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Kevinburke comments on Recommended reading: George Orwell on knowledge from authority - Less Wrong
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Conventional wisdom is a good heuristic. We tend to focus on the cases where it was wrong (the Earth is flat, the Earth is the center of the universe) more so than when the CW is correct. It's great to question/reaffirm widely held beliefs but my attention is a precious resource.
Think about it: specialized communities spring up for times when the collective wisdom of humans is wrong, not when it's right.
It is conventional wisdom that the conventional wisdom in the Middle Ages was that the world was flat. Your conclusion is right for the wrong reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth