I don't trust my friends for medical advice. Some of them trust me for plant advice, and they really probably shouldn't. I am very stove-piped.
We have two and a half generations of people right now most of whom think "I did the research" means "I did half as much reading as the average C student does for a term paper, and all of that reading was in Google."
And Alphabet fiddles while Google burns. This is going to end in chaos.
> "I did the research" means "I did half as much reading as the average C student does for a term paper
What's the alternative? No one who says that is saying they did original research, they're saying they searched around and got what they believe to be at least a consensus among the body of experts they trust.
Like I agree the problem sucks but I have no idea what a solution looks like. For fields someone is totally unfamiliar with they simultaneously don't have enough knowledge to evaluate the truth of a claim nor the knowledge to evaluate if someone is qualified and trustworthy enough to believe them. It's turtles all the way down -- especially because topics of any interest you can find as many experts as you care to of whatever qualification you demand making all sorts of contradictory claims.
We have two and a half generations of people right now most of whom think "I did the research" means "I did half as much reading as the average C student does for a term paper, and all of that reading was in Google."
And Alphabet fiddles while Google burns. This is going to end in chaos.