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About this quote

What does it mean?
Popular beliefs shield people from the effort of critical thought.
In plain terms
Conventional views protect us from having to think hard.
What can you take from it?
Popular opinion often stops us from thinking deeply.

Where it applies

  • education
  • decision making
  • social norms

Putting it to work

  • question norms
  • encourage debate
  • teach critical thinking

Questions to consider

  • Why do we prefer convention?
  • What costs us thinking effort?

Another view

Some conventions serve useful social stability functions.

More from John Kenneth Galbraith

  1. The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character building values of the privation of the poor.

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  2. The happiest time of anyone's life is just after the first divorce.

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  3. One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.

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