The older I get, the more refined my tastes become. We call it experience or expertise. It affords a person the ability to arrive at their preferred destination much more quickly and accurately than others. It enables a daylily hybridizer to immediately see what is right and wrong with a new cultivar when other people just see another flower. It allows a mother to sense that her adult child is dealing with a difficult problem when that child has done everything possible to hide his situation. It lets a CEO make the right call when there is no time for customer surveys.
But time does not make you an expert at everything, only some things. The really cool part of life is that you get to choose your areas of expertise—indie movies, skiing, java (coffee or programming language), antiques, parenting, investing, etc. Since you only have a limited amount of time, choose wisely!
Also, it is important to remember that there are two paths to expertise—destructive and constructive. The destructive path sees the data in such a set and rigid way that it refuses to let others learn, grow, and possibly find a new paradigm through which the data can be processed. You can even become such an expert at your own opinion that you fail to let others even utter theirs. The constructive path is that of the informed coach or guide. Your expertise helps others arrive at the preferred destination more readily, but you are not averse to taking detours every once in a while because you know that there is always more worth discovering.
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