[mbesto]

If everyone is failing to become experts in things, it means that the value of the expert goes up. This is derived from the fact that the value of an expert is relative to the number of non-experts.

In consulting this is a huge win for experts, since my industry is littered with people who could largely be considered incompetent. So I don't see this as being a lost art.

Plus, is expertise considered an art? IMO it's more a science or a craft.

[bane]

>In consulting this is a huge win for experts, since my industry is littered with people who could largely be considered incompetent.

The danger of course is that the entire industry could start to be considered poorly, mean less overall business, and less demand for actual experts.

It's in an industry's long-term self interests to improve the quality of their output (quality meaning whatever feeds the highest demand for that industry's product).

[csomar]

Exactly wrong. Imagine there wasn't a good number of experts in JavaScript/HTML5 (my field of expertise); there wouldn't be HTML5 BoilerPlate, Modernizer, Respond, Require.js and the handful of books I read. I couldn't reach the level where I am today.

[mbesto]

Sorry, I think you missed my point.

I'm not disagreeing that these type of experts exist. The JS/HTML5 field is also littered with incompetence as well. I get the feeling that the OP is trying to say that we culturally don't advocate these type of people anymore and thus it's a "lost art". I disagree. And for every hundred incompetent people, there is one writing a new boilerplate or book. My point is that this one person doesn't exist without the other hundred. It's unfeasible to suggest that all 100 should be experts and that there was a time when this was true.

...oh God, now we're getting philosophical...