Fauxpertise is fake expertise that a person thinks they have or pretends to have. It comes from the
assumption that because they are an expert in
one area, they must be an expert in
something else, when they clearly aren't.
Includes: fauxpertising, fauxpertised, fauxspert
Example:
For example, let's say someone you know really likes to play board games. We'll call him Ricky. He's as close to an expert board game player as you can imagine.
Another friend - Ruth - has an idea for a boardgame and she's been working to develop it and launch it for nearly a year. She's been thru over half a dozen major design revisions, has done direct market research, been to the major tradeshow for games, has over a thousand combined hours in game testing and has talked with a few distributors. She's personally invested over $100K in direct costs in creating her game. She's become extremely knowledgable.
Ruth has a refined V1 prototype and is
working on getting it manufactured and distributed.
You, Ricky and Ruth are at a party. Ruth is talking about where she is in her startup. Ricky has just learned about her game, has never played it and does not have
professional experience in the gaming industry - he likes to play boardgames and is very good at that.
After listening to Ruth talk about her progress for about 30 seconds Ricky states confidently "that's not a good idea - wholesale distributors won't carry women's games".
He knew a lot about
water skiing which was a
springboard for his fauxpertise in yacht
manufacturing.
He fauxpertised his way through seven failed startups.
He thinks that if he yells louder nobody will realize he's a fauxspert.
That entire company is built on fauxpertising.
