Let’s Talk Expertise

This will anger some people, like my age post did, but it also needs to be said and is about something I have been seeing consistently. If you are in your undergrad and taking major courses, you are not an expert on the subject material, let alone the profession itself. You are a student who is just building their foundational knowledge for your chosen field. You have not accumulated enough knowledge on the subject matter to speak from a place of expertise, nor have you learned enough to parse through the nuance of your chosen field or reached any of the milestones to be considered as such. There’s a reason why we actually have an expertise system here in the USA that is paired with the legal system and our government employment system. If you go onto a government job site and look at their listings you will see some combination of Degree, Degree + Experience, Degree + Equivalent Experience and Amount of Time. What does this mean? It means that if a job is asking for someone with a Master’s degree in a specific field they will consider individuals with the appropriate degree, but they will also consider people with a Bachelor’s degree and the equivalent amount of time and/or experience in their field that makes them as knowledgeable as the MS candidate. The reason for the Time/Experience component is that not everyone pursues a graduate degree, but that does not mean they lack the knowledge required. However, there is an equivalency in Time/Experience to those graduate degrees and the special knowledge they impart. This gets even more complicated in higher levels when a position is asking for a PhD + 10 years of experience, that means a BS might be right out unless they have 20+ years of experience and an MS might need 15-20 years alone. In my time as a professor I have seen scores of undergrads present themselves as their major professions when they haven’t even finished their junior year. Sometimes it’s benign so that they can puff up in mixed company. Other times? Not so much. Several years ago I saw an undergrad present themselves as a psychologist that was “recovering traumatic memories” and got a multitude of people falsely accused of various violent crimes. This culminated in several court cases where the student had to admit they were falsely representing themself as an expert and therefore falsely producing “evidence”. In light of the ongoing conflict I have seen a number of blogs on here present themselves as historians/experts on various related subject matter, while openly admitting that they are undergrad students and/or do not work in any capacity relating to the material. The latter can be fine up to a point, but if you are not working in your field and it comes to being an expert according to the GS and/or Daubert Standards, you most likely are not making the cut. The person regularly publishing papers and working as the profession will be considered the expert over you. If all you have is a few papers to your name and no other activities relating to the subject…well it’s not a good look to be considered an expert. “AVTP this is elitist! Not everyone can go to college/grad school on *subject matter*” That’s right. Not everyone can go to school for psychology, history, ecology, polisci, let alone go and make it their career. These people are not experts then. Plain and simple. You don’t get to call yourself an expert because you listen to podcasts or do deep dives on Wikipedia. (And note, this is not about the blogs who are posting about how they did a hyper fixation deep dive on frog naming nomenclature when they were in high school. I am talking about the persons who are presenting themselves as knowledgeable authorities and using phrases like “As a *insert specialist field here*” while they pick courses for their sophomore/junior/senior year.)

Un-normalize having to apologize for not getting the joke. Eradicate having to insult your own intelligence just because you find someone else to be unclear. You have nothing to be sorry for. You’ve done nothing wrong. People who call you dumb or mock you, or even just expect you to apologize for the way your brain works, are ableist shits who don’t deserve you.

I fucking hate it when you’re in such a fantastically giddy mood and then you see one simple little thing that makes you think, “oh” and then you just get this empty feeling in your chest and you get nauseous and the world just crumbles and you want to just lay under a blanket and close your eyes and fall asleep and never wake up. 

From what my therapist told me, this happens because our emotions aren’t really on the ‘opposite’ ends like we tend to think of it. Happiness is not ‘up’ and sadness is not ‘down’-. In a way they’re actually right ‘next’ to each other.

If you’re super happy, it can turn into super sad very easily, because your emotions are already highly elevated and it’s only a very minor shift as far as your brain is concerned.

Knowing this can help you fight it, and it can help you be more aware of what’s going on while you’re happy and help avoid shifting towards misery.

I used to always wonder why it seemed like my happy days ‘couldn’t last’ or that bad things would ‘always’ happen when I was happy. It’s not that happiness is doomed to fail, it’s that emotions are volatile. I hope that helps people who experience this too- when you understand what’s going on more it’s easier to manage.

guys, in regards to reading comprehension, if it's something you struggle with — read the whole thing. If it's something you don't struggle with, yes you do — read the whole thing.

don't respond or comment or whatever before you have read the whole thing.

The number of times I've gotten responses from people who clearly didn't read beyond the first few sentences of what I wrote is genuinely staggering. Think about it: if you don't have time to read someone else's thoughts, why should anyone take time to read yours? Communication is a two-way street.

TL;DR read the whole text before you respond to something, for the love of spiders georg

I’m pretty sure I’d still have panic disorder if capitalism didn’t exist tbh

Like clockwork in my family as soon as a generation starts getting into their late teens and early 20s about a quarter of the young adults start getting regular panic attacks and the rest of them start getting random phobias and the proper adults are all known in their friend groups as the one that worries a lot. It’s just as genetic as high blood pressure.

And like with high blood pressure, yeah some people may be able to avoid it if they do all the right things and are in the right environment. But some people are just gonna get it no matter what they do. Saying blanket statement that capitalism is the sole cause of anxiety and depression is like saying that capitalism is the sole cause of heart disease. Sure, it made it way worse. But it sure as hell existed way before any kind of economics was even conceived.

FUCKING THANK YOU, FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT

the thing folks living in Christian dominant cultures gotta realize is that even if you’re not Christian, your basic understanding of religion and spirituality and morality is still being filtered through a Christian lens. your very concept of what religion is and does is filtered through that lens.

This is what I call cultural Christianity, for those who are still confused

“But everyone celebrates christmas.” No. No we don’t.

“Religion is based on complete blind submission and not asking any questions ever”

No. That’s Christianity.

“Religion is totally focused on the afterlife and getting into heaven and avoiding hell”

Nope. Christianity again.

“Religion is about pushing your beliefs on others and trying to get them to convert”

Still Christianity.

Actually that’s even more specific - that’s Calvinism, which predominates in America. America isn’t just culturally Christian,it’s culturally Calvinist, which very specifically focuses on submission, the fear of damnation, and conversion. It’s also not just any old Calvinism, but a very rigidly puritanical variety thanks to our roots.

There are other culturally Christian countries, which are of other denominations and therefore have a slightly different bent. England is culturally Anglican, Germany is culturally Lutheran, Italy and Spain are culturally Catholic, Russia is culturally Orthodox, etc. However, even the cultural Catholicism of Italy is different from, say, the cultural Catholicism of Ireland.

So even here, we need to be careful not to filter other cultures’ Christianities through what is a very Americanized (via @queertilly) Christianity, and vice versa with other countries. Speaking as an American, even our concept of what Christianity is has been Americanised.

^^^ that

Question: what if you’re Jewish in America and don’t see religion through any of the lenses you’ve mentioned? Are there other false beliefs one can get through the dominant culture here?

Oh, definitely. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, though

Picture a wedding. Any wedding even in a fantasy context. Let me guess, you’re picturing a woman in a veil and a white gown, some guy in robes officiating, and it’s probably taking place in a church-like building, right? Christian culture is pervasive like that.

I once gave a lecture about “rituals”, and I asked the people who were attending how a marriage looks like in their culture. An adult woman answered “the bride always wears a white dress”. So I asked her which culture she was talking about. She kept insisting that that was the case in every culture, “even with atheists like me”, and that it wasn’t culturally Christian. Luckily there were several Muslims in the group that told her that that’s often not the case at Muslim weddings.

Other examples of “things we internalize” -I’m going to stick with religious ones: 

There’s a lot of stuff like this. In many cases, it’s about “what is the first mental image that comes to mind.”

Not originally worldbuilding, but this is a really good guide you can follow when building a religion to avoid making it just feel like a copy of the one you grew up surrounded by!

never let anyone convince you that your excitement isn't beautiful. what an incredible thing it is, to notice and be overcome by any bright spot in this too-dark world.

it doesn't matter what you're excited about, how small it seems to other people, your joy deserves to grow as big as it can. nurture it. help it grow strong so that when you are hurting your joy can lend you its strength.

please respect people who are mentally ill and disabled who cannot work. please respect people who look like they’re just relaxing all day when really they’re waging an internal war just to stay alive or fight their pain. please respect people who could not finish school, people who had big plans and could not see them through because of disability. people who look from the outside like they’ve “given up” or “aren’t doing anything.” people who are hospitalized repeatedly or permanently, and people who are grown adults who are still dependent on others. please respect disabled and mentally ill people. 

this is not a polite suggestion, by the way. it’s an angry demand. we are people, and we deserve the same respect as anyone else.

A sweet little story about one of the many modern variations of a family.

My brother started dating a woman a while back who has a six years old son, Jamie. He’s an anonymous donor child, meaning he technically doesn’t have a father. At least not one he’s ever likely to meet. His mother has no siblings so his whole life his only family has been her and his two grandparents.

My brother, despite his mental illness, has taken the caretaker role upon him as best as he can and Jamie has accepted him fully into the family.

Now my brother and his girlfriend are about to have another child together. This child will be calling my brother “dad”, our mother “grandmother” and my sister and I “aunts” so my brother and his girlfriend agreed with my mother that Jamie should of course be allowed to call us those things too so he won’t feel excluded.

Thing is, no one told me about this plan.

I was looking at my phone when Jamie snug up on me and said in a quiet but very deliberate way “You’re my aunt”

We have different words for people who are related to us by blood and those married into the family. He used the blood relative word. Thanks to my ADHD I don’t always know what will come out of my face but luckily my response that day was “....Yeah, I suppose I am”

He gave me this huge excited smile and since then he has regularly tried to figure out what we all are in relation to him. What should he call my sister’s boyfriend and should he call our mom’s husband “granddad” even though we don’t call him “dad”? There’s more possible words to use for family members in Danish than in English so he hasn’t quite settled on what to call us but that will most likely happen automatically when his baby brother is born and is told from the start what we are.

It’s just really sweet how excited he is about suddenly having a much bigger family. He’s especially excited for the biggest Christmas he has ever had (12 people, but that’s huge when you’re used to 4)

This is such a fascinating discussion. As a redear/fic reccer I have never ever imagined that authors treat kudos as  “This fic meets my minimum requirements for liking a thing. It’s not great, but it’s not that bad. I can give it a thumbs up, sure. Why not?” This thought is an eye opener and a little bit of a bummer, tbh. 

I personally give kudo when I liked/ loved the fic and want to support the author. Maybe I’m spoiled because my OTP has too many fics on AO3 and I can easily ignore fics that meet my minimum requirement? Also, as a reader, I see kudos as a bat-signal to other readers - come here, read this fic!  A good amount of kudos tells that this fic is appreciated by many readers. I’m not saying that a lot of into kudos = good fic (or even the fic I will like), that is not the case. Still, a lot of readers pay attention to the amount of kudos, not comments, when deciding to read a fic. So, for me it boils down to comments are personal and emotional (and then the discussion about how authors respond to comments is important)  and kudos is my thank you to the author + me giving boost to the fic to get more readers. 

I’ve read some discussions on anon meme about kudo vs comments practices.. And yes, some readers will leave kudo if they simply managed to finish the fic, others treat kudos as a thumbs up, good job! button only when they liked the fic. And some folks said that they leave kudos if the fic was adequate and comment if they really loved the fic, but they don’t give kudos when they comment (since kudo is impersonal). I wonder how writers feel about getting a lovely comment but not kudo from the same reader? 

Nearly every writer I know, myself included, has said to me at one or another that we ourselves kudos as a “this fic meets minimum standards.” Basically any fic I finish, I kudos. I now try to comment also, and if it’s a friend I comment as much as I can (often every chapter).

Honestly I’ve never once checked to see if someone who left a comment also left kudos. A comment is enough for me, even if that happened I don’t think I’d mind. (But it’s impossible to tell especially if the comment is anon, they might have left guest kudos…)

But basically: as a writer the original reply completely reflects how I feel about it. Kudos are awesome, I do love them, but it’s not the same…

Thanks for your additions, and for answering the person above.

Fandom: God there’s like NO content anymore. I wish we could get more art and fanfics :(((

Someone: Hey, I can’t draw anything digitally, because I can’t afford a tablet, but here’s a pen on paper drawing that I spent a lot of time and hard work on. Also, I took a shot at my first fanfic and I’d really like some feedback or at least some kudos if you enjoyed it :)

Fandom: Oh... yeah sorry no... not you. We actually meant writers that are already well known and popular to produce MORE content... I mean, if a popular blog shares your work then maybe. And we don’t really like pen to paper art. We just don’t think it’s professional or even looks good :/

This is why I try to reblog things that have little notes - the fandom NEEDS new people, or it dies, but the OLD people are there to support the new creators! New creators will leave and forget if the fandom doesn't welcome them, because they feel left out. We should remember that all great artists and writers, even the famous ones in big name fandoms, they all started from nothing.

If you don't want a fandom to die feed the sparks that come anew, don't blow on the old burnt ashes hoping they'll start again.

At this point I'm just assuming everything I ever create and post to the internet is going to be stolen. People have been stealing, reposting, and adding their own pay links to my art for years now, without the help of AI.

I've made D&D themed stickers that are now all over "free clipart" sites, despite me filing requests to have them removed. I've seen my graphics ripped off and included in someone else's art without credit. I've had people tell me that an ACAB image I made showed up as a sticker getting put up around Seattle. Facebook meme pages crop my username out of my posts all the goddamn time. Voice actors on YouTube use my posts for "dramatic reading" videos constantly, and only one has ever asked me permission or given me any cut of the profits from their video.

I see my art out in the wild with no source back to me, and I'm a tiny creator compared to a lot of others. People repost shit constantly, whether it's here, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, whatever. I remember the old tumblr days of "We Heart It is not a goddamn source" PSAs.

I think people are right to be concerned about AI, but at this point I'm much more concerned about it from the perspective of "companies want to use it to cut labor costs," and less "it's theft."

People didn't need AI to steal my art before now. I'm more concerned about trying to freelance in a market full of "oh, we can just get ChatGPT to write and illustrate our articles."

I'm gonna sound very old person yells at cloud but I don't care, I feel like I need to say this. We all (well most of us) know that messaging Neil with any headcanons/theories/wishes/hopes/dreams to do with the show is a no-go because it could potentially compromise the story he wants to tell or ends up telling. And yes, he is a grown up who chooses what to respond to etc and I think it's wonderful he engages with fans and answers a lot of lovely and interesting questions about his process, writing and journey etc.

However, there is another reason not to send theories and ideas about how the show should go to the show creator in the hope of a response: it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether a theory is correct, or a speculation may or may not play out. That is why fandom exists.

Hey unpopular opinion but while the “the curtains are just fucking blue” meme is funny and all, sometimes writers use symbolism and sometimes the curtains are not just fucking blue sometimes specification of colors means something because sometimes writers think about adding depth and nuance to their work and maybe you should at some point think that art can have meaning and not everything should be taken at literal face value

Hi, friendly neighborhood english major here. the important thing when looking for symbolism are patterns: repeated elements, binaries, anomalies. Are a whole lot of things blue? The curtains, the car, the main character’s bedroom walls, the pattern on the plates, the love interest’s eyes? That’s starting to become a repeated element. Binaries? Are all those things blue but put in opposition to the red fire and the red blood and the red rose etc? That’s a binary. Does the blue window with the blue curtain have a bright yellow tulip sitting on the sill? That’s an anomaly.

These are all interesting things to pay attention to in an author’s work. The next important thing to ask is why is the author calling my attention to these colors? What function does coloring these items serve?

Maybe the author just likes blue.  But if blue things keep turning up all over the place, there’s a chance that it’s not a coincidence, and the color is serving a purpose in the story.

I applaud this addition thank you

I saw a comment by someone on reddit who said they no longer comment on any fanfiction because of the risk of it being AI and ... that just seems like such a cop out to me, not to mention incredibly cruel to authors.

Please please please do not stop commenting on all fics or interacting with authors because you are worried about things being AI. The risk is slim, and the damage you do to authors by doing this is awful.

Writers put so much effort into their fics. For people to openly admit they still read and consume these fics, but choose not to comment on anything because of the possibility of someone using AI for their writing is incredibly selfish. You're punishing authors by doing this. You're not being moral or helpful or crusading for any useful cause - you're just hurting authors.

Ironically, by doing this, you're actually more likely to cause authors to stop writing (silence does this), and people who can't write will fill the gaps left by creating AI writing - so you're making the problem worse, not helping anyone.

If you want to support authors and writers, then SUPPORT them! Reblog work and send authors asks, leave comments and kudos, and above all don't punish people with silence.