Common Conventional Wisdom




This week, go against the grain.

Common Conventional Wisdom

Conventional wisdom is a generally accepted belief. A prime example of conventional wisdom is, “never judge a book by its cover.” If you do, it will be a let down when you read it for the first time, your mind has already been set so you are in for disappointment. Be it a paperback or hardcover, never judge it by the picture on the cover or the small amount of print that is on the cover or the back binding of the book. Conventional wisdom is usually written in stone, man, time or the environment does not affect it, it is static, it stays the same.

A prime, passing example of the conventional wisdom is peeing into the wind. If circumstances, ‘like a tour bus going past’ causes you to change your stance or the direction you were aiming. You will automatically go against the conventional wisdom without thinking about the consequences. Sure enough, the wind blows it back on your shoes.

The same conventional wisdom goes for spitting into the wind. You try to be polite if you are walking with someone so you turn your head, just a wee bit and try to do a half way spit. That is your big mistake, you cut down your volume and velocity. There will always be some fine mist that drifts back and gets on your glasses, or on your face if you don’t wear glasses.

There have been many instances throughout history when man’s ingenuity has created new inventions that has changed the conventional wisdom in some cases. The technology for spreading manure did not get headlines like a man walking on the moon. For centuries man cleaned manure from the barn with a fork or shovel, he put it onto a wagon or a wheelbarrow. In the case of the wheelbarrow all he had to do was push it outside and dump it in a pile. If he pitched it onto a wagon and he wanted to fertilize his crops he had to pull the wagon out to the field with his horses or tractor, then he had to use his fork again ‘double work’ to unload the manure and scatter it around on the ground.

After the Industrial Revolution modern machinery and modern equipment were the order of the day, man invented a manure spreader. All he had to do was pitch the manure on the spreader, pull it out to the field with his horses or tractor. That fancy machine, that was so shiny when new, shredded the manure and a cloud of manure flew out the back, high into the air. After using a pitchforks for centuries this was real progress, care had to be used turning around, the wind could blow a cloud of manure down on top of the driver.

People sat in outhouses for years reading the Sears or Wards catalogs prior to Charmin, the index pages did not have glossy ink, the closest thing to Charmin, they went first. The only indoor toilets were in the movies. The conventional wisdom, for some reason, found people happy and content with farm life.

I always thought the conventional wisdom was solid, like a rock, unshakeable, then I read the following article! I now wonder if peeing or spitting into the wind is the only conventional wisdom we can actually count on.

Conventional wisdom often dead wrong

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