how does one become an 'expert' in their field?

really, how? i've been very curious about this lately since i've been working with quite a few 'experts' at work.  so, off to the web i went to see if there were any articles or posts on this question.

my search yielded a very good article from Matthew Moran on this topic.



basically, to be recognized as an expert in your field you have to be very good and also have some proof of your skill set be it an interview, published paper, or acedamia.

the expert title is a very nice title too; the pay increase you can gain from such a title is usually very significant.  i personally would like to add such a title to myself in the near future.  however, my problem would be, what am i an expert in?  really, is there a classification for my type of skillset and others like me?  we excel at circumventing normal systems of check on devices/software and/or the usuage of a device.  we always are passionate about the industry and follow it like a hawk.  i know i read over 50 news items each day via my google reader and like to comment on articles and voice my opinions.

can there be an expert on modding title?

i've been following modding (soft/hard) since the xbox days and have done quite a few of them and have been recognized for a few of my mods like my seamonkeyPACK for the PSP (just a set of precompiled emulators with custom icons and all v1.50 firmware ready) and my tutorials on xbox modding and evolution x dashboard setup.  over last 4 years, combined geocities and seamonkey4200.tech-recipes sites got prob over 1 million unique hits since the start (already have 160k this year w/o any content updates at all).

well, i guess to get my title in my work world, it probably would be an expert on operating systems.  i doubt i can count the number of OS's i've installed but i'd say its in the 20 range.  actually, lets take a walk down memory lane..

AIX 4.0
UNIX
Win95
Winnt 4.0
Win98(SE)
WinME
Win2K
WinXP Pro / MCE 2005 / Tablet / Home
WinServer2000
Ubuntu
OSX86
OS X Tiger (mac)
Classic Mac
Fedora on PS3
Live Bootable CDs/USB Drives (BartPE)
Mandrake
MS-DOS

whoa.. that felt like a flash back.. i still remember loading Win95 on my laptop with the 25 floppies.. HAHA! nowdays, i tote around an easy 1gb just in my phone alone, crazy how the times have changed.

hopefully that wasn't too boring for you readers. 

so is anyone here an expert?