The Network of Experts

In business, an expert network is a business that connects companies seeking advice or information with resources or experts who can provide said advice.

A month ago, I took a blank sheet of paper and laid out topics I’m interested in. On this selection of sheets, I drew lines, limiting my space. Under each topic, I wrote several experts I look to when I need a mentor. Just like an expert network within a business, these experts are my resources when I’m confused, or I’m seeking a specific piece of information.

I know, ChatGPT can do that. But do you experience that human connection with an AI? Do you subconsciously replicate the tendencies and characteristics of these mentors through interacting with them that over time become a part of you?

A beauty of the modern age is I don’t personally know many of the people on this list, but they still help to drive me forward as virtual mentors, through my network of experts. Plus, even if I don't know many of my mentors personally, it's much more personal to learn from them than interacting with artificial intelligence.

A network of experts is a place to look to when we’re confused. Many books detail the usefulness of having mentors to look up to. We see aspects of their lives that we want for ourselves. More importantly, we learn from their experiences, learn from their mistakes, and in turn learn from our own.

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I’ll give some examples of topics and experts included below:

• Geopolitics – Peter Zeihan, Pippa Malmgren, Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics, Real Life Lore, Andrew Korybko, Phillips O’Brien.

• Financial Markets – 42Macro, Variant Perception, Amrita Roy.

• Writing – Dickie Bush.

• Energy - Decouple, Uranium Insider, Manhattan Contrarian, Doomberg, Anas Alhajji, Erik Townsend, Mark Nelson.

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This marks a small collection of mentors within my network of experts. Why not try to create one yourself? Once we’ve established this network of experts, we need to revisit it from time to time. It’s like when your favourite music artist brings out a new album. It could be a complete diversion away from the music they used to make. Different from the music that made you a fan. At this point, we still can appreciate the music from the past, but we accept they have moved away from the type of music we like. We can still be a fan and appreciate the past, but personally, we gain less from their new music because it's less aligned with us.

Mentors have their own lives, and at some point could divert away from areas that make them suitable mentors in our lives. We can appreciate the lessons and mistakes we garnered from their mentorship and reassess our network of experts.

Also, as the innovation and productivity cycles naturally grow, we, at some point, could outpace our mentors.

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What characteristics could indicate we need to reexamine our mentors?

• Independent Thinking

• Diverging Goals and Habits

• Differences in Expertise

• Innovative Thinking

• Leadership Styles

• Accomplishments

• Extent of Autonomy

So, go construct your own network of experts! But remain vigilant for any of the conditions above. It could indicate a diversion between you and your mentors.

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Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_network