Roger Kneebone

Can there really be such a thing as an expert on experts? Roger Kneebone is probably the closest thing we have to one. He’s built up a career studying how people become expert in their profession or hobby, whether it’s medicine, music, or millinery, and this book outlines the path that everyone takes on their way to mastery.

This is a really well-structured book, covering the apprentice, journeyman, and master stages of “getting good at something” and spotlighting experts in a variety of disciplines. Kneebone uses his own career as a surgeon and a general practitioner as the main narrative arc, and he illustrates that the path to mastery is not necessarily linear — and that no matter how good you are at one thing, if you start something new, you’re going to be right back at the beginning of that path, and that’s OK.

The book also talks about Kneebone’s work at Imperial College that brings together experts from a variety of disciplines to shed new light on problems and offer different solutions. My favourite of the examples he shared was the hospital where a professional embroiderer advised surgeons on their suturing techniques. It’s the sort of insight that is brilliant, laced with “Dang! Why didn’t we think of this sooner?”

Overall, this is a great book. And it’s one of those non-fiction books with an annotated bibliography, which is really useful. I like knowing how specific books contributed to the ideas the author of my current book put forward.… (mais)