Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

by Rory Sutherland

Until 1948, the Wright brothers’ Flyer was displayed not in the Smithsonian, but in the Science Museum in London. This might seem strange, but for years after the bicycle shop owners from Ohio had flown their manned heavier-than-air device on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the US Government refused to acknowledge their achievement, maintaining that a government-sponsored programme had actually been first.fn3 In 1847, when Ignaz Semmelweis decisively proved that hand-washing by doctors would cut the incidence of puerperal fever, a condition that could be fatal during childbirth, he was spurned. All too often, what matters is not whether an idea is true or effective, but whether it fits with the preconceptions of a dominant cabal.fn4