Hi Roy,
That sounds a good way - if you have the time.
In many, if not most, cases you don't have the luxury of taking the time to learn things yourself and you have to rely on other people's opinions/ lessons learned.
In fact in many cases you can save yourself quite a lot trouble by learning form other peoples mistakes
You need experiment yourself before you form an opinion - or at least before you voice an opinion. However I think it is perfectly valid to skip some stuff because the costs (or possible damage) from not going that way is too large at the current situation because at worst you may have spend who knows how many $$$ and hours on something that didn't give you an ROI (with the hope you didn't try that something new on a 'bet-the-farm' type of project..)
But what if you do have a life? Or a boss that actually wants to know the risks up front?
I think it comes from human behavior as quoted
"The greatest of all weaknesses is the fear of appearing weak." Jacques Bénigne Bossuet
Therefore it makes it not comfortable, easy or safe...
But it also depends on people time management skills which a lot of us are really bad at for true learning.
That is where your "what I am going to do about it?" plays.
Nice post, Roy.
@Arnon - yes of course you have to make decisions with imperfect knowledge, and often based on the opinions of others. But it may at least be worth asking those whose opinions you value whether they have tried more than the option they recommend. If not, you might weigh more heavily another opinion from someone with a wider knowledge base.
Roy, You have shown yourself to be an earnest man with far more integrity than those who would put you in the position to write something like this.