“Chess masters don't evaluate all the possible moves. They know how to discard 98 percent of the ones they could make and then focus on the best choice of the remaining lot. That's the way expertise works in other fields, too: Wise practitioners recognize familiar patterns and put their creativity, improvisation, and skill toward the marginal cases.”

American journalist, born 1968

John Frederick Dickerson is an American journalist and contributing writer at The Atlantic. He was born in 1968 and has worked in television news for much of his career, including at CBS News, where he became co-anchor of CBS Evening News in 2025 alongside Maurice DuBois. Dickerson is known for political reporting and analysis, with work that has moved between print and broadcast journalism. His writing and reporting often reflect the habits of a political correspondent, focusing on public life, current events, and the institutions that shape them.