现代社会中，学者取得社会影响力的途径是成为专家。传统社会中往往更看重自以为无所不知的通人，或者所谓“有良心”的人。何为专家？“An expert is simply someone who should know more than an intelligent layman about the problem in hand. (p. 123)” 有价值的话要收钱才肯说，这是基本常识，但容易被人们忽略，特别是在传统社会中。“Being paid to do something is the basis of the distinction between an amateur and a professional, and professionals are commonly more skilled than amateurs. (p. 124)” 这也是我一贯的主张，利害远比是非重要。专家能看清楚利害，而人人都可以有自己的是非。“In complex matters of public policy one would think that knowledge was more germane than motive; the public can supply its own motives. Indeed one cannot pose as an an expert unless he is paid to be one: The respected professor won a coveted appointment at a good university; no one would listen to him if he were an unpaid volunteer from a lesser college. (p. 124)” 更不用说以哗众取宠为业的自媒体人，这是我的发挥。当然，Stigler对愚蠢有些缺乏想象力。

另一方面，专家也并非都很难当。关键是恰当界定个很小的研究领域。“… one can become an expert in a narrow field with astonishing rapidity. (p. 62)” “ … one becomes an expert simply by specializing sufficiently. (p, 63)” “One becomes the expert because no one else thinks it is worth sharing the expertise: Few wish to share a grape. (p. 63)” 在极限情况，专家就是所谓An expert knows everything about nothing. 这不是书中的话，是我在在其他地方读到的吐槽。

对专家的尊重和推崇是基于专业化的高效。“It is reasonable enough that the capacity to produce new knowledge should be prized most highly in the industry dedicated to the production of knowledge. It also seems reasonable to me that extreme specialization should be common in the industry. …Like all good principles, specialization is troublesome when carried to the limit. (p. 32)”当然，对此也有争议。“Specialization, however, has more foes than friends. The liberal education most colleges still strive to instill in students is one manifestation of the drive for broadly educated people, and the heroic stature assigned to the Renaissance man is another. (p. 32)”

专家还有项工作是到法庭作证。作者的经验也很有意思。“A cardinal rule of expert testimony is not to volunteer any answers. Anohter rule, for lawyers, I am told is: Don’t ask a question if you don’t know that the answer will be. Spontaneity is anathema to the legal process. (p. 132)”

斯蒂格勒谈大学—读Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist札记

斯蒂格勒谈学者—读Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist札记