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Jason George uses the examples of the stent and Ernst Haeckel’s biogenetic law to tackle the issue of “why bad practice persists even after it’s been proven incorrect” and how we can overcome common misbeliefs. 

Forget the lessons

For high schoolers studying biology the stakes for bad ideas may not be as high as they would be for a patient who unnecessarily undergoes a heart procedure, risking a complication that outweighs any potential benefit. But in both cases bad ideas continue to color one’s view of the world, and the consequences of seeing things wrongly leads down paths that constrain you.

Like skeuomorphs that stubbornly persist as reminders of a feature of the tangible environment that has long since ceased to be relevant, conventional wisdom guides and constrains decision making in a range of disciplines. Sometimes it channels it in directions that are flat wrong. Try three things to help break through this fog…

1. Blow up your mental model

2. Get as close to the source as you can

3. Incentivize a broader focus

Read the full article, When what you’ve learned holds you back, on Jason’s website.