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You're Smarter Than They Make You Feel: How the Experts Intimidate Us and What We Can Do About It

For anyone who has sought help from a doctor, lawyer, teacher, auto mechanic, government official, or other expert and felt stupid or powerless in the process. Drawing on a wealth of anecdotes and psychological research, Caplan shows that we don't have to feel this way. She points out that main techniques experts of all kinds use to intimidate people and discusses why they do that. She explains why we so often blame ourselves rather than seeing where the true sources of our frustration lie. She shows us how this understanding can empower us and shows how we can recognize the techniques, employ helpful counterstrategies, and increase our chances of eliciting the information or action we want.