Conventional Wisdom, Or Saying That “Is-Dumb”? (9 Examples)  

When we perceive something we initially determine it to be true. After processing the perception we may later determine that it was inaccurate. Because we are able to pick up on the perceived object to begin with, it makes it “true” in the sense that we are able to have some kind of interaction with it, but not necessarily true in the sense of accuracy. Upon second inspection, we may find what we thought was a fox was actually an interestingly shaped log. For this same reason we tend to initially believe whatever we read or even hear. The text is on the page, the sound is audible, but the information may not be accurate.

Perhaps it is also for this reason that people are willing to pass on trite conventional "wisdoms" as if they are somehow true. They have heard the phrase many times but for some reason they have never stopped to re-inspect it and evaluate it's accuracy. Instead of analyzing the saying, people just continue to pass it on as if it has some kind of value. 

They call it “conventional wisdom” but is it really that, or is it just a saying that “is dumb”?

Let’s explore some examples and offer some alternative sage. 

“Sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire” *

Really? Ever try it? How did it go? Did it put the fire out or just make it bigger? Adding fire to fire is a good way to increase damage. You’ve probably seen a person blast fireballs of vituperation at another, and you’ve probably seen the person on the receiving end spit fire back, but you probably haven’t seen the one who sparked the battle get effectively snuffed out. These dragons most likely raised flames of insults, escalating the severity of the situation until something finally resulted in disengagement. If the initiator did back down when they realized their target might have been a real threat it’s very likely that they turned the fire inward, seething with a discontent and malice that would transmute the explosive outward expression of aggression into a more clandestine passive aggressiveness. 

You’ve probably also seen a different scenario where the fire breathing Charizard was met with a calm water blasting Blastoise. The fire was neither fed nor added to, but rather responded (instead of reacted) to with a substance capable of countering the substance of attack. Things may have gotten a bit wet with empathy, uncomfortable emotions, awkward vulnerability and the like, but the damage was most likely minimized and the destructive fire reduced to a healthy ember of emotional vitality instead of a raging forest fire.

Fight fire with fire? How about Know The Antidote For The Poison.

“Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”

Except for obvious situations where it doesn’t. Like getting maimed. Suffering a permanent loss of function that weakens you— doesn’t sound like getting stronger to me! Growth and development requires challenge. Think resistance training. You always need something to work against in order to make progress. Without some sort of stressor, there is nothing to provide the stimulus that results in an increase in strength of some sort. If one can effectively overcome a challenge they will derive benefit in an increased sense of capacity. Suffering a failure or loss is valuable in the information and feedback it provides us, but it tends to leave us with some degree of injury we need to recover from before we can consider rising to the challenge again. If we recover properly, we might be stronger than before, but not necessarily.

It’s valuable to learn to discern the nature of different challenges; what we stand to gain from them, what is required to receive that gain, what the risk is, and how we can manage that risk. Sometimes an injury incurred can result in a gained sense of strength in resilient individuals. Foolishly thinking that any injury will automatically make you stronger will inevitably result in a poor outcome. Even those who have managed to gain a strength of personality despite suffering some impairment that weakened them have had to make efforts to overcome the challenges of such cards dealt to them.

Every Injury Presents An Opportunity. Injury only makes you stronger if you manage to find the strength and wisdom to overcome it, or at least cope with it. Nonetheless, it is an opportunity to reach deeper into the waters of our psychological reservoir and find out what we are really capable of when given a powerful enough stimulus. Such a strong stimulus is sometimes necessary to gain strength that we wouldn’t otherwise seek under ordinary circumstances. 

"You get what you pay for”

Unless your a thief! Then you get what other people paid for. 

The fallacy of this saying is that it implies that any trade made is going to somehow be balanced or equal in terms of value. In reality the value placed on things is always fluctuating and it’s impossible to have any trade be objectively equal. While we may want to match both sides of a trade as evenly as possible, there will always be a number of circumstances that will cause imbalances to surface. Sometimes we will be on the upside, other times the downside. Coping with this fluctuation is just part of life. If you truly think you “get what you pay for” you will miss out on some great deals. There's lots of exorbitant ornaments made of cheap plastic and plenty of discount diamonds on dusty garage sale tables. As they say “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. That’s actually a good saying. We all place different values on things, so how could value ever be objective? And not only that but prices change and so value is clearly not consistent. 

Since value is neither objective nor consistent it’s difficult to evenly match both sides of an exchange with precision. The best we can do is have acceptance and learn to create balance over a series of trades. If you discover the deeper value of things you will be able to offset the bad deals with the good ones. Learn The Ways Value Fluctuates And You Will See The Path To Gains. Instead of being obsessed with always getting the best deal, focus on creating a flow of value in your life that is sustainable and feels good to you. 

“Don’t judge a book by its cover”

So then how exactly are we supposed to know if we want to read it? Part of life is encountering new situations and making decisions on how to respond to them based on limited information. Every situation has its “cover” which presents a basic overview of the possible content and quality on the pages that lie beneath. There is no avoiding the fact that we will encounter the cover before the content, and we must decide whether we want to continue to the depths below the surface or pass it over. Whether or not a cover is accurate is another matter. Why the cover may or may not be accurate is a great question. We all have some degree of awareness of the “covers” we present, the importance of them, and the impact they can have. People want to “make a good first impression” so they shape their presentation based on their intentions, and covers are not always accurate as a result. Covers do give us valuable insight into what the content creator wants to present to us and why that might be. 

Understanding the nature of surface appearances is valuable in assisting good decisions. The problem isn’t the possible in-congruency between the cover and content, i.e. an ugly cover for a beautifully written book, but rather the lack of awareness that this could happen. If we can see the cover for what it is— a basic outline briefly describing the nature of the content to be introduced— we can use it to judge whether the next step might be worth it or not. No one bases a final judgement based on cover. If we continue it will become increasingly clear as to the helpfulness of the cover. Instead of simply ignoring the cover, it would be more valuable to See The Surface, Seek The Depth, Question The Degree Of Congruency Between The Cover And Content. Look at the cover, open the book, see if it matches, proceed from there. If you meet someone and they seem really nice, try to get under the surface and determine if they actually are a nice person or just presenting themselves in such a way as part of some hidden agenda. Then judge them with no mercy. 

“When it rains, it pours”

Except when it mists, sprinkles, drizzles, or just rains lightly but doesn’t pour. Even before the world got color and was black and white, we still had shades of grey. Life is not made up of extremes to the exclusion of any form of mildness. Sometimes things are so-so. Black and white thinking is not healthy or functional. If we always see things as either completely or completely not, yes or no, on or off, etc. then we will fail to adapt to situations successfully. Being able to accurately judge the momentum of something is a valuable skill in assisting the decision process, and life is full of decisions. If it’s only raining lightly, we might decide to go outside, but if it’s pouring rain then we might decide to stay inside. If we always assume it’s going to pour when it rains then we will miss out on a lot of good opportunities. 

One problem with black and white thinking is that it eliminates the various variables of life, the shades of grey. We end up narrowing our perception; limiting our thinking and doing, becoming rigid, missing out, and stunting our growth. The more we recognize the different shades of grey, the more we are able to make adjustments that result in more effective living. Accurately gauging our environment enables higher functioning through harmonious synchronization. The Zeitgeist Has A Momentum, Learn It's Current And Adapt To It. When we categorize the world around us with greater precision we can make adjustments in such a way that improves our effectiveness. Successfully adapting to conditions is key to achievement. 

“Don’t bite the hand that feeds”

What if tastes better than the crappy food it feeds you?? What if your a cannibal?! 

They say “don’t piss in the wind”

Push harder! 

They say “they’re are no dumb questions”

Are there dumb questions?

They say “don’t shit where you sleep”

Have you ever slept on shit? Soft, warm, conforms to your contours. Not so bad if you can get over the odor. 

Anyway…

The value of a saying lies not in its reproduction, but in it’s accuracy and deeper wisdom. When we accept sayings as being true without stopping to evaluate the accuracy and usefulness of it we burden ourselves with faulty principles which will lead us to act in error. For the programmer who writes code incorrectly the consequence is a program that doesn’t work, for the fool who lives by foolish phrases the consequence is clumsily stumbling through a life filled with failure. Engaging in re-inspection and introspection of material presented will facilitate a smooth and skillful hike through a more successful and satisfying life.

Thank you for reading.

*Note:

I will confess, I did learn of something called “back-burning” which could somewhat accurately be described as fighting fire with fire. I say somewhat because it’s a more indirect method than what one might assume. Back-burning makes use of controlled fire to create a buffer around an out of control fire in order to deplete the fuel source and prevent the fire from spreading. So in essence it’s not really fighting fire with fire directly but rather using a smaller controlled fire to out-compete the larger fire for resources, thus starving it. So if you ever find yourself in a situation where you think “should I fight fire with fire?” It may be wise to consider if you would be able to successful out-compete the other “fire” for resources, because if your plan is to use a flame thrower on a raging conflagration then victory will not be yours.