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> I've become somewhat disillusioned about the idea of encouraging people to think for themselves.

If the average person shouldn't think for themselves, who do you think should think for themselves? Only someone with a degree? Only someone who can do the math?

> the best heuristic I could come up with is "trusting the expert consensus".

How do you decide which experts to trust? Do you leave that up to the government to choose for you?

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You rarely hear the average person questioning consensus beliefs from experts in the 'hard' science / engineering fields (with notable exceptions, eg. climate science/evolution, but there are obvious incentives involved). Social sciences and economics seem to be the exact opposition, where there are rarely notable consensus opinions, and 'experts' are routinely questioned.

It makes sense, though, since expert opinion from the social sciences often relates directly to how people implement their lives. If the average person relied on the expert advice from physicists, they'd probably question that as well. So, the more directly relevant an 'expert's advice, the more it is questioned, as a matter of course.

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