Challenging convention does not mean becoming a loose cannon and doing your own thing. It means questioning why things are the way they are, digging into why we do things the way we do them. What’s stopping us from doing things a better way?
I’ve always felt that one of the worst reasons for maintaining a rule, practice, or tradition is “because we’ve always done it that way.” I see this reason used most often in organized religion, corporate bureaucracies, and the government. And if that is the best reason for maintaining the status quo, the practice should probably be scrapped altogether.
A great illustration of my point is the way our society looks at the Dow Jones Industrial Average. By nearly all measures, the DJIA is a terrible indicator of our country’s economic condition. * Yet why does the media report it on an hourly basis like it’s some sort of prophetic gospel? Simple—we’ve always done it that way.
* Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/03/12/174139347/episode-443-dont-believe-the-hype
I’ve always felt that one of the worst reasons for maintaining a rule, practice, or tradition is “because we’ve always done it that way.” I see this reason used most often in organized religion, corporate bureaucracies, and the government. And if that is the best reason for maintaining the status quo, the practice should probably be scrapped altogether.
A great illustration of my point is the way our society looks at the Dow Jones Industrial Average. By nearly all measures, the DJIA is a terrible indicator of our country’s economic condition. * Yet why does the media report it on an hourly basis like it’s some sort of prophetic gospel? Simple—we’ve always done it that way.
* Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/03/12/174139347/episode-443-dont-believe-the-hype