> Trusting the consensus of people trained in an area is always better That's what they said when Galileo Galilei was on trial for not trusting the "consensus"

> Trusting the consensus of people trained in an area is always better That's what they said when Galileo Galilei was on trial for not trusting the "consensus" about geocentric view of the world. To use a more recent example, that's what they said of Dr. Barry Marshall who discovered that it was Heliobacter Pylori, and not "stress" that's causing ulcers in the stomach. Dude was very nearly laughed out of his field, to the point where he had to take the unconventional step of infecting himself with h. pylori to prove the point, and then curing himself of it with antibiotics. In a politicized field especially, it can very easily cost one their scientific career if they "disagree with consensus" if one is less prominent than Dyson, whereas "agreeing with consensus" is strongly beneficial.