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.
