Presence of an Expert

Our AC died, or has been showing signs of dying recently, and regardless of the finality of its death, our house hasn't been getting super cold... The condenser unit is from 1991, making it 34 years old at the time of this post...

The reason I'm writing though is that I was presented with a nice moment of reflection when the HVAC guy who came over to service our unit was talking to me about his diagnostic process. I wouldn't even try to regurgiate everything because I barely understood it, something about a valve being stuck and not allowing enough refrigerant through was the root cause of the issue...

Anyways, the root cause aside, this guy KNEW HVAC... it was clear. He understood every aspect of my AC and furnace within a few minutes of being in the basement. And that was a surreal moment, to realize I was in the presence of an absolute expert - just not in anything I could remotely understand.

The Rest

I don't know what more there is to reflect... I don't want to make something all about how I'm actually an expert in my own fields... because that's not always true... but it's also not never true...

So without arguing myself into oblivion I just want to throw out there that you should try to be an expert in what you do - and you might even encourage someone simply by being that expert... I think I'm often afraid I'm going to sound arrogant or something when explaining a concept in my field, and maybe it's dependent on the audience, but listening to this guy just effortlessly step through the mechanics of my air-con problem was an enjoyable experience.