A Dime a Dozen for Smart People

Walter Isaacson, professor of History at Tulane University and CEO of the Aspen Institute, said one day: “Smart people are a dime a dozen. What matters is the ability to think different… to think out of the box.” I don’t really believe that smart people are as abundant as Isaacson makes it seem. However, I do agree that it is even more extraordinary to find someone who dares to step out of the standard and take risks with new projects and ideas that have never been tried before. That’s definitely the best way to never become a dime a dozen.

It’s important to clarify why you shouldn’t want to be considered a dime a dozen. It’s a phrase that tends to confuse. If we call “a dime a dozen” to any product on sale it can sometimes be a good thing. This is because tit is cheap and accessible to everyone. Why, then, is it a negative phrase if it refers to people? To clarify this it is important to know first where this famous idiom comes from.

A dozen peaches for only a Dime

In 1796 the American Exchange System introduced the ten-cent dollar coin, which was called “Dime”. At that time there was more agricultural production and less population. Thus the dollar was “worth” much more than it is worth now. That is, you could buy more goods and pay for more services with smaller amounts of money.

As soon as the use of the new currency was regulated, merchants began to take it into account when they created their advertising strategies. Soon it became common that, when you went to the market, you might hear in every corner: “Peaches, a dime, a dozen!”. Or also: “Eggs, a dime, a dozen!” And sure also: “Apples, a dime a dozen!”.

On the one hand this meant a wonderful deal for any buyer. By paying just a Dime, you took home a dozen of any of the food that was on offer. On the other hand it was evident that the merchants only wanted to sell quickly, even at low cost, those foods that had been harvested in piles, before they were spoilt.

As you may have noticed, at the time, the meaning of the phrase at first was purely literal. It remained so for at least a century. It wasn’t until the 1930s that a journalist from The Northern Miner newspaper used the phrase “a dime a dozen fighters”. This referred to certain professional boxers who seemed to him to be more of the same. After this, the phrase expanded into popular jargon. Before long, everything that lacked originality was at risk of being called a dime a dozen.

Living your best expression 

(avoiding being another peach in the pile)

It may be very good that you get to buy twelve peaches for the price of a dime. However it is seldom positive to compare you to those peaches, harvested in piles and with the minimum (today almost insignificant) value of a dime.

You should, instead, strive every day to be better and more independent. You should not be carried away by what everyone else does. Instead add value to yourself with extraordinary knowledge, activities and skills. This way instead of being a dime a dozen you get to be the very opposite: One in a million! But that’s a different idiom. I’ll tell you about it another time.