This link goes to an article that is third in my series about various thoughts that resulted from taking the Instructor Development course from Tom Givens last year. At some point in time, pretty much everyone who wants to learn effective self-defense with a firearm takes a class somewhere, and has to choose an instructor. In a similar fashion, everyone starts as a newbie to firearms, and when asking questions, get a LOT of various answers from random people. So...
The slide above is one I saw at his Instructor development course, and I've been meaning to write something up about it for quite some time. Recently, I found out that he used it (and discussed it) at this year's just-finished up Tactical Conference, so I thought this would be a good time.
https://precisionresponse.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/what-makes-an-expert/(The other two from the series are linked at the bottom of the article, if you haven't read them.)
I posted this link on Facebook, and immediately got an angry comment from someone calling me a pompous ass for DARING to say that people how have no education, training, or experience in a technical field shouldn't expect anyone to listen to or care about their opinion.
How dare I!
I'll note that prior to anyone going off on me for saying that everyone isn't entitled to an opinion, or being mad because I am saying that all people's opinions aren't equally valid---you might take a deep breath, read the entire article, and think about it before saying anything.
Most people AREN'T entitled to opinions about technical fields, because in technical fields, most people do not have education, training, or experience. Their made-up opinions (literally, they are guessing based on "what they've heard" because they have no education, training, or experience) are meaningless, and should be ignored when attempting to make decisions and come to conclusions.
This will not stop people from saying things like "everyone should be able to have opinions, they have a right to have an opinion" of course...
....why do you think people have "right" to an opinion in a field in which they know nothing? Shouldn't they literally have a responsibility to NOT have an opinion, since they have no idea?
(I note that I expect arguments about the usage of the words"entitled" and "opinion" which don't really address the actual topic of the article.)