The Logic and Magic of Expertise and Tradecraft

Behind his back, I call him a Peter Drucker. He’s the co-host of one of my favorite podcasts, 2Bobs. He’s also the author of six business books. His name is David C. Baker, and I could listen to him all day with his pearls of wisdom on accumulating and sharing expertise with others. David’s newest book is Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors. Even W-2 knowledge workers can gain insights from this book geared toward third-party experts.

Episode Highlights

1. Praise for David’s 2018 book, The Business of Expertise
2. An Emily Mills shoutout for the phenomenal images in Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors
3. Expert truths
4. David’s phases of expertise in his career
5. The ‘how’ is as important as the ‘what’
6. The balance between being t-shaped and i-shaped
7. On not caring too much
8. David’s $300k investment
9. To the client, “Can you give me a list of your recent advisors that I can call?”
10. Linguistic borrowing
11. The pilot/instructor analogy
12. Curiosity and lifelong learning
13. The other David that our David would like to interview

Books Mentioned

• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Ries and Trout
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• Books by Patrick O’Brian and Bernard Cornwall

Important Links

• David’s website
• 2Bobs podcast
• Amazon author page

Episode Parings