideal existence". Far more useful than any dictionary definition.

          If I know how to make a dollar, I'm an expert to someone that's never made a dollar. Or if ive never made a dollar I can interview 10 people who have made a dollar and be a research expert. As a crude example.
          Thank you for identifying yourself as someone who
          should never be trusted to write copy.. nor do I think
          I'd ever trust anything you write on your own behalf.

          It's called communication. It's impossible to communicate
          EFFECTIVELY unless we all agree on the definitions of the
          words we use. How can we ever trust anyone who just
          decides on their own what words mean? We call those people
          politicians. They speak often but rarely say anything that matters.

          Congratulations... you're credibility is now near zero.
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          If you knew what I know you'd be doing what I do...
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        • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

          If I know how to make a dollar, I'm an expert to someone that's never made a dollar. Or if ive never made a dollar I can interview 10 people who have made a dollar and be a research expert. As a crude example.
          The other two touched on your inability to effectively communicate; but this statement is the real problem to me. You wouldn't be an expert to someone that has never made a dollar, you would just be a guy that made a dollar. You don't have anything to establish yourself as "The One Stop Shop for Earning Dollars." As a matter of fact, for all the potential customer would know, you obtained said dollar in a dishonest or illegal way. With only three days of research, you won't have much to back yourself up either.

          It's a pretty thin veil that can easily be torn down.
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        • Profile picture of the author JOSourcing
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

          For some definitions I've found it helps to not go to the dictionary. As an example, I prefer Tim Ferris's definition of laziness which can give someone a paradigm shift, "laziness is living a non ideal existence". Far more useful than any dictionary definition.
          IMO, Tim Ferris isn't exactly a scholar on anything sensible.

          A non-ideal existence, nevertheless, could apply to many non-lazy individuals. Would you call members of our armed forces lazy simply because they live in a non-ideal existence?

          Sometimes when you play with words, you get more than a paradigm shift. You get a distorted reality.
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          • Profile picture of the author Olorin
            Originally Posted by JOSourcing View Post

            IMO, Tim Ferris isn't exactly a scholar on anything sensible.
            Well, I would say Tim Ferris IS an expert at making money - and that seems to me a very sensible thing to be studying
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  • Profile picture of the author Alessandro Zamboni
    Hi Kaplan, I'm perfectly in accord with you.
    Just being interested in a topic means we will become expert, even more aknowledged than many master.

    That's why we stay updated thanks to the web, and we put all our interest to research the best news from internet.
    That's great!

    See you,
    Alessandro Zamboni
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Let's take something simple - riding a bicycle.

      You can spend your three days on research, reading whatever you want. I can pretty much guarantee that it won't make you an expert cyclist. In fact, if you've never been on a bike, you have no clue what to really expect and you probably fall on your arse a few times before you really get the hang of it.

      Or, since you mentioned IM, suppose you spent your three days becoming an "expert" on generating traffic from free-for-all links pages and Usenet newsgroups. Your "expertise" is worthless unless you also have a time machine that will take you back to 1996...
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      • Profile picture of the author Chimu
        Banned
        [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
          Guys, you are forgetting that the OP is using IM code. It's like when you read an ad for a 'cozy' apartment. In real estate code, cozy means tiny, but cozy sounds better.

          Expert = someone who knows just enough to put a fast product out there that those who know absolutely nothing will think is valuable.
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          • Profile picture of the author fin
            I think it would make me feel a little sick if I was making money of something I wasn't confident was going to give value.

            I know some people in IM don't care what they promote. Fair enough, but you're still wide of the mark calling yourself an expert.
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          • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
            Banned
            Originally Posted by Daniel Scott View Post

            This is the biggest load of crap in the world.

            Research IM for a few days. Are you qualified to teach anyone ANYTHING without real world experience? Hell no.

            Why do people think it's any different with any other market?

            This is exactly the kind of backwards thinking that floods niches with undercooked products filled with misinformation.

            -Daniel

            Before you teach something, you need to be good at it. And the ONLY way you can get really good is through research AND experience.
            Fixed that for ya; but I agree with the spirit of what you said.

            Originally Posted by JOSourcing View Post

            Sometimes I suspect these types of posts are the creative works of youngsters (with IM stars in their eyes, of course).
            I'd tend to agree.

            Originally Posted by The Great Gordino View Post

            It's not a 'big load of crap'. The OP didn't mention teaching, that's something you put into their post! Researching something for 3 days solid will indeed put you a long way ahead of others in a niche. It's what you do with it then that counts. There is no reason why you can't compile, edit, collate the information, and as long as you promoted it as such, then that doesn't have to be a bad thing. In fact, people often want the information collated precisely so they don't have to spend the 3 days. So if the demand is there it can be filled.
            True; but if that was the OP's intention, why make up an arbitrary trick that they use to brand themselves as an expert in the first place? If they don't plan to market themselves as an expert, they don't need to make up a way to call themselves one.

            Originally Posted by Tina Golden View Post

            Guys, you are forgetting that the OP is using IM code. It's like when you read an ad for a 'cozy' apartment. In real estate code, cozy means tiny, but cozy sounds better.

            Expert = someone who knows just enough to put a fast product out there that those who know absolutely nothing will think is valuable.
            I suspect that's what is happening here.
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  • Profile picture of the author mollymarkiewicz
    Although it is great to do all the research you need, but if you don't have any life experience in that field, then you better get some. Seem like you have a lot of self confidence, put it to good use.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steadyon
    Originally Posted by Kaplan View Post

    Do nothing but read articles, watch videos and any other content on your chosen topic for 3 days and you'll know more than 95% of the population about the topic. If you want to be a bit more effective, on top of this read one bestseller book on your niche.

    That's because 95% of the population don't give a cr*p about your chosen topic.

    However you will be in the 5% that do. But still near the bottom of that 5%.

    Do what the op says and you become a beginner, not an expert.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheProgrammer
    @marcuslim: Well said man...
    To gain knowledge and for being an expert you have to focus on that thing. whatever field you choose. But your interest should be stable in any situation to get success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rose Anderson
    I've played the guitar for over 35 years (and have the callouses to prove it). You can read about playing the guitar for 3 days or even 3 weeks... but you will not play as well as I do. It's not just about knowing HOW to play, it's also about the actual process of playing.

    This doesn't mean you couldn't write an accurate article on "The Various Types of Guitars" or "The History of the Guitar". But that doesn't make you an expert.

    Rose
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