So, do we assume by someone's self proclamation that they have a high degree of skill in a specific subject area? or do we look for quantifiable evidence that they know what they are talking about?

Here's an example. We have financial advisers calling us all the time to provide advice for our employees or to get our company setup with a retirement program. Our first question to any potential financial adviser is, “Great…please fax a copy of your last 6 retirement account statements to us as well as your birth date.” And that question is usually followed up with, “Uhm. Why?” to which we respond, “Why shouldn't we verify that you actually know what you are doing and can do a better job than we can on our own?”

That filters out pretty much everyone that calls…I have to say, 1 person followed through and sent us what we asked for and we did end up hiring their firm.

Ultimately, your decisions are still your decisions. Don't abdicate them…

Oh, I don't think mentorship should feel like you're handing your brain over to anybody. More of a give-and-take with a great mentor, I've found.

I'm not talking about the stigma of the word so much as the issue I have with people perceiving something as expert advice and putting their own best sense away in order to acknowledge it. Scary stuff.

Yes, various levels for certain.

Disqus picks up a copy of the comment. There's still one placed on the actual site so that if something happens to Disqus, my site will revert to the original comment style. I'm still working on my custom comments so Disqus will have to do for now.

Haha! Cheery face. We'll see. =)

I am totally with you on this one about experts. I've never seen any research like what you mentioned but I used to say “It's like I hand my brain over to this guy.” whenever I was being “mentored”.

Seriously – it's true.

All the best!

Fair enough, obviously you can't be an expert in everything, but perhaps the answer lies in being expert in one thing and having various levels of expertise in others?

RE. comments, I don't like the fact that DISQUS controls your comments, inasmuch as they take ownership. So, if DISQUS goes down, all your comments go down with them (from what I gather). I've always been disappointed in their spam filtering as well.

So, personally, I've stuck with WordPress comments and a couple of plug-ins to add video and audio comment capability along with social media comments as well. Works fine so far.

Your cheery face definitely lends itself to more video posts, although don't give up on the written word completely

tweetmeme_url = ”;tweetmeme_source = ‘ariherzog’;
Happy Saturday!
Following-up on my desire to change my usage patterns on Twitter and in blogs, I’d like to share with you 10 Twitter users whose blogs I’ve read…

I'll head over and check out your video. Looking forward to it!