- Care
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- Nov 07, 2020
Conventional Wisdom Quotes
On seeing past what you expect to see.
These conventional wisdom quotes challenge the habit of only noticing what you already expect, a theme worth pairing with Careful attention.
- Last Updated on Aug 02, 2026
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
Just look at what is right in front of you. People don't do that. They see what they expect to see, what they want to see, what conventional wisdom tells them to see. They only hear the music and not the lyrics of human events.
- Politics
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- Nov 07, 2020
Community organizing is all about building grassroots support. It's about identifying the people around you with whom you can create a common, passionate cause. And it's about ignoring the conventional wisdom of company politics and instead playing the game by very different rules.
- Attributed
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- Nov 07, 2020
The so-called oligarchs have always had less influence than conventional wisdom attributed to them.
- How
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm particularly interested in black swan events: unprecedented surprises that destroy the conventional wisdom about how the world works.
- Person
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- Nov 07, 2020
What I want is to have people's notion of adulthood no longer be so defined by being a parent. There is some kind of conventional wisdom that you're not really a mature person until you become a parent.
- More
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm not a money manager, but I can tell you what the conventional wisdom is. The younger you are, the more risk you can take on.
- Happy
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- Nov 07, 2020
I know conventional wisdom has always been to go to Europe, and I did that early on, and I tried it, but I realised pretty quickly if I wasn't playing, nothing else mattered - I wasn't going to be happy.
- Day
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- Nov 07, 2020
The censors have always had a field day with James Joyce, specifically with 'Ulysses,' but also with his other writings. The conventional wisdom is that this is because of sexually explicit passages (and there certainly are those). I have always thought that what the critics hated and feared about Joyce is his cry for human freedom.
- Long
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- Nov 07, 2020
Instant, soluble coffee has long been the unspeakable wasteland of the coffee business. Conventional wisdom would be that no premium brand should go near it. But Howard Schultz's vision from day one has been to bring quality coffee to the mass market.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
The conventional wisdom with David Mamet is, you do not change a word. And that agrees with me. If you want to change any of David's words, it's like wanting to change the iambic pentameter in Shakespeare - you should do something else.
- Political
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- Nov 07, 2020
What's different now is that while political leaders used to give talking points to talk radio, now talk-radio hosts are giving talking points to political leaders. It's all part of the suffocating spin cycle we're in. In media, politics and publishing, the conventional wisdom is to play to this base.
- Lose
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- Nov 07, 2020
The conventional wisdom is that authors get only one chance in this world. If your first novel doesn't sell, publishers and bookstores lose interest, and your career stalls, barring an act of God or Oprah.
- Only
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- Nov 07, 2020
It's probably conventional wisdom now that you bring openness of markets only after the market has developed to a certain level.
- Great
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- Nov 07, 2020
The conventional wisdom is that people come to the United States, and immigration is so great, and they say, 'America, what a great country.' And a lot of that is true.
- More
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- Nov 07, 2020