ABSTRACT
There is an often told story illustrating the importance of expertise (it's probably entirely fabricated, but nonetheless it illustrates the point quite well). It goes like this: A homeowner had a problem with a squeaky floor—specifically, there was one, relatively small spot that seemed to defy any repair attempts. The owner of the house retained a long succession of craftsmen, but in spite of what seemed like a simple and a very contained problem coupled with multiple repair efforts, the floor kept on squeaking. Undeterred by repeated failures, the homeowner persisted in his efforts to fix the squeaking floor. And surely enough, eventually yet another craftsman came along and following a careful examination of the potential causes, hammered a handful of carefully placed nails and the floor stopped squeaking! The initial elation of the owner of the house to finally get the squeak fixed turned into dismay upon the receipt of the craftsman's bill of $1,020. He demanded an explanation and the breakdown of the total charge, following which he received an itemized bill which read as follows: https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
$20:
Nailing squeaky floor boards
$1,000:
Knowing where to nail
