I had to double check to make sure this wasn't my comment because I'm getting amazing levels of deja vu right now. Everybody's winging it, nobody knows what they're doing, and the higher you climb the chain the more terrifying this fact becomes.

Le Carré said this in the interview about his life (The Pigeon Tunnel):

“At a certain age, you want the answer. You want the rolled up parchment in the inmost room that tells you who runs your lives and why. The trouble is that by then, you’re the very people who know best that the inmost room is bare.”

It is terrifying that people are just winging it, especially those who wield so much power and control over other people's lives.

On the other hand, it reminds me of that Steve Jobs quote about the whole world being built by people who are no smarter than you and me. It's humbling and encouraging, that we ourselves may participate in the perpetual (re)making of the world.

> Everybody's winging it, nobody knows what they're doing

I’ve seen this comment a lot in recent years and I think there’s a lot of nuance here that is unappreciated.

When taken literally, it is used as a weapon of anti-intellectualism e.g. the doctors don’t know what they are doing when it comes to vaccines.

What it actually should mean is that the experts know there’s only a small slice about the universe/society that we understand, and thus proposal represents the best of our knowledge. It cannot guarantee success. But by god, it’s a lot better of an attempt than the opinion of some guy off the street

For me, it comes from the confidence that while I don't know the outcomes, I do have the ability to handle any of the possible outcome.

I'm so glad we're having this conversation. Early in my career I kept waiting for that moment when I would feel like I really knew what was going on... and the last several years I keep feeling like a fraud. I've been at it for two decades, but I'm afraid eventually people will figure it out and then how will I earn any money?