What IS “common sense” anyway?

2:17pm Wednesday
Saint Paul

How “common” is “common sense?”

First, let’s define it. Wikipedia says,

Common sense is ‘knowledge, judgement, and taste which is more or less universal and which is held more or less without reflection or argument.'”

So, it’s knowledge that is mostly universal, and mostly believed without questioning it.

So I ask you, is the following Einstein quote common sense?

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.”

How about this?

“A bat and a ball cost $40. The bat costs $10 more than the ball. How much does the bat cost?”

Think about these two for a minute before continuing…

Ok?

Ok.

Ok?

Ok.

In the first case it turns out…

We do do things, over and over again, and expect different results.

You, me, all of us, all the time.

And we encourage it.

In fact, the best among us do it the most.

It’s called practice.

Now, people love to quote Einstein.

It works to mock and shut down others. But they’re no Einstein.

In the second case, most people take the difference (40-10) and say the bat costs $30.

Daniel Kahneman, in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, identified this heuristic, this fast, “shortcut” thinking.

We use these types of shortcuts all the time to save mental energy. But they’re often wrong.

If the bat costs $30 and it’s $10 more than the ball, then the ball must cost $20. And 20+30 is 50, not 40.

Scott Adams, author of the Dilbert comic strip, has been telling us for years on his Coffee livestream, that common sense isn’t as common as you might think.

We all grow up surrounded by information and advice we shape into our own “common sense.”

But that doesn’t make it common. Or sensical.

So to study this, Penn University has come up with an online quiz of “common sense” ideas.

It asks if you agree, or disagree, with a number of questions, and how you believe others think about these ideas. There are a few questions like the baseball/bat one above, and some “what are they feeling” questions about photographs of eyes.

It’s quick to take this quiz, like 10 minutes or less.

I took it this morning and scored 53% similar in my “common sense” beliefs, compared with others who have taken the quiz.

And I scored 100% correct on how I thought others might answer.

Which, as a marketer, is cool to know that I understand people.

Even if we don’t agree on common sense.

Take the quiz at this link and write me back with your scores, won’t you?

https://commonsense.seas.upenn.edu/statements

Enjoy your beautiful day,

Jeffrey

Posted on Categories Opinion

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