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Senol ASAN

Head of Marketing & Sales - D.R.E.A.M. Division, BCR SA

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How common is common-sense?

All of you heard about "KISS!". I mean concept not band. I mean "Keep It Simple, Stupid!" and one of the advices to keep it simple is do it as common-sense is telling you the simplest way can solve it.
How easy is to use common-sense? How about cognitive biases? Is it so simple to define common-sense? What do you think?

Topics: Commonsense common sense; normality simplicity social behavior
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  • Carlin Covey

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    Aug 12 2011: There seems to be a disagreement among the respondents to this question as to whether "common sense" is common (meaning frequent) or uncommon. I think part of the disagreement stems from the fact that the respondents do not have a common (meaning shared) sense of the phrase "common sense". I think the respondents who believe common sense to be frequent are using the meaning "most-frequent perception/action", but those who believe common sense to be infrequent are using the meaning "rational perception/action". It often seems to be the case that the most frequent perception or action is not the most rational perception or action. For instance, many (perhaps most) people believe in one or more of the following: ghosts, astrology, chi, heaven, telepathy, or fortune telling. But (in my opinion) those are not the most rational beliefs because they are not supported by objective evidence.
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    lynn eschbach 30+

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    Jul 30 2011: When the government stops putting up signs like 'DON'T WALK HERE WHEN THERE IS FLOODING', perhaps we'll be able to once again hone our common sense skills.
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    Jimmy Strobl 30+

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    TED Translator
    Jul 30 2011: Common-sense is the most common way of perceiving things, so it is very common indeed!
    Many people that view themselves as smarter/wiser then others tend to think that their thoughts are superior and that most fail to use (their view on) common-sense when thinking. Most peoples ideas of their own common-sense being superior comes from the thought that their gut-feeling is in most cases correct when in fact this is rarely the case.
    This Talk might give you some insight into this.... http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html

    • Carlin Covey

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      Aug 12 2011: I agree that many people mistake their gut feelings for proof of correctness. But I disagree that common sense is necessarily the most common way of perceiving things. As an example, let's take the phrase "common sense". Your usage in the phrase "Common-sense is the most common way of perceiving things..." implies that common sense is determined by plurality vote. That is, common sense is based upon the perception of the plurality of perceivers. But the word "common" can also mean "shared". So "common sense" may instead mean a sense (or perception) that is shared. Using this meaning, if two people share a perception then they have a common sense of some aspect of the world, regardless of how many other people also have the same perception.
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    Rafi Amin 20+

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    Jul 30 2011: I believe everybody has common sense, someone can use it & some can not

  • Arne Noordegraaf

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    Jul 30 2011: Common sense to one could also be a different experience for someone else.
    For example when your with a friend, you are going to get 2 bottles of beer.

    He only bought one when he got back.
    You think huh you were going to get two.

    While he could think I bought one and got one in the car from yesterday.

    Person A or B has information the other doesn't have gives a good chance to trigger the other to think where's his/her common sense?!

    So how can we know when someone uses his common sense or not, without being able to fully experience his reality, his thought patterns.
    Apart from this there is ofcourse a number of people who lack common sense in the way we experience it.
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    Salim Solaiman 50+

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    Jul 30 2011: "Common sense is a sense which is very uncommon"

    "KISS= Keep it Short & Simple" to me
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    Tim blackburn 30+

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    Jul 29 2011: can common sense exsist in a world with so many lawyers?
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    Mireille Chéry

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    Jul 29 2011: Really rare ! Sometime, I wonder and say to myself "What in the world this person is doing?", does he or she doesn't have common sense ? You don't need a PHD to be respectful, say you sorry etc.

    Yes, common sense is a rare commodity and I'm sure we can avoid so many problem in our society, if more people would use THEIR common sense !
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