non-experts

Blue definespublic engagement as “a diverse set of activities whereby non-experts become involved in agenda setting, decision-making, policy forming and knowledge production processes regarding science”.

2009 December | Serendipity 2009

Blue definespublic engagement as “a diverse set of activities whereby non-experts become involved in agenda setting, decision-making, policy forming and knowledge production processes regarding science”.

AGU Day 0: Restarting the Climate Conversation | Serendipity 2009

Similarly, the fact that non-experts have sometimes beaten the experts hardly shows that everyone is equally talented and knowledgeable.

Baffled by "Analytical Egalitarianism", Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

By Robin's own admission, many studies DO find the expected correlation between expert's (and non-experts!) beliefs about how the world works and their beliefs about what policies we should have.

Hanson's Mistake: Facts, Values, and Experts, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

However, your choice is between two sub-optimal predictions: the prediction of experts, or an average of the prediction of the non-experts.

Page-ing Robin Hanson, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

Historical analyses of allegedly innate differences that eventually faded away (like Irish underachievement), and some instances where experts were wrong, and non-experts were right.

Baffled by "Analytical Egalitarianism", Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

But King has had a rather difficult time explaining how stigmatizing an entire community as the primary source of extremism in America, calling a range of non-experts to testify on an extraordinarily sensitive topic, and ignoring the statistic that Muslims provided tips in 48 out of 120 terrorist cases in the United States, will somehow make Muslim Americans feel all warm, fuzzy, and patriotic.

John Feffer: Extremists on Extremism: Peter King and the Sharia Scam John Feffer 2011

Via CrookedTimber, a pointed to this post by Julian Sanchez on argumentative fallacies, experts, non-experts and debates about clima ….

Climate Change and Argumentative Fallacies 2009

So from a non-expert's point of view, I want to share some of the books that enlightened me, and I think other non-experts may enjoy reading as well.

Lesley Chilcott: Books I Couldn't put Down Lesley Chilcott 2010

However, a diverse set of non-experts collectively uses a set of X variables that spans a larger portion of the prediction space.

Page-ing Robin Hanson, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009