Fewer than 500 words...
On not accepting the status quo
The existing order of things is just that, and it's open to change. Here's a quick for instance. I just celebrated my 48th birthday and I've been tying my own shoes for about 45 of those years. So, imagine my surprise when I learned I've been doing it wrong! This video is Terry Moore recorded at a TED Talk (and certainly one of their lighter ones, watch some of the amazing others too):
The idea that I might have reached this age and been tying my shoes wrong all these years was too silly for me not to give this technique a try, and of course Mr. Moore's comments are exactly right. I no longer bother with the double knot I've always tied, my laces don't loosen during the day and it took me perhaps two days to revise my habits.
I'm a smart guy, so naturally this leaves me questioning basic knowledge I've been relying on and that's a good thing. For nearly 300 years starting about 300 BC the Library of Alexandria was the central repository for the collected wisdom of civilization. It was well-funded and collected, some say, more than 500,000 books (papyrus scrolls) and after 300 years of active collecting it was a remarkable collection.