The limits of conventional wisdom

In discussions you often hear things that fall into the category of “conventional wisdom” or best practice. I have realized over the last few years that I increasingly question such positions. This goes for a variety of topics: software engineering (which I consider my main competency), technology as a whole, management, career planning, strategy, etc.

Forced to come up with a really short description of conventional wisdom, it would be something like

A simplified version of the true matter.

This view is the result of comparing articles, presentations, etc. with my own understanding of the subject. The deeper you dig into a certain topic, the more details and nuances you become aware of. More importantly, you realize that many things that are phrased as universal truths are anything but universal. They depend on a certain context, instead.

Is this a "revolutionary" view? Of course not. But I still think that it's worth to write a few lines about it. Firstly, I like writing for the sake of it (no idea why). Secondly, I use writing to structure my thoughts. So literally every article ends up completely different to how it began. (For some background on writing I highly recommend this video with Larry McEnerney.)

While I am somewhat critical about conventional wisdom, there are definitely benefits as well. It is a good thing, in my view, to have a generally accepted starting point for discussion. Time is saved and the risk reduced for things to move completely into the wrong direction. Also, having common ground at the beginning of a discussion helps the group come together. Imagine how things would go overall, with adversarial position right from the start?

Now comes the "but". I have mentioned above that conventional wisdom and best practices are only valid in a certain context. Relatively many people seem to miss that part. This is the moment when things become dangerous. I have seen folks talk about something assertively, after having spent just a few hours with it. It is a bit like at university when after a 90 minutes lecture some people really think they now completely understand what normalization in the context of the relational data model means.

To rephrase: Conventional wisdom is usually the lowest common denominator, and that only for a specific context. If you understand this and take it as a starting point for a real discussion, that is fine. But never fool yourself and think you have truly understood the topic. At times I have the feeling that this is a somewhat unpopular position. A few people even seemed offended by the mere suggestion that something is more complex than they thought so far.

What makes this a problem is when you combine it with another conventional wisdom: “Any decision is better than no decision.” Really? I think, when taken to this extreme, it is not very clever. Of course, one should avoid what is called analysis paralysis and define a threshold for when a decision needs to be made. But all too often it is just an excuse to make a decision without having the slightest clue what its consequences are. Or to quote?Herodotus?(484-452 BC): “Quidquid agis prudenter agas et respice finem” – whatever you do, do it wisely and consider the end.

Back to the actual topic: Assuming that conventional wisdom comes into being roughly the same way for all subjects, this also means that you should stop elevating it for things you don’t know much about. Think of it as a news clip-version of something really complex. It is probably not completely wrong, but certainly an extremely limited version of the true matter. If you want to understand things, you need to dig deeper.

When looking at this from a strategic point of view, conventional wisdom in many cases means the same as commodity. If you are a product company (and that includes software) going for what everybody else does, will not help. Rather, you should spend some time thinking what you want to do really well. Believe me, it is not convincing when you interview four vendors and they all tell you more or less the same. All you know after such talks is that none of them really has a grasp of the business they are in.

Conventional wisdom will allow you to play it safe in terms of office politics, but not in terms of market success. Is that what you want?