Breaking with accepted facts

January 10, 2023 by Paul McGowan

Five hundred years ago, most of the world's experts clung to the facts of a flat Earth, despite the fact that we've shown the planet to be round from as far back as 2,000 years prior to that. *The Greek philosopher Pythagoras was the first to come up with the concept of a spherical Earth back in the 6th century BCE, based on his observations of the moon during a lunar eclipse. He noticed that the shadow cast by the Earth on the moon was always round, no matter what part of the planet was facing the moon. Experts and authorities are really good at holding the line. Their job is to steer us in the accepted direction. Rarely does an expert veer away from accepted standards and beliefs. If they did, they'd be called something else. Imagine the turmoil caused by those that dared challenge the experts. They locked Galileo up for life. They ignored and often ridiculed Ignaz Semmelweis as he campaigned for doctors to wash their hands to save lives. And stereo? Imagine the turmoil and opposition from the experts when manufacturers wanted to replace all the mono electronics and add yet another speaker to a system that already worked great. We find safety and comfort in the experts. We find innovation and new directions from the outliers.