Okay, maybe you can help me with something.<p>There&#x27;s this pattern I&#x27;ve noticed — chiefly, though not exclusively, amongst us nerds — where, when something doesn&#x27;t comport with our individual, <i>personal</i> experience, it&#x27;s immediately judged not merely to be wrong, but <i>obviously</i> wrong, and fatally flawed.<p>It&#x27;s like another, equally ugly face to the attitude, broadly held by the general population in the US, that &quot;My opinion is just as valid as your facts&quot;, except it&#x27;s &quot;My expertise trumps [1] anyone else&#x27;s equally valid, hard-earned, and applicable expertise!&quot;<p>I really don&#x27;t get it. And it&#x27;s a thing I still, after <i>years</i> of work on, struggle with in myself.<p>Any thoughts on why we, a subset of the population that tends to be defined by priding itself on its intelligence and rationality, can be so egregiously head-up-its-own-ass like this?<p>[1] Word choice very deliberate.