Thing is, people are barely competent themselves yet still have various degrees of power over some lives - children, neighbors, elderly relatives, pedestrians...
The way to modulate this used to be customs, traditions and passing on of knowledge via inter-generational living. It works fine if a given individual does not have to re-invent the whole of civilisation on their own, and there is no reason they should need to.
This has been lost to a certain degree, which (among others) explains the rise of The Expert. The failure modes are worse though, because incentives are mis-aligned.
This has been lost to a certain degree, which (among others) explains the rise of The Expert. The failure modes are worse though, because incentives are mis-aligned.