Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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How do you go about evaluating the competence of someone in a field that you yourself don't know?
One thing I've noticed about my city is that all of the best Asian restaurants have reviews more in the 4.2-4.6 range on Google. Every Asian restaurant that I've been to in the 4.7-4.9 range has been consistently mediocre. This still holds true even accounting for higher variance with lower total number of reviews. This is likely because the majority of reviewers have preferences near the median American palate, which means that Americanized Asian food is often rated higher. Most Americans would find actual Japanese food a bit bland, actual Sichuan food too spicy, etc. I've seen people give negative reviews to hotpot restaurants because they thought the natural numbing sensation of mala flavor was giving them an allergic reaction. I've seen a Vietnamese restaurant with multiple non-Vietnamese confidently exhorting the "authenticity" while several reviewer with a Vietnamese name commented how the food was "barely Vietnamese". (I'd be interested to know if this trend holds in the reverse, but I've never gone to European/American restaurants in Asia because I'm mainly US based, so why would I waste money and satiety like that)
Anyways, returning to the main point: Most reviewers don't know anything and don't realize they don't know anything. But with restaurants, I can just go there and try it for myself. At worst I'm out 30 dollars and I know to go elsewhere next time. How do I know my mechanic/doctor/accountant/dentist/etc. aren't making basic mistakes or misses? If I can't trust public reviews, is there even anything I can do?
In the case of online restaurant reviews I just look at the names of the reviewers and use those by people of whatever ethnicity's cuisine it is to judge authenticity and those by people with white surnames to judge their customer service; you can also try out the 3.5 star rule instead.
As far as other topics goes, a little bit of background goes a long way (the Pareto principle strikes again). Simply familiarizing yourself with the basic vocabulary of a field makes a potential swindlers' job much harder, as does paying attention to their behavior e.g. are they willing to explain things or are they obfuscating? Diversifying your friend group career-wise is also a good idea; I remember the first time I was in a room with a bunch of medical students and residents and they began discussing which hospitals in town they did not want to be sent to in an emergency because the doctors there were incompetent and I realized I should have been asking them about such things sooner.
That guy has some good points but I'd argue Japan is an outlier. Japanese service on the whole is amazing and I'm spoiled for anywhere else. This is tempered by the general assumption that service in restaurants abroad is shit, so I am not sure about their reviews. Japanese people (in general!) are not going to rank anywhere at the top or the bottom.
Probably he's more accurate about continental Asia, I don't know. Then again if you find actual Japanese people in a Japanese restaurant abroad you're batting 1000. Japanese are notoriously picky about sushi, rice, ramen, etc. served outside Japan.
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