Uncommon Nonsense

The other day I posted a quote by Einstein on "common sense."

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
- Albert Einstein

It generated this reaction:

Loranna Lee Butterwick: Common sense is an actual power of inner sensation (as opposed to the external five senses) whereby the various objects of the external senses (color for sight, sound for hearing, etc) are united and judged.
~ Aristotle

And my reply:

Common sense is an oxymoron and is neither "common" nor logically coherent across case-by-case situations. I like to avoid it altogether. Uncommon nonsense is probably better.

To expand on this discussion, consider the two idiomatic English expressions:

1) "You can't judge a book by it's cover."
2) "The clothes make the man."

Consider the underlying meaning here and you may see a contradiction. What we can say is that first impressions matter, but they should not be the sole basis upon which we judge others.

Finally, I have observed, and I believe this resonates with most people, that once you have learned something new it seems obvious in hindsight. Moreover, you may begin to believe you were the odd one out and that everyone must know this. Not true and a dangerous assumption.

One of the traps I encounter, whether it is in front of a classroom or a boardroom, is not doing a level-set of the audience before launching into my talk. We all come from different places, regardless of how homogenous the group appears. We all hold different knowledges (as Peter Drucker puts it) and different attitudes and perspectives. So creating a safe space for people to feel free to ask questions is essential.

I do it this way: "There is a Zen saying that one should approach every situation with the beginner's mind." That is, just because you know something, take the attitude of learning instead and see how far that gets you. In my experience, the most successful people are not those who know the most, but who can learn faster than the competition.

But that's just common sense.