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Policy Issues: Don't Forget That Expertise is Only a Means to an End

MAYBE OBI-WAN was right. Once you start down the path to the Dark Side, it will forever rule your destiny. This seems to be true--at least if you go by my experience in seminar teaching. Clearly many insurance folks--once normal,

By Chris Amrhein | Updated on February 26, 2007

MAYBE OBI-WAN was right. Once you start down the path to the Dark Side, it will forever rule your destiny. This seems to be true–at least if you go by my experience in seminar teaching. Clearly many insurance folks–once normal, open-minded human beings–have succumbed to our industry’s Dark Side. They believe the one with the most technical knowledge wins. Just as Anakin was seduced by the lure of secret knowledge, which he saw as the path to saving Padme and ruling the universe, we attend our secret meetings, convinced we’ll save our careers and rule the insurance universe, if only we come to understand the deepest coverage-form mysteries. (For those who think I exaggerate with the “secret meetings,” why are our IDs checked at the door? Heaven forbid that consumers should slip into the sacred temples and learn the path to righteousness for themselves!)

While there’s nothing wrong with the search for knowledge, there’s a great difference between knowing and applying. I have no doubt that, on hearing of his beloved wife’s death, young Darth Vader would have agreed with American poet and philosopher Bob Seger: “Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.”

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