How "Taleb's Surgeon" redefines what expertise look like

The American novelist Fannie Hurst once said that “A woman still has to be twice as good as a man in order to get half as far.” And, certainly, when she said it back in the 1940s, it was likely not far from the truth.

The point Hurst was making is that when you have to defy expectations, you have to work that much harder. When you want to succeed in a profession, you have to not only be good at that profession but also look the part. You have to walk a certain way, talk a certain way, and work a certain way. Make small talk, maintain eye contact, give a firm handshake, and flash a toothy grin. As the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre put it, a job “is wholly one of ceremony. The public demands of us that we realize it as a ceremony.”

It’s true in maritime, it’s helpful to look and act the part.

“Wear the right costume and the part plays itself” is a phase I often use in reference to people.

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This is the idea behind “Taleb’s Surgeon”:

Taleb’s Surgeon is the idea that if you are presented with two equal candidates, choose the one who has gotten there without the aid of conventional expectations. Choose the uncharismatic one. Choose the disheveled one. Choose the one who bucks every expectation and stereotype you can imagine. They’re there not just because they’re good, but because they had to work harder to be seen as good.

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