Why Expertise Does Not Transfer

Domain expertise is context-dependent for several reasons:

• Tacit knowledge — most expertise is unconscious pattern recognition built over years of experience and cannot be articulated or handed over
• Different feedback loops — each field has its own signals. Success in medicine does not predict success in business
• Overconfidence across domains — winning in one area creates a halo effect, leaving you exposed to the Dunning-Kruger trap in fields you have never studied

Recognizing the boundaries of your expertise is itself a form of expertise.