I personally think being a contrarian can push and develop knowledge better than conformity. Having said that, I am a fan of Graham's Model of disagreement and Hitchen's Razor (What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence). Sticking to these basic guidelines, it doesn't matter what's popular, just what can be supported with good evidence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(computer_programmer)#Graham.27s_hierarchy_of_disagreement
I "liked" it 'cause it sounded smart, but no clue what those theories are, LOL! Guess I better check out the link.
If anyone remembers Water Bug, a member who dropped out a few years ago. He always seemed to have a slightly different "take" on whatever the topic was. His arguments were based in scientific fact, just that he was often on the other side of the fence -- I sure do miss him, though. Anyway, he could come up with some odd outlooks -- not right or wrong, not bad or good, just different. But I'll bet there were a dozen or more times when his "out of the box" thinking lead me to look outside the box as well, and to realize that "just because it's always been done that way, doesn't mean it always has to continue being done that way" [as long as you have the desired outcome]. He was big into experimentation. If he had an idea, he would test it.....numerous different ways. And he often admitted that sometimes things just don't work the way you want them to in your head. But you learn by trying new things, new ideas........
