Let’s be honest: we love to confuse experience with expertise. We toss around these words like they’re twins separated at birth. Spoiler alert—they’re not. They’re more like that distant cousin who only shows up to weddings to steal the buffet dessert.
Somehow, we’ve all been brainwashed into thinking that just because someone has been doing the same thing since Doordarshan was the only TV channel, they must have cracked the code. The carpenter who’s been hammering away for 30 years? Surely he knows what he’s doing, right?
Wrong. So very, hilariously wrong.
You’ve probably seen this firsthand. You hire that old-timer carpenter who radiates “I’ve seen it all” vibes. He shows up, and then proceeds to do such a spectacularly shoddy job that even you, with your two left thumbs, could’ve done better with a YouTube video and a prayer.
Meanwhile, one day you randomly call this young plumber—who doesn’t look like he’s old enough to rent a car—and in two minutes, he not only diagnoses the problem but also fixes it so well you’re tempted to recommend him for a Nobel Prize in common sense.
So, what exactly does the young guy have that the “experienced” old guard doesn’t? Oh yeah—expertise. That inconvenient little detail.
Experience is just clocking in and out for decades. Expertise is using your brain while you’re clocked in.
I’ve seen it all the time—people who’ve been at the same job for 25 years and still churn out work that’s basically a love letter to incompetence. They keep making the same mistakes, blissfully unaware that they’re single-handedly killing productivity faster than your office’s “Reply All” email chains.
But here’s the best part: people keep hiring them. Why? Because we can’t resist that warm fuzzy feeling of assuming “years = skill.” It’s like assuming a car with 4 lakh kilometers on the odometer must be reliable because it’s been around so long. No, it’s just one pothole away from spontaneous combustion.
Eventually, though, the truth peeks out from under the moth-eaten rug of “experience.” That shiny badge of “I’ve been here forever” can’t cover up the fact that their work is still basically an elaborate exercise in wasting everyone’s time.
Expertise, in contrast, is bright and obvious. It cuts through the nonsense like a hot knife through butter. The trick is—you have to be awake enough to notice it. And when you do, for the love of all that is holy, save that person’s number. Because the next time the pipes burst or the Excel sheet explodes, you’ll know exactly who to call.
Trust me—your sanity will thank you.
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