Conventional Wisdom Is Just Plain Dumb

In 1958 economist John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “conventional wisdom” in his book “The Affluent Society.” He was describing expectations commonly ascribed to an omniscient “public sentiment.”

But what is conventional wisdom exactly? Who is this convention that decides what is or is not wise? And more importantly, why does it really matter to you or me?

A quick Google search turns up everything from Wikipedia's description to a quiz on the IQ of your conventional wisdom. Are you serious!? There's a quiz for that?

The biggest problem I have with conventional wisdom is that it too often supports the status quo. Take for example just a few of the major technological advances of the 20th century: airplanes, integrated circuits, space travel, and the internet. All of these breakthroughs in science began as a simple idea in the mind of a visionary.

The ironic part is that most of these visionaries were deemed crazy in their day and age. Edison, Wright Brothers, Einstein, Kennedy, and many others were challenged by the antagonist that is conventional wisdom.

In the early 1900s Horace Rackham, Henry Ford's lawyer, received a bit of this "wisdom" from the president of Michigan Savings Bank: "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty a fad." Needless to say, Mr. Rackham ignored the advice and invested $5000 in Ford stock, later selling it for $12.5 million.

In fact, here are a plethora of missed predictions I found from what many would consider wise sources in their day and age.

Let the record show if you have a novel idea, visionary concept, or some belief that none of your peers share, I guarantee you will be faced with opposition. People will do their best to inject a sense of realism or conventional wisdom into your bright idea.

After all, the brick walls are there for a reason. They exist to separate the status quo from the truly passionate few. You have to decide which camp you want to be in: one that accepts public sentiment or someone that looks it in the eyes and discovers that there's a better way of doing things.