So much that people have told me didn’t matter at all has turned out to matter incredibly much over the years. These are all concerns that I’ve brought up in places and was either outright banned, dismissed, or laughed at for attempting to discuss:

1) Ownership of information — DRM, copyright, and related topics. Roundly told it was just a “nerd distraction” from the “real issues.” Turns out it will be an epoch-defining issue for this century.

2) Inequality and wealth consolidation. Was told by both Dems and Repubs during the late 90s and through the oughts that this was irrelevant, unchangeable, a “natural feature” of capitalism and most people didn’t care about it. Probably led to the election of Trump and more importantly worsening lives for millions.

3) More than a year before the election, noticed that Hillary Clinton was the most disliked major candidate ever (likely to be) nominated by the Democrats. Well, see above.

4) Was advocating focusing research on solar and renewables in the early 2000s. Was told that solar and renewables would never amount to anything, were technologically impossible, and were too expensive to ever use anywhere.

5) I’d long been worried about the fragility of the financial system. Was told that a meltdown of the stock markets and the financial system similar to the 1930s was completely impossible — we’d solved that. Then 2008 occurred.

There are many more reasons, but those five are some major reasons I don’t trust experts even if I do listen to them in an advisory capacity.

Too often, their input information is erroneous, their incentives skewed to pilfering your wallet, and their conclusions therefore tailored to doing just that.