The google expert 15

Sounds like most managers. I sympathize.

I have a theory that is stated this way "What goes around comes around". It may not develop right away, but in time it does. Sometimes tragically. Stay patient.

Google the 'Dunning Kruger Effect', you might have diagnosed another a sufferer?

It would only be a 'Dunning Kruger Effect' for a specific areas of knowledge. The guy is highly intelligent, but only knowledgeable in a thin slice of technology. Outside that area, he's amazingly lacking and continually under-appreciates the complexity of doing many areas of product development. That creates friction in another area, he's got a couple of EE's that he wants me to use in my projects but he can't grasp their limitations.

Googling, while originally a very useful tool, has in some cases turned into a real pain.
Engineering as in your OP, is somehow suffering from it.

It is not, of course, a Google issue. It mainly is, one more way for that type of people who
always look for the easy answer and quick tip ( and deny to accept that there are cases, where
some more complicated theory should be applied )to give us a hard time.

I should think, same is valid for medicine (i do know a few people who are "google doctors"),
history etc.

Nevertheless, as oldestguy metioned " what goes around comes around ".

Multiple times he's challenged me in a group setting (a dick move too, I don't do that to him or anyone else, but that's another symptom).

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How is challenging someone to prove their work a dick move? Regardless, I have two standard responses for any question that I cannot fully answer on the spot. If multiple members of the group are interested then I respond that I will review the concern and a proof be attached to the meeting minutes. If only an individual is concerned then I review and send them the proof directly.

If need be, walk it back to first principles to what parts of the argument, if any, are valid. There might be a seed there that grows into a solution This isn't a Google issue. There are many good resources out there in digital and print. Pre-internet I would keep binders full of interesting articles on a variety of topics in my office and would reference them to see IF they were applicable to a given problem.

I use Google Scholar extensively for work; the ability to find literature on numerous topics is priceless. Such a resource would have been unimaginable 30 yrs ago.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

Good colleagues care more about getting the thing right than about being right themselves, but that can be tough because egoes are involved. If people on the team care most about getting the thing right than about being personally right, that will encourage challenges of and requests to defend ideas, but will also mean that the challenges will be respectful and directed toward learning and toward ensuring that the thing itself is ultimately right. Standing on ceremony or deferring to authority isn't the best way to get things right, but there's a right and a wrong way to challenge too- and plenty of learning opportunity to be had on both sides if it's done right.

Sometimes I'll Google a topic before I make an assertion to see what others will see if they start doing their "homework" on what I said. If the prevailing search results will lead people to other conclusions, I make sure I include enough detail in my explanation to head off any front-page Google disinformation. If I were in the manager's shoes, I might be looking to head off comments from a superior, but while lacking first hand knowledge, I would rely on my team to provide the explanation.

I have seen on some job advertisements of self-proclaimed "forward-thinking" companies that they are looking for people who, among other things, aren't afraid to Google something they don't know.

I used to count sand. Now I don't count at all.

I've had bosses that felt the need to (ineffectively) posture for technical dominance. Combination of insecurity and poor leadership. Some of the challenges got downright silly. Some challenges cost thousands of dollars. I have yet to lose.

CWB1 said:

How is challenging someone to prove their work a dick move?

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Asking for the information on a design & clarification on technical points is not a dick move, and I have no issue with that. Announcing in the group that my fundamentals are wrong on a regular basis is another matter. I've got info to back up what I say, and I don't hide it - I'm very open with all of my work.

MatthewDB said:

I've got info to back up what I say, and I don't hide it - I'm very open with all of my work.

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You are a threat to him. Anyone that knows more than him will be perceived as a threat.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC
NSPE-CO, Central Chapter
Dinner program:

I used to know someone who read up the latest magazine articles and would then spout off about how we should immediately develop ternary, and up, logic devices, because that was the coming thing. I've not seen any, have you? In the meantime, they were absurdly insecure, to the extent that I got hauled up in front of my manager for "interfering" with their project because their engineer asked me for help. Needless to say, when they announced their depart for greener and ternary-er pastures, we organized a great going away party, but oops, forgot to invite them. Nevertheless, a grand time was had by all and we bid them a fond adieu.

There was another at the same company who actually was pretty smart, but seemed to need to make a point of it by asking leading questions at internal reviews, just to stump the speaker and then proceed to answer their own question. Annoying issue of a bee-atch, they later showed up at a company I was working at and had the gall to claim credit for solving a problem at the previous company. Of course, I was the one who actually solved the problem, and I never ran into them at any tiger team meetings, so they never even knew who solved the problem. GONG!, that applicant was outta there. ;-) The most satisfying interview I recall...

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

Google doesn't make someone an expert but an expert with google can dig up some pretty useful stuff quickly. I saw what my predecessors had to do. Book shelves of manuals, notebooks, marked up books, printed up pages. Good luck finding whatever you needed. You had to basically find the expert just to find the relevant material.

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If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.

HamburgerHelper said:

...Book shelves of manuals, notebooks, marked up books, printed up pages...

Click to expand...

What? You don't still do that? I'm often in a discussion where I pull a book off my shelf to provide an example, or more depth to what I'm talking about.
Maybe I should back off a bit... Well there aren't many contests or cold wars going on in my office. So far I haven't pulled out a book just for the sake of proving someone wrong.

STF

I'm concerned that this person thinks Googling around makes them able to challenge fundamentals they themselves are not familiar with - this is just wrong and I'm surprised they haven't already been burned enough times to stop doing this of their own accord.

I've come to the conclusion that pre-frontal cortex development, which determines judgement, doesn't always occur by your late 20s; I think that some people never fully develop their pre-frontal cortex.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

Used to be instead of spending 'coffee break' surfing the internet, engineers would spend time perusing trade magazines and if something caught your eye you could fill out the blow-in card at the back of the magazine to get more information sent to you - either for your own files or for the 'department technical library'

So things don't change, we just do them faster