He has demonstrably lied about his education, lies about his family background and keeps getting caught making statements that sound plausible if you know a little about the field but nonsensical if you are an actual domain expert (e.g. nearly everything he said about software development re Twitter).
I think he's a good generalist because he (like many autistics) finds it easy to drill into domains he finds interesting and keep up with discussions at a fairly advanced level but when you do that it's important to be aware that having binged expert sources on a subject for a month straight doesn't make you an expert in the field the same way a conversational crash course over a weekend doesn't make you a fluent speaker in a new language even if you know how to order a pizza and get a general idea of what people say to you.
I've actually experienced this misattribution of expertise myself: just because I've read several Wikipedia articles and binged some video essays on a given subject I've had people assume I'm an expert when I tell them about it - except I know that my "expertise" would collapse as soon as I were to talk to an actual expert. I think this is why a lot of people suffer from imposter syndrome: because they're literally faking it by having a good generalist knowledge without realising most people in the field also lack sophisticated underpinnings.
I think he's a good generalist because he (like many autistics) finds it easy to drill into domains he finds interesting and keep up with discussions at a fairly advanced level but when you do that it's important to be aware that having binged expert sources on a subject for a month straight doesn't make you an expert in the field the same way a conversational crash course over a weekend doesn't make you a fluent speaker in a new language even if you know how to order a pizza and get a general idea of what people say to you.
I've actually experienced this misattribution of expertise myself: just because I've read several Wikipedia articles and binged some video essays on a given subject I've had people assume I'm an expert when I tell them about it - except I know that my "expertise" would collapse as soon as I were to talk to an actual expert. I think this is why a lot of people suffer from imposter syndrome: because they're literally faking it by having a good generalist knowledge without realising most people in the field also lack sophisticated underpinnings.
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