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TechnographCommon senselessness
By Nat Hillard, The Stanford Daily, Stanford University (U-Wire)
Posted: 6/2/08 Section: Opinion Columns
You hear it all the time. "Stanford students may be book smart, but they don't have any common sense." This is an especially powerful claim to me because, well, I will freely admit, I am a Stanford student, and I also happen to lack common sense.
I can never really get an answer, though, when I ask what not having common sense means. Common sense is a nebulous term, associating many disparate ideas under its collective umbrella. Regardless, it seems we seem to lack whatever definition you choose.
Seeking a complete definition, although it seems contrary to the nature of common sense to find it in a book, I looked it up in the dictionary and obtained the following: a sound and prudent sense of things common to humanity.
But what does this mean? Sound and prudent? A sense of things? Common to humanity? Says who? What humanity?
Maybe a more informative approach to defining common sense is to present for you the times which others have scolded me for lacking it. From these three examples, maybe we can devise a better working definition:
1.) I recently attempted to order 800 hotdogs for a barbecue of 400 people. It is "common sense" that 800 hotdogs are entirely too much for this variety of gathering. Add to that, not only are 400 people not going to eat 800 hotdogs, but I would not be able to purchase 800 hotdogs from Safeway, which I was trying to do.
2.) I slept next to a radiator on a cold night the other day. I woke up with a burn across my back. It is "common sense" that radiators burn skin.
3.) I tried to argue that leaving out a bag of candy on your porch for Halloween would be fine. But it's just "common sense" that kids aren't going to just take one.
Anything involving natural phenomena, bodily responses and social phenomena that I should have been aware of, I will admit fall rightfully under "common sense." These truths are, in many respects, inherent. Based on the collective experiences of mankind, they are known to avoid hurt and other maladies.
I can never really get an answer, though, when I ask what not having common sense means. Common sense is a nebulous term, associating many disparate ideas under its collective umbrella. Regardless, it seems we seem to lack whatever definition you choose.
Seeking a complete definition, although it seems contrary to the nature of common sense to find it in a book, I looked it up in the dictionary and obtained the following: a sound and prudent sense of things common to humanity.
But what does this mean? Sound and prudent? A sense of things? Common to humanity? Says who? What humanity?
Maybe a more informative approach to defining common sense is to present for you the times which others have scolded me for lacking it. From these three examples, maybe we can devise a better working definition:
1.) I recently attempted to order 800 hotdogs for a barbecue of 400 people. It is "common sense" that 800 hotdogs are entirely too much for this variety of gathering. Add to that, not only are 400 people not going to eat 800 hotdogs, but I would not be able to purchase 800 hotdogs from Safeway, which I was trying to do.
2.) I slept next to a radiator on a cold night the other day. I woke up with a burn across my back. It is "common sense" that radiators burn skin.
3.) I tried to argue that leaving out a bag of candy on your porch for Halloween would be fine. But it's just "common sense" that kids aren't going to just take one.
Anything involving natural phenomena, bodily responses and social phenomena that I should have been aware of, I will admit fall rightfully under "common sense." These truths are, in many respects, inherent. Based on the collective experiences of mankind, they are known to avoid hurt and other maladies.
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Dough Boy
posted 6/02/08 @ 10:14 AM CST
"I am proud to lack common sense", ah, spoken like true Stanford Indian.
For many years I had to work with and socialize with many Stanford Indians. (Continued…)
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