Yesterday, I saw a TikTok video of an “expert” claiming that blending up a banana changes its glycemic index. Blending and chewing a banana are the same thing; his claim was nonsense.

What bugs me is that I’ve seen this guy before, often on stage teaching. He is a self-proclaimed “expert.” I’ve also recently been following a TikTok account of a woman who used to work for Ted, you know, the talks given by experts. She talks about how some of the “experts” that give Ted talks are just as messed up as the rest of us and how many of them are more focused on developing their expert persona than on really finding and sharing good information. When someone is working hard to look like an expert, it is usually to cover the fact that they are not.

Instead of more experts in my life, I want more learners like my friend Mickey. Mickey blogs daily about what he is learning, not from a position of expert (though he is in many areas), but from a position of learner. Another example is Neil Degrasse Tyson; though he is very clearly an expert and profoundly intelligent, he speaks from a position of awe and wonder, the position of a lifelong learner.

In marketing, leadership, and life, I want to follow learners. The world is changing faster than it has in recorded history, so fast that every expert is only one for a moment at best. It’s better to be a learner, to grow, to explore, to find, and to share it with a sense of wonder.