Maybe the rest of you already knew this one?
Ultracrepidarianism: the act of believing that your (real) expertise in one area makes you an expert in other (unrelated) fields.
also
Ultracrepidarian: a person committing this blunder.
How is it possible that I didn’t know that word until now? Talk about a useful word and concept!
We should have a shorter, easier-to-pronounce word for this, the better to point at someone and say, “You’re stumbling into ultracrepidarianism right now, Bob. Cut it out.”
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I did not know that word, and when I saw it I expected its meaning to be related to ultra-decrepit.
The phenomenon however is quite well known!
And one of the reasons you can find so many examples of scientists who are vocal advocates for some fake ‘science’, weird cures, ghosts, and other crackpot ideas – they are just as vulnerable to being conned and bamboozled, but think they are too clever and knowledgeable to fall for such things. So once they’ve been convinced, they can’t admit they might be wrong.
An observation as old as Plato’s Apology of Socrates.
It’s a new one on me, too.
I love it!
A very useful word, indeed!
More useful still, this made me aware of the “Grandiloquent word of the day”, complete with Victorian era sketches.
Lethelogica is another useful word. So is… it’s at the tip of my tongue… drat.
Astonishingly, I had reason to use this word less than 24 hours later, when someons linked this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7H5kFGEyUw