Quotes About Consensus

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who

In 1944, an experiment was conducted that should have conclusively proven that DNA was actually the carrier of the genetic code, but these results were resisted and largely ignored. Scientists had convinced themselves that DNA was too simple to be the conductor of the orchestra, and clung to this belief. Again, once consensus is reached, it isn't easily overcome,

In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is disagreement. The group is comfortable with this and shows no signs of having to avoid conflict or to keep everything on a plane of sweetness and light. Disagreements are not suppressed or overridden by premature group action. The reasons are carefully examined, and the group seeks to resolve them rather than to dominate the dissenter.

the group does not accept a simple majority as a proper basis for action.

The consensus remained that the good thing to do was to invite all migrants in. The bad thing was to suggest any limitations on their numbers. Or even the enforcement of laws already in place. As so often in the past the government weighed up the pros and cons of holding the line and decided not to hold it.

The 'wisdom of the crowds' is the most ridiculous statement I've heard in my life. Crowds are dumb.

Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.

the United States is founded on a set of ideas, but Americans have become so divided that they no longer agree, if they ever did, about what those ideas are, or were.

Align the team. Because employee behaviors collectively produce company results, you must understand, advocate for and communicate a clear direction across the company; get everyone singing off the same song sheet.

Subsequent history is written as if these normative positions were the product of social consensus rather than of conflict

People no longer wanted right or left—they wanted middle-of-the-road.

has unnerved that part of the population that prefers unity and homogeneity. Democracy itself has always been loud and raucous, but when its rules are followed, it eventually creates consensus. The modern debate does not. Instead, it inspires in some people the desire to forcibly silence the rest.

It's easier to believe something if someone else thinks the same thing.

it is not enough to cure the sick; you have to cure them with methods accepted by the community."18

A higher chance of failing is more tolerated on paths that don't rock the boat. After all, what's the go-to defense in a postmortem after we make a decision that doesn't work out? "I followed procedure," or "I stuck with the status quo," or "I made the consensus choice.

But I think it's very key that there's a plan for Haiti. And we have to begin to - as progressives and people who are concerned about Haiti and have been concerned about Haiti, we have to begin to build some sort of consensus, a movement around the Haiti that the Haitians envision.

Despite a certain amount of rhetoric, such as 'the second American Revolution,' there is a fair consensus about which events in the affairs of a people can rightly be called revolutions. It is also clear that such revolutions are proper objects of study for the historian.

It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.

I have learned that nothing gets readers so fired up as saying something everyone knows is true.

So much of this league is just about alignment. Who cares what you believe in, who cares what your culture is, can you get a group of people that are aligned?

Whoever stands for 'one China' will get our support. We can have talks with them, and our talks will cover anything.

Right action tends to be defined in terms of general individual rights and standards that have been critically examined and agreed upon by the whole society.