Things I Know Something About

I got off a call today and thought, wow, I'm turning into someone who knows something about this topic.  It got me thinking about the things I know something about.  I decided to make a list.  My criteria for "knowing something about" is not expert status, but topics or situations where I think that if you selected 10 people at random, I'd trust myself and my own knowledge and expertise better than at least 9 of them.   The list, as it occurs to me right now, is below the fold:

* sailing
    doing it, teaching it, and generally understanding the world surrounding it
* writing
   doing it, evaluating it, editing it
* bankruptcy law
     how people get in trouble with money
     how people act when they're in trouble with money
     how lawyers approach money troubles
* lawyers and the legal profession
     how they think
     what they want
     how they do their work
     legal education, formal and informal
     tools and habits and culture
* insects (bet you didn't know this about me!)
     morphology
     behavior and quirks
* social technology
     blogs and blogging
     how people behave in chat rooms
     social networks, formal & informal (e.g. Friendster)
     online communities
     collaboration technology in theory and practice
     wikis & podcasting (barely)?
* events
     how to plan and pull off events (regattas, parties, conferences)
     how people act at events
     how to make people feel: playful, safe, excited, connected
* the marine industry
     sails and sailmaking
     specialty retail
     yacht sales
     boatyards
* start up businesses
     venture financing
     business structure
     business plans and common problems
* nonprofits
     loyalty, participation, and investment by members, employees, and board
     organizing volunteers
     strategic planning
* people
     how to listen well
     what people want from an interaction
     how to make friends
     how to find out about people quickly
     how to put people at ease
     how to build trust   
* music
     alt-country
     Austin, Texas music scene
     singer-songwriters      
* walking
     training
     distance walking
     dressing to be outside for long periods of time
* wind and weather
     sky and water and clouds and what they mean
* Casco Bay and the islands of the Maine coast
* Maine
     who's who, who you should meet or talk to about what you're into
     where to eat, drink, play
     secret fun places and people and buildings and groups

Things I bet I'd know more about than 7 out of 10 people chosen randomly

* books
   what's out there, how the reviews were, what else an author has written
* oriental rugs
* rock and roll music from the 1970s through 1990s
* outboard motors
* ecology of New England
* the Internet
* office technology
* dating and all of the attendant questions and false starts it entails
* presentations and public speaking
* Microsoft Office
* the blogs vs. journalism debate

Comments

[emma goldman]

Now I'm even more glad (a) I found you and (b) you posted this list, because I think I'm eventually going to want to start my own business, and I've yet to find anyone who really does know something about that. There's plenty of stuff on the web, of course, and I have the bad example of the company for which I work (which is instructive in its own way but which provides only limited bits of information), but now I know of someone for whose expertise I'd be willing to pay.