Honestly I think we're just becoming more aware of this way of thinking. It's certainly exacerbated it now that everyone has "an expert" in their pocket.
It's no different than conspiracy theorists. We saw a lot more with the rise in access to the internet. Not because they didn't put in work to find answers to their questions, but because they don't know how to properly evaluate things and because they think that if they're wrong then it's a (very) bad thing.
But the same thing happens with tons of topics, and it's way more socially acceptable. Look how everyone has strong opinions on topics like climate, rockets, nuclear, immigration, and all that. The problem isn't having opinions or thoughts, but the strength of them compared to the level of expertise. How many people think they're experts after a few YouTube videos or just reading the intro to the wiki page?
Your PM is no different. The only difference is the things they believed in, not the way they formed beliefs. But they still had strong feelings about something they didn't know much about. It became "their expert" vs "your expert" rather than "oh, thanks for letting me know". And that's the underlying problem. It's terrifying to see how common it is. But I think it also leads to a (partial) solution. At least a first step. But then again, domain experts typically have strong self doubt. It's a feature, not a bug, but I'm not sure how many people are willing to be comfortable with being uncomfortable
It's no different than conspiracy theorists. We saw a lot more with the rise in access to the internet. Not because they didn't put in work to find answers to their questions, but because they don't know how to properly evaluate things and because they think that if they're wrong then it's a (very) bad thing.
But the same thing happens with tons of topics, and it's way more socially acceptable. Look how everyone has strong opinions on topics like climate, rockets, nuclear, immigration, and all that. The problem isn't having opinions or thoughts, but the strength of them compared to the level of expertise. How many people think they're experts after a few YouTube videos or just reading the intro to the wiki page?
Your PM is no different. The only difference is the things they believed in, not the way they formed beliefs. But they still had strong feelings about something they didn't know much about. It became "their expert" vs "your expert" rather than "oh, thanks for letting me know". And that's the underlying problem. It's terrifying to see how common it is. But I think it also leads to a (partial) solution. At least a first step. But then again, domain experts typically have strong self doubt. It's a feature, not a bug, but I'm not sure how many people are willing to be comfortable with being uncomfortable