I must admit, I tend to agree with the prevailing reactions. Long experience in any field tends to bring about a profound humility in the face of extreme degrees of complexities and subject involvedness. It is only others who say this of a person - usually without knowing the problematics of calling them that. That said, some are freed by their very position in an org. to command an influence - whether technical, or commercial. It is the confusion of the two, which leads to simplifications and conflation. Expertism is about perception of others - or, worse still, self - leading down the slippery slope of self-overestimation .. Better to adopt the attitude of lets-fix-it-by-pooling-resources, be they experience of information. That is what works well in teams. Experts are for outsiders, not within the technical field.