Secrets of Mind and Reality

Ask An Expert

For those of us who are hungry for knowledge, the Internet is a mixed blessing in many ways. On the one hand, has put an unprecedented amount of information right at our fingertips. Things that I would never have even been able to look up before I can find out about in seconds or, at the most, minutes. I have access to more information than in any of the great libraries in the world from my home computer. On the other hand, much of the information is not good. For common knowledge sorts of things, is usually easy to divide the wheat from the chaff. For more specialized information, however, is often hard to tell if you are getting the whole story. That is why can pay to ask an expert.

I have been getting expert advice online since the Internet began. USENET, one of the oldest protocols, is a tradional place where people used to seek expert opinions. Most specialized hobbies or academic disciplines have a whole USENET groups dedicated to them where anyone can answer. Although you can never guarantee that you are asking an expert, many of them are self-selecting. For example, if you are on a newsgroup dedicated to quantum physics and you ask an expert about some arcane detail of the field, you will probably get a good answer. After all, people who don’t really know what they’re talking about generally don’t get involved in a quantum mechanics newsgroup.

Webpages, however, are an even better way to ask an expert advice. Many webses already provide expert answers to commonly asked questions. About.com is one of the most outstanding examples of this, but there are lerally hundreds, if not thousands of different ses dedicated to disseminating expertise in a wide variety of areas. These ses can be of great help, because they are more than likely to already have expert answers to all your questions available.

There are other ses that allow you to ask an expert the answer to a question that hasn’t been discussed. Some of the free ses allow you to wre in wh questions, but there are also message boards specially dedicated to connecting experts in the field wh interested inquisors. Sometimes you have to pay a small fee for this, but is usually que reasonable. Just as often, the expert will be willing to give his or her advice out for nothing. There are a lot of people out there who enjoy giving free advice online.