Nearsighted people.

About forty years ago, maybe more, I was very discouraged by having to wear glasses with thick lenses. They weren't exactly Coke bottles, but pretty close. At the time I was going to a reputable Boston ophthalmologist. I remember asking him if it were possible to make thinner lenses with the same formula. I clearly recall his expression of ridicule at the time. He regarded the question as absolutely moronic saying something to the effect of, "Of course not. Lenses have to be a certain thickness to achieve the refraction necessary for each prescription." or something to that effect. I'm sure he later repeated my asinine question with a "Can you believe this?" attitude. Now here we are wearing far thinner lenses in our glasses or—even more amazing— throwaway contacts, proving that this respected doctor didn't know what he was talking about. I would say during my many decades I have met many similar people in a variety of professions who have made similarly idiotic set-in-cement comments and were proven wrong. I recall a director saying, "You never turn your back to the audience." Bullshit. Sometimes it's very effective. In advertising, I have been told endlessly to avoid negative headlines, most recently by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines who dreamed up the idiotic "Nation of Why Not" campaign. Some of the most successful campaigns have used a negative approach, "Where's the beef?" for example or "Don't leave home without it." Another major example of stupid advice is "Write about what you know". If all writers did that, we wouldn't have any science fiction. That point of this rant is what William Goldman said about Hollywood is pretty much true in every field; "Nobody knows anything". Lots of people reading this will object to how I ended that last sentence since the new "rule" is to put the period inside the quotes. I say screw that. The way I did it seems much more logical to me.