Conventional wisdom

I am continually unsurprised to find that much of conventional wisdom fails to hold up under scrutiny and in the face of inconvenient facts.

Most people nowadays would recognize that the “eight glasses of water a day” mantra was completely arbitrary. The average adult probably needs, at least optimally, more than that. Not only did it fail as a rule of thumb, but it more widely missed the mark as a prescriptive tool. Height, weight, gender, diet and probably 50 or more other factors likely affect how much water you, as an individual, need. But for years, perhaps decades, eight glasses are what we all believed because it was said so often.

What else do you assume to be true because it is simply reiterated repeatedly? I could probably make a list a mile long, but not without making needless enemies. My point is that we buy into conventional wisdom all too often and in far too many aspects of our lives.

As my great grandpa used to say: “Sayin’ so don’t make it so…”

And I would add to that: “…and the more pervasive an idea, the more scrutiny it deserves.”