Do you rely on others to make decisions for you when you're not sure of the answer? Do you make your own decision even if the results are obscure? We are faced with making important decisions everyday but most of our decision making is relied on experts. I was intrigued with the philosophy of economist, Noreena Hertz, that relying too much on experts can be limiting and to some extents dangerous. She states that we look to experts because we believe that they can come up with better conclusions than we can on our own. "[We] substitute our intellect for their [supposedly] words of wisdom," says Noreena Hertz. She gives an excellent example of how this is limiting or dangerous to decision making. In a study a group of adults who had their brains scanned in a MRI machine while listening to experts speak showed that the independent decision making part of their brain completely switch off. I was astonished at the results! I strongly agree with what Noreena Hertz has to state. We definitely need to put on our own "thinking caps" on and fearlessly make our own decisions. Of course we should not blindly rebel against experts; rather we should obtain the knowledge needed to question them when need be. Experts are not the enemy, they are an excellent source for guidance, and should be used as a an ambiguous guideline rather as an explicit blue print.
"Progress comes about not only from the creation of the ideas but also from their destruction" - Noreena Hertz
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