What makes you an "expert"?

[AnimalLady]

I've never given this any thought. I just do what I do, and I know what I know from experience. Some people have called me an "expert", but lots of people have called me lots of other names too. I don't really care what people call me one way or the other. I just like tortoises and want to learn all I can about them. I know more than some, and not as much as others. What does that make me?

A semi-expert

No but really, you give off the impression that you know your (expletive deleted)

 

[pepsiandjac]

A semi-expert

No but really, you give off the impression that you know your (expletive deleted).

Thats because he does know his (expletive deleted)

 

[Tom]

A semi-expert

No but really, you give off the impression that you know your (expletive deleted).

I just know the (expletive deleted) I know, but there's a lot of (expletive deleted) I don't know too.

I just think back to all the things I DIDN'T know 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago…
Then I wonder what new things I will know 5, 10 or 20 years from now.

 

[AnimalLady]

But the fact that you acknowledge you don't know everything says a lot, and the fact that you are still hungry to learn more also says a lot.

Good stuff.

 

[Neal]

Is it vast experience with a certain species? Is it the length of time you have cared for a tortoise or tortoises? What exactly would you define a tort expert to be?

*Honest question*

I dislike the term "expert", but as far as who I choose to pay attention to on the forum or in the hobby in general it would be someone with a significant amount of practical knowledge and actual hands on experience keeping tortoises. The term significant is subjective...it could mean a lot of experience in a short amount of time or a long time period of keeping tortoises. You have to be careful who's advice you choose to follow. As others have mentioned, someone who has kept tortoises for decades may not be promoting "good" practices and people who promote generally accepted "good" practices may not have the experience or knowledge to back it up.

For someone like me who has been around the block a couple of times (and still learning everyday), it's pretty easy to weed out who can support what they are saying and who is simply repeating what others have said. Both types have their value I suppose, but in order to identify someone I feel I could learn from, it takes a lot of time and evaluation to read and corroborate the things they share to determine whether or not I agree the individual knows what they're talking about.

 

[AnimalLady]

I dislike the term "expert", but as far as who I choose to pay attention to on the forum or in the hobby in general it would be someone with a significant amount of practical knowledge and actual hands on experience keeping tortoises. The term significant is subjective...it could mean a lot of experience in a short amount of time or a long time period of keeping tortoises. You have to be careful who's advice you choose to follow. As others have mentioned, someone who has kept tortoises for decades may not be promoting "good" practices and people who promote generally accepted "good" practices may not have the experience or knowledge to back it up.

For someone like me who has been around the block a couple of times (and still learning everyday), it's pretty easy to weed out who can support what they are saying and who is simply repeating what others have said. Both types have their value I suppose, but in order to identify someone I feel I could learn from, it takes a lot of time and evaluation to read and corroborate the things they share to determine whether or not I agree the individual knows what they're talking about.

I very much agree with you. It takes time for me to gauge if you know what you're talking about or not. I really don't know a thing about torts or reptiles in general, so, it's not second hand to me. I've read so much on here already I'd swear I was some degree of an expert lol, but really I feel when it comes to living creatures you need experience. Reading from a book will obviously help, but there's nothing like first hand experience..and that's one thing that ways heavy on my decision to trust your methods or not.

 

[tartagon]

An expert to me is someone who not only has experience but knowledge that can be backed up by science. Someone with 30 years experience but unable to provide sources for their claims is less of an expert to me than someone who has 5 years experience but can provide multiple studies to prove his point. For example, if fruits should not be fed to a certain speces of tortoise, simplistic reasons like "because it's not their natural diet" is not good enough. I want to hear them talk about enzymes, gut flora etc. and provide sources for them.

An expert is someone who not only spent time with their animals but have extensive knowledge that they gained from research of reliable studies. My grandma has many years experience with tortoises but I doubt she knows much about humidity requirements or calcium : phosphorus ratios.

A reptile vet with extensive experience and knowledge in tortoises is someone I would normally consider an expert. But one must still be careful with mere qualifications. Recently, the field of psychology took a hard blow from the Reproducibility Project, which analyzed 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and found only 39% of their results could be reproduced.

Thankfully for the purpose of tortoise-keeping, hard sciences like medicine haven't been disproven in this way.

The introduction to the project pretty much sums up my thoughts:
"Scientific claims should not gain credence because of the status or authority of their originator but by the replicability of their supporting evidence."

 

[Anyfoot]

An expert to me is someone who not only has experience but knowledge that can be backed up by science. Someone with 30 years experience but unable to provide sources for their claims is less of an expert to me than someone who has 5 years experience but can provide multiple studies to prove his point. For example, if fruits should not be fed to a certain speces of tortoise, simplistic reasons like "because it's not their natural diet" is not good enough. I want to hear them talk about enzymes, gut flora etc. and provide sources for them.

An expert is someone who not only spent time with their animals but have extensive knowledge that they gained from research of reliable studies. My grandma has many years experience with tortoises but I doubt she knows much about humidity requirements or calcium : phosphorus ratios.

A reptile vet with extensive experience and knowledge in tortoises is someone I would normally consider an expert. But one must still be careful with mere qualifications. Recently, the field of psychology took a hard blow from the Reproducibility Project, which analyzed 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and found only 39% of their results could be reproduced.

Thankfully for the purpose of tortoise-keeping, hard sciences like medicine haven't been disproven in this way.

The introduction to the project pretty much sums up my thoughts:
"Scientific claims should not gain credence because of the status or authority of their originator but by the replicability of their supporting evidence."

Speaking from experience here. Your tort needs a safety helmet and knee pads whilst skateboarding.

 

[tartagon]

Speaking from experience here. Your tort needs a safety helmet and knee pads whilst skateboarding.

Haha! That's actually just a photo from google My torts have been adopted by my aunt since I moved to Australia (they're very strict about keeping non-native animals as pets). I'll be moving back in a couple of years though, so I'm looking forward to keeping torts again.

 

[Anyfoot]

Haha! That's actually just a photo from google My torts have been adopted by my aunt since I moved to Australia (they're very strict about keeping non-native animals as pets). I'll be moving back in a couple of years though, so I'm looking forward to keeping torts again.

Welcome to the forum. So where will you be moving back to?

 

[tartagon]

Welcome to the forum. So where will you be moving back to?

Back to the UK but haven't decided on where yet (I'll move to wherever I find work in). I used to live in London though.