Nobody Likes A Know it All

At the outset of entering a new hobby, most of us are very enthusiastic, filled with excitement and great intentions. We want to learn as much as humanly possible about the new subject that captivates us. We’ll stay up late night after night, any time we get a chance during the day, scrolling and scrolling pages of search results in order to build and expand our knowledge base until we are reciting information in our sleep.
​
After weeks of research, we emerge a puffy faced, red eyed self-appointed “authority”...the “subject expert”...the “GURU” because we have close to one hundred hours of subject matter burned into our brains.

It’s funny how proficient we become after just watching videos and reading blogs.

In reality, we have no real practical knowledge of our new fascination but we get the euphoric delusion, even an air of arrogance, that we are the NEW thought leaders of whatever field we crashed landed into.

The next stage is becoming a fact snob, sharing random information with anybody that will listen to us, we talk to the guy sitting next us at the local tire & lube shop, the mail lady, the other parents watching our kid’s soccer practice. The best target is any captive audience prime for a brain dump. The tell tale sign is when we begin correcting people when they mention anything remotely vague about OUR subject matter.

I had a Guru moment years ago when I fell in love with a puppy named Danko and instantly wanted to become an expert K9 Owner, Handler and Breeder. I jumped into the information deep end with both feet and fueled my vision of grandeur with online pedigree charts, books, magazines and even signed up for an online obedience trainer course.

Fast forward 5 years, 15 dogs and many thousands of dollars later, That dream literally almost cost me my marriage and family. I still have 3 small family dogs but the whole dog business empire thing is a long afterthought.

The ideas and intention behind our new ventures are fast and true, but the firm reality of any quick success is a hard No. That's a main drawback to being a thinker, a visionary, pioneer...we have so many brilliant ideas, but no practical way to approach and execute them. Hey, isn't that somebody else’s job anyway?

​All those hours during the day and night searching articles and viewing videos has to account for something...right?
As we think,  "I must spread all this meaningless information to the masses!"

The confidence that is bred from our information overload is a tricky thing because it's only half of the equation.

​We run arounnd bursting from infinite amounts of facts and information. Combine this with one of many fervent online communities that share our knowledge-thirst and kaboom! We are launched into the land of Gurus...a place where...the entire population is quarantined away from any basic normal friendly conversation between friends.

It all reminds me of a phrase my dad always told me as a kid growing up, "Remember Son...nobody likes an Asshole or a Know-it-all!"

---