I’m interested in the words “instant omniscience,” which Calvin Trillin, a former editor for Time magazine, used in a New Yorker magazine article (March 20) entitled "Time Edit":
“There were some enjoyable aspects of being a floater. When I settled
into the desk chair of, say, the Education writer, someone who
presumably pored through the education quarterlies and lunched with
school reformers and kept abreast of the latest disagreements about how
best to teach reading, I could feel myself imbued with the
authoritative tone favored in those days at Time; I called that
‘instant omniscience'."
The expression “instant omniscience” made me think of the Japanese word, “学者バカ- -Gakushabaka," the literal translation of which is “scholar’s fool” or “expert’s ignorance.” A "scholar's fool" is ignorant of everything but his area of specialty (e.g., quantum physics, aeronautics, neurology–you name it).
The expression "instant omniscience" also triggered this question: What is the English equivalent of “学者バカ- scholar’s fool”? In other words, how do you characterize in two or three words the person who is an expert in one area but seemingly ignorant in all other areas?
Best Answer
For a “person who is an excellent expert on one particular thing but ignorant of everything other than that in two or three words”, you might go with idiot savant, which gets the meaning across but is somewhat extreme.