Episode 045: Dr. Tom Nichols, Expertise in Education
Five-time Jeopardy! Champion, professor, and author Dr. Tom Nichols joins us on Vrain Waves to discuss the implications of his work on K12 education. We chat with Dr. Nichols about the importance of relying on experts, cultivating our own expertise, and the cognitive heuristics that get in our way. From his website: “Tom Nichols is a U.S. Naval War College University Professor, and an adjunct at the U.S. Air Force School of Strategic Force Studies and the Harvard Extension School. He is a specialist on Russian affairs, nuclear strategy, NATO issues, and a nationally-known commentator on U.S. politics and national security.” And he agreed to talk to us!! Ben and Becky! We are so excited to share his thoughts with you, our busy listeners - please share your thoughts on Twitter with the #MakeSomeVrainWaves or tweet us @VrainWaves with your favorite takeaways. Thanks for listening!

Connect with Dr. Tom Nichols
Website: Facebook: Death of Expertise | Twitter: @radiofreetom | Book: The Death of Expertise

Connect with Vrain Waves
Website: vrainwaves.com | Twitter: @VrainWaves | Becky Twitter: @BeckyEPeters | Ben Twitter: @mrkalb

Links & Show Notes

• “Nothing builds up resistance to learning like constant praise.”
• Dunning-Kreuger Effect (05:58)
• Foreign Affairs Article from Dr. Nichols about his Ukraine example
• Confirmation bias (08:57)
• Desirability bias (09:17)
  Idea of omnicompetence (from Richard Hofstadter’s book: Anti-intellectualism in American Life) (10:02)
• Original blog post before the book
• We are a postmodern society (13:47)
• “Expertise is necessarily exclusive.” / Inequality in expertise (18:02)
• Is education the solution? (23:43)
  • Your degree is not a validation, it’s a license (28:08)
    Oxford University Press - 3 anonymous peer reviewers
• Our responsibility to defer to expertise (30:10)
• @RadioFreeTom on Twitter
  • Gentle correction from colleagues
  • Anecdata
• We are inherently bad at statistics (36:03)
  • Kahneman on Thinking Fast & Slow in Scientific American
• Our interest in learning is at an all-time low (37:30)
• Dr. Nichols frequently writes for: USA Today / The Washington Post / The Atlantic
  Takeaways (41:01)
  • Dan Willingham’s Book: When Can We Trust the Experts
  • David Rock: “If you have a brain, you’re biased.”