“Beware the chauffeur dressed as a scientist”
Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, is on a speaking tour through Germany, the year is 1918. He is accompanied by his faithful chauffeur and as they arrive at his next engagement the chauffeur asks if he may give the speech. He has heard them so many times at this point, he is confident in his ability to fool the crowd. Planck obliges, donning the chauffeur suit and sitting front row to watch the presentation. As the chauffeur, dressed in Planck’s suit, wraps up his lecture, a particularly detailed and difficult question is launched from the crowd. The chauffeur calmy responds:
“Well, I’m surprised that in an advanced city like Munich, I get such an elementary question. I’m going to ask my chauffeur to reply.”
There are a lot of chauffeurs out there who have heard a lot of speeches, and can repeat them verbatim, sounding very professional. But they have not done the work. They have not experienced it. If the tough question ever comes, they would be lost.
That is the difference between “Planck Knowledge” and “Chauffer Knowledge”. One is earned. Lived. It is knowledge from action, understanding the issue inside and out. The other is superficial. Like a parrot. A nice parlor trick, but with nothing of substance. Those bearing “Chauffer Knowledge” can and often do seem very convincing. They drape themselves in the costume of the professional, they use a convincing repertoire of terms and speak with lots of confidence. But, if you were to peel back even the first layer of the onion, and see what they had really accomplished, their lack of “Planck Knowledge” would be evident.
Social media has made fake gurus bearing chauffeur knowledge prevalent. This lack of depth also appears in our politicians and media personalities. They speak with complete confidence and authority on topics they have no real-world knowledge of.