Recently Australia got to see a total lunar eclipse
This is when the earth gets between the Sun and the moon and the shadow of the earth is cast on the moon
Turning it dark and red
I was able to go and see the lunar eclipse with some of my friends and it actually got me thinking about the topic of being
An expert on something or at least being perceived as an expert
So back in I guess a previous life of mine when I was an undergrad in New Zealand
I was involved in an urban astronomy group
we would take telescopes out onto the street and
I would show members of the public through the telescope and answer their questions about space and about astronomy
I guess during that time I would have been expected to be an expert on things like a lunar eclipse
phases of the Moon and how all of that is working and
Being in that role gave me a lot of confidence to answer questions on that topic
even if I didn't totally understand them I felt a level of confidence to i guess re-say
Explanations that I'd heard other people give or to say something that I knew made physical sense
Enough so that it would satisfy me and satisfy the person asking the question
Even if I did have some of my deeper like questions myself about how this was working
I wouldn't really raise them because I was expected to be in the role of answering the questions not asking them
when I went up to watch the Eclipse the other week, I
Didn't really tell these friends I was with about that
you know experience that I had with telescopes and stuff and I just sort of took a backseat role of
Letting someone else in the group stand up as that expert and answer our questions
about how the Eclipse was working because I still had things I didn't totally understand and that I wanted to know more about
So I found viewing the Eclipse to be really fun because I was able to ask questions
Things like you know, how much darker is the moon going to get and how long is it going to last?
And which countries can see it right now?
and I don't think I would have felt confident asking those questions if I had been in the role of the expected expert I
Think it was only
Yeah from that backseat role
I was able to really engage my own curiosity instead of standing on I guess a pedestal and just
Regurgitating explanations that I had sort of heard or read on the internet or something
And I don't know when this sort of thing
started but it's definitely something I've faced a lot in my life as being that expected expert in a topic like
way back in high school people who knew in my class and my teachers that I had quite an interest in physics and astronomy and
Even back then like the teachers would maybe pick on me to answer a question about some obscure astronomy thing
And I probably wouldn't know the answer, but I would feel like I had to like I was responsible for knowing
All the physics and astronomy at that age
Even though that's quite absurd for anyone to ever know all of the subject
I would feel that just because my peers and my class expected me to be
toby the person that knows stuff about physics and astronomy that if I didn't know the answer it was sort of shameful and that I
didn't really feel comfortable as much as I should have asking other people in my class questions about physics because I
was the one who was expected to be the expert on this and not them and it's quite a dangerous mindset to
stop your own questions and your own curiosity because you are suddenly expected to know more about it than other people
Like even going on through uni, and then I graduated with a physics degree
It still sort of hampers me in a way because when I'm with people I'm afraid that if I ask too many
Perceived dumb questions about physics. They will look at me and think like, how did you get your physics degree?
like as if I have a lack of confidence in the worthiness of my
Physics work and of my physics degree that if I ask too many dumb questions, I didn't deserve it
And like I said, I think it's quite damaging to be in that role
Like I do have the degree, which means I do know some stuff about physics
but I still think it's absurd for anyone to think that they know all of physics and
There are going to be mistakes that I make in explanations and things I don't understand
But yeah, I feel like I need to gain more confidence in asking the questions despite my qualifications
I think someone with the qualification who holds that up as meaning that you should trust them and everything
They say is a bad thing because your qualification shouldn't really give you so much
Superiority over other people. It should represent that you have at least proven
You know a base level of things but I don't think there's anything that really proves that you should trust every word
Someone says I think you should always question people with qualifications and people with qualifications
should ask questions of
everyone else. I get how saying this could also be damaging in the other direction like
you want people who do have levels of
Understanding to sometimes be the ones to stand up and tell people how something works
and you want people to believe in scientists and believe in people who have
Gone through like all the education system and do actually know what they're talking about
because a lot of problems in science come when people deny facts that scientists try to tell them and there's this whole
mistrust in science going on
so it can be damaging to say like
People with qualifications shouldn't act like they know everything because sometimes that confidence is what they need to do
to get important ideas across
But I don't really know the answer here like I think it's a bit of both if you're going to have
people
Without qualifications and without the education standing up and being the ones who are confident enough to say listen to me
This is how something works and you've got all the scientists standing on the other hand saying
You know, we we're not quite sure in the science and we're still learning as well
We make mistakes and admitting the truth and the honesty behind science
Then that's going to lead to a really skewed reality where I guess the wrong people come into power
so I don't think scientists should be totally like
unconfident in what they're trying to get across but I think that scientists and people with any kind of
Interest or you know perceived expert level in something
Should continue asking questions and should continue engaging with people and not let themselves
think that they are on this pedestal where
They are only there to answer questions and not to ask them as well
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this because it's not really something I've heard people talking about before but it's just something that
Crossed my mind the other week
When I felt like for the first time in a while that I could really just ask questions without being judged
So leave a comment below if you've ever felt a similar thing to this and I'll see you next time