“There’s the idea that the goal of science is consensus,” said Professor Carrion. “The model they put forward was that we didn’t need consensus.” She noted that the women she surveyed often used singular rather than plural pronouns. “It was ‘she should do her own research,’ said Professor Carrion, rather than us having to do ours. Unlike some critical health movements in the past, this was an individualistic undertaking.
Anti-vaccine rhetoric is DYOR in a pure anti-expert form. Medicine is a highly qualified field that deals with matters of life or death and, as practiced, expects a lot of trust from patients. For example, if a medical expert warns of the dangers of “doing your own research” on vaccines, that’s either preaching to the converts or demanding trust where it’s already been lost.
One of the enticing aspects of cryptocurrencies, which are an alternative to traditional financial institutions, is that expertise is available to anyone who wants to claim it. There are people who have become rich, people who know a lot about blockchains and people who believe in the liberating power of digital currencies. There has been some recent institutional interest. But none have been around for very long, which makes the idea of ’exploring’ your path to prosperity more credible.
Earlier this year, Nathan Ballantyne and David Dunning, in a New York Times guest essay on DYOR and drug discovery, cited research suggesting that people new to fields, like some experts, are “vulnerable to hubris.” They warn that newbies “can quickly become unreasonably confident after only a small amount of exposure to the subject,” a phenomenon known as the “beginner’s bubble.”
Expand your cryptocurrency vocabulary
Cryptocurrency trading, unlike drugs, can represent DYOR in pure form no– expert form. Pretty much everyone operates in a beginner’s bubble, whether they’re concerned about it or not, they bet with and against each other in hopes of making money.
Just DYOR
In crypto, DYOR’s applications are diverse and contradictory, serious and ironic, sometimes within the same discussion. Breathless investment spots for new coins are punctuated by “NFA/DYOR” (no financial advice), or admonitions not to invest more than you can afford to lose, which many people clearly ignore; stories of getting rich are preceded by DYOR; requests for advice on which coins to keep are answered with DYOR. It is the siren song of crypto investments.
