Trusting the experts

I've seen way too many intellectuals criticize the average person for trusting the wrong people when making decisions, or for not "doing their own research" into a subject. Often, the subject is something the critic is familiar with. I posted this reply on Slashdot countering that point of view:

Information from experts in your life is how you make decisions on which video card to get, which new TV to get, which video game system to buy, which new game to get for it.
Nobody alive is an expert in all fields, and everyone has to put trust in others. That trust is sometimes misplaced, sometimes misplaced in authority, sometimes in lack of authority.
Blaming people for listening to 'other people' and not doing their own research is just stupid -- there's no possibility, and I mean _NONE_ that any human being can do the necessary research to make anything better than an educated guess in 90% of basic life situations.
Should you call a plumber or put baking soda and vinegar down your sink? Should you leave a cover on your AC unit in the winter or not? Should you have your carpet steam-cleaned or not?
Assuming unlimited money to pay for experts in each case, you still won't get all the right answers, and you'll have missed out on most of your life being paranoid.

Now I'm not "dissing" critical thinking here. I think most people could think a little harder about many things in their lives. That said, the vast majority of things you deal with on a day to day basis need to be done with very little thought or we'd waste away thinking about things instead of doing them.

You could possibly argue that we do too much in a day, and that we ought to slow down. You'd probably be right.