Throughout your life, there will be a wide variety of scenarios where other people are working for you- whether it be lawyers or financial advisors advising you, contractors working on your home/property, or independent contractors performing tasks for your business.

In these situations, the easiest path is simply to nod your head and defer to their judgment. After all, this is their job and they are the expert right? Quite simply, this is one of the most common fallacies I see in my daily life.

The fact is that most people are not good at their job. Even those that are good at their job do not necessarily care about your well being or your problems- they care about getting paid. While I can't speak for other fields, I can tell you that I've seen dozens of programmers who don't put comments anywhere near their code and they name their variables in an extremely vague way. I've seen lawyers who billed several hours for documents that have basic typographical errors and couldn't timely respond to discovery because their office was a mess. I'm sure everyone has seen examples of this in their own lives.

With this in mind, how should you respond accordingly?

Do your own thinking. Ask questions and follow the line of reasoning being presented to you. Can you sincerely say that what they're saying makes sense? If a lawyer claims that a particular code section of a local ordinance is controlling in your dispute, do you agree with his reading and interpretation of the code section? If a financial advisor is recommending a particular investment, do the numbers add up? Do you agree with his analysis concerning that particular sector or industry?

While I'm not advocating that you should be micromanaging the guy cooking your burger when you go out to eat, whenever it comes to a decision that will significantly impact your life you should be prepared to do your own thinking.

You will face the consequences. You will ultimately bear responsibility. Do not use your lack of knowledge as an excuse- you do not need to be an expert to do your own thinking.