Modern society treats success in one field as proof of universal wisdom. I once suggested that a billionaire can also be an idiot and was met with strong objections from my social media friends. We see credentials, wealth and fame and mistake them for broad intellectual authority. The truth is simpler than it appears: Success does not equal infinite wisdom.
Most of us acknowledge that expertise is domain-specific. Yet, we frequently fall into the trap of accepting advice from successful experts who offer sweeping opinions far beyond their fields of knowledge. Being exceptionally accomplished in business, industry, or education does not automatically confer insight into politics, birth control, or complex social problems. In fact, intelligence itself is unevenly distributed across disciplines – even among the most capable individuals.
How did we get here? We often avoid doing our homework; it is easier to take shortcuts than to seek out lesser-known experts whose research receives little or no publicity. Media organizations, through constant amplification of familiar names and faces, have cultivated a craving for certainty among audiences and reinforced the comfort that comes from listening to “winners.”
Where media practitioners should evaluate arguments on their own merit, they instead choose the easier path – outsourcing thinking to recognizable names.
This helps explain how technology entrepreneur and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, the youngest person to become a billionaire in 1987 at the age of 31, has also become an influential commentator on global health, vaccines, and pandemic preparedness. Despite having no formal medical or epidemiological training, his voice carries significant weight – often eclipsing that of trained experts in those fields.
He “advised” governments and international institutions on pandemic preparedness, and when COVID-19 struck, many of the measures he promoted were adopted. His wealth and platform afforded him a level of influence few others could match.
However successful we become, we are not immunized against ignorance, blind spots, or poor judgment. In health matters, critics of Bill Gates argue that allowing private actors to exert influence over public health policy weakens democratic oversight. In African agricultural reform, his philanthropic funding has supported genetically modified crops and industrial farming methods, raising concerns about threats to seed sovereignty and traditional farming practices among smallholder farmers.
There is a valid case for rethinking how readily we embrace celebrity experts. While we should acknowledge and respect achievement, we must also demand humility. We should value expertise and question arguments, rather than defer to lengthy résumés. Real progress depends less on famous voices – and more on informed, yet often unheard, ones.
