6 Factors to Consider When Looking for an Expert

A great teacher can lay a lasting cornerstone to your life’s foundation — but how do you find the right one in a world with so many self-proclaimed experts?

Social media is a blessing and a curse. Connecting with others is easier than ever, but being able to separate fact from creative fiction in the content we’re exposed to is increasingly difficult.

Indeed, truth now seems misconstrued with subjective feeling instead of looking for objective observation. While all of us have our biases, an unwillingness to be aware of them, instead only looking to confirm them, has incentivized many “gurus” to build platforms on collective anxiety and primal desire.

What’s even more dangerous is the belief that a large follower count and high production value automatically makes them more correct. Luckily, true experts are getting better at presenting themselves and what they know, building their own platforms to cut through the misinformation.

As a student of whatever knowledge you’re seeking — or if you just want to improve your critical thinking skills — it’s good to be a little skeptical. But if you’re still a little too green to know who’s telling the truth and who’s just saying things you want to hear, there are ways for you to validate information regardless of your skill level.

In this article, we’ll explore the basics of communication and appeals since they form the backbone of content and social media, separating education from production value, and what to consider when looking for an expert or mentor in whatever you’re trying to learn about.

Communication Basics: the Three Main Appeals

Persuasive claims, especially if they prompt action like buying a product, subscribing to a channel, or converting someone to believing your viewpoint, make use of appeals — arguments that leverage different qualities that provoke a reaction. These appeals fall into three main categories:

• Pathos: emotional appeals; these are based on feelings. If you’re sad, angry, or in pain, doing or believing [claim] will fix that.

• Logos: logical appeals; these are grounded in evidence with a clear process. Because you did x, y was the most natural outcome.

• Ethos: ethical appeals; these are based on morality. You ought to do x because it’s the right thing to do.

Since many social media platforms want to keep their users engaged at all costs, algorithms favor content that provokes the strongest emotional responses since those produce clicks, views, shares, and comments. Along with pathos, ethos is also mixed in, playing into a viewer’s emotional state while reframing pain as some sort of moral or ethical battle.

The woke “culture war”, ragebaiting, virtually any political content post 9/11, and brain rot (i.e. nonsensical videos that sedate people with dopamine) are all good examples of this pathos/ethos mixture to varying degrees.

The algorithms incentivize this kind of content because anger and confirmation bias are easy ways to keep people engaged. And if you want to grow your channel quickly, tapping into collective angst is heralded as a great (though dubious) strategy.

Meanwhile logos is thrown out the window because, in the blindness of those negative feelings, listening to reason is the last thing anyone wants to do.

Educational Value vs. Production Value

Whether you’re trying to break through as an influencer who genuinely wants to help people or someone who just wants to find high-quality content, you need to be mindful of the difference between educational value and production value.

Educational value is about the content itself: the points being made, their context, how they’re communicated, and for what purpose. YouTuber Nathaniel Hall does a great job breaking this down as YouTube’s algorithms seem to be favoring substance over flashiness lately.

Production value, however, is about the quality of the presentation: how much editing went into it, the special effects, the transitions, and background music. Again, not every expert in astrophysics is an ace video editor; not every historian knows how to write a good article.

But it’s the flashiness and feelings the content provokes that determine their quality. Again, this shouldn’t be the case. If you allow yourself to be taken in solely by production value, you make yourself vulnerable to misinformation and your emotions being preyed on.

Mind you, educational value and production value aren’t mutually exclusive. There’s plenty of great content that’s filled with substance and looks great. But let substance be a determining factor for quality, not just flashiness alone.

How to Find an Expert Worth Listening To

If you ever want to validate a “guru’s” knowledge but don’t know enough about their subject matter, start by looking for contradictions between what they say and what they do.

Here are some examples:

• A marketer who tells you to ignore the algorithm on whatever platform you’re on while gaming it themselves (for instance, liking their own posts and creating comment chains in an attempt to spoof engagement).

• A copywriter who claims they make $30k/month copywriting, gives only vague advice (mostly just explaining how nice it is to make so much money), and then ignores clarifying questions.

• A YouTube channel that suggests short-form videos will make you rich, but then only makes long-form content (or vice versa).

• A digital business developer claiming impressions and pageviews are the most important factor in brand profitability while ignoring conversion rates — the part that actually makes you money.

Once you prune your list of people making obvious contradictions, you can start asking deeper questions. Again, you don’t have to be an expert to answer these, but get in the habit of asking, especially when something sounds a little too good to be true:

1. What do I want to learn and why? Even if you know what you want to learn, do you understand why you want to learn it? For instance, if you want to learn graphic design, is it because of curiosity, to start a new hobby, or to become a freelancer? Are you learning this skill for physical printing or web design? Understanding context will help you find experts in specific niches, allowing you to learn exactly what you need to.

2. How long has the person been doing what they’re talking about? Many online experts you’ve never heard of that push courses usually don’t make their money from whatever field they claim to be in; they’re usually making money from courses that don’t really tell you much beyond the surface level of a given topic. Always consider someone’s experience and how they demonstrate it. Don’t be afraid to ask them deeper questions to test that.

3. Can I validate what they’re saying objectively? As a beginner, it might be hard to check if what someone is saying is true and accurate. You can validate this by finding other opinions of people in their field and look for patterns, searching for the truth in between all their perspectives. In other words, don’t be afraid to break arguments with other perspectives, even arguments you agree with.

4. What are their biases? Even if they mean well, everyone has an agenda (including you). When finding expert sources online, be mindful if they want to help you or if they’re just trying to make money off of you. There’s nothing wrong with selling courses, but grifting is all too common from people preying on bias.

5. What are my biases? When looking for an expert, you shouldn’t find someone you agree with 100% of the time. The point of learning isn’t to confirm pre-existing beliefs. Education is about growth, exploration, broadening your perspective, and being challenged. Sure, don’t shy away from people you vibe with, but don’t allow yourself to be trapped in an echo chamber either.

6. What will it cost me? While you can pay for online courses or even programs at your local college, there are costs beyond money to consider. How much time and energy do you want to give to learning about something new? Will the expert speed your progress up or slow you down? Is there more value in trying to figure everything out on your own? Everyone has their own answers to those questions. Just be sure to ask them.

Until you get your feet wet in whatever you want to learn, it’ll take some time to develop a habit in asking critical questions. But the more you learn and experience, the more of an expert you become which makes finding other quality sources much easier.

As long as you keep an open (though skeptical) mind, you can avoid being sucked into Internet drama and doomscrolling. Just remember: not every opinion on the Internet is worth listening to.