On expertise

The Wealth of Nations, by the Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith, is a great book. When you read it you can feel the scales fall from your eyes as Smith explains the power of the division of labour and of how self-interest can work in the general interest, indeed can produce a lot more human welfare and happiness than boatloads of people proclaiming to be altruistic ‘social justice warriors’ (to use the sort of jargon you’d hear today).