delight | In corollary to my complaining about work/office stuff ...

Today there's an all-day meeting with the EMR guys to make our software do more stuff that data people need it to do.

(Trip has been an excellent participant, because the conference room has a good sun spot.)

We are on a lunch break so I just had to come here and squeal and say people are listening to me. People who outrank me by several levels are listening to me. Everyone is listening to me. It's like somehow I inherited "health data expert" from my dad, then exceeded it (according to him I surpassed him even before he died but I don't buy it) and people I work with actually realize that.

And no one else has my level of expertise. And it's me. I'm the expert. I'm the second most important person in the room.

I'm kind of happy-vibrating. It's not even intimidating or overwhelming because to me it doesn't feel like I'm being asked much; it's just easy questions, easy strategizing, but to everyone else health data is like speaking ancient Sumerian. It's a rare experience that I actually feel confident in knowing things 100% when there are other people who don't know them. But to me it's things that seem like common sense, and I told this to my mom and she was like "that's because you actually do know your subfield really well. It seems easy and like common sense because you're actually an expert."

I am not used to this.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I AM SO GLAD THIS ENTRY MAKES ME HAPPY. :D :D :D :D

I AM PLEASED TO PROVIDE HAPPINESS. PEOPLE ARE PAYING ME TO TALK ABOUT SPECIAL INTEREST AND LETTING ME GIVE ORDERS?

\o/ BEST POSSIBILITY!

Hooray! That sounds awesome! You are awesome!

Thank you!

Congratulations, you!

*!!!* YOU'RE THE EXPERT

YOU'RE THE EXPERT!! I'M SO HAPPYYYYY

A lot of my expertise seems to be knowing the MORE expert people to ask but the basics are apparently only clear to me!

You know, this is actually a great deal more of what expertise consists of than I ever thought until I became an intermediate expert in certain things at a particular job. An awful lot of expertise comes down not to knowing things but knowing who knows things. (I knew specific things but I honestly learned them only after I learned who knew things, and the latter was mostly more useful than the former until the few other people who knew Those Things left the company.)

The modern internet has changed this less than you might expect, for all that it's made many more things more available to a wide population. In some ways, honestly, it has actually *intensified* the thing where expertise is not knowing specific details but knowing who knows those things!

That’s fantastic! It’s excellent to be in a context in which your expertise is not only needed but recognized. <3

It is very bizarre and I feel kind of unfortunate for the org that their best expert is a year out of grad school (I finished May 2018) but it's very satisfying being able to fill the role.

It’s November! You’re a year *and a half* out of school! And some people just have a real talent for their passions; you are clearly one of those people. I am excited for you. ^_^