Common Sense: common, make sense & wrong!

I had a good chat with a close friend of mine. We was talking about lots of shitty stuff that we don’t usually do. Among them was the common sense. After a while discussing, we both came to a same conclusion that: most of the so-called “common sense” are surprisingly wrong! In other words, most of those routine “principles” we apply in daily lives are unfortunately just fallacies.

Here is our own definition of common sense: Common sense are those which make sense, are very common and basically wrong!

Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.” — Albert Einstein

The first two characteristics are straightforward. Because they sound right, “make sense” and are pretty easy to understand, they’re very common. But why are they intriguingly wrong? Well, it’s a well-known fact that the poor (& the middle class) is far more than the rich; the fat (& the skinny) is far more than the fit; the sad is great deal more than the happy? And you know something, they – the majority, interestingly share a common trait: they’re using & following common sense, which the minority don’t.

To illustrate the point, let’s take a look at some of the most popular “common sense” that are believed and applied by many folks:

  • We need to sleep earlier (as much as) in order to wake up earlier (to compensate each other)
  • We need to go to gym everyday, doing 10-20 sets of 100 to 200 repetitions of ab cruches and sit ups in order to get 6-pack abs
  • We need to skip meals and eat less in order to lose weight.
  • We need to get lots of money in order to become rich.
    Here comes another interesting myth among the guys:
  • We need to be tall, handsome & have lots of money and such to date sexy, beautiful, long legged girls.

They all seem logical & legitimate right? Alright, let me tell you the truths:

  • Have you had a long 10-14 hours sleep, then waking up & still feeling tired and exhausted? Truth be told, it’s not really the number of hours you sleep but the quality of your sleep that matter!
  • Have you followed that strict schedule & exercise? Do you get 6-pack abs? If not, go & have a good diet instead (yet again the term “good diet” is really ambiguous and confused)!
  • You know what? If you follow that diet, eventually you’ll gain weight instead!
  • Refer to my old post “Money won’t make you rich”.
  • Have you ever seen pretty gorgeous gals hang out with some relatively short & “ugly”, & “homeless” guys? And this is not rarely at all. Looking for my coming post, “How to date every girl you like”  for the answers.

They are all actually very interesting & controversial topics, which I’d like to go further one by one in the near future.

Dr Jim Taylor in his post also about “common sense” says: perhaps the biggest problem with common sense is that it falls prey to the clear limits of personal experience. In fact, common sense is often used by people who don’t have the real knowledge, expertise, or direct experience to actually make sound judgements. If we know something very well, do we call them common sense? Apparently no, we call them facts. Further, what we believe to be true, have been told is true or even our own personal experience alone are obviously not adequate to draw reliable conclusions.

In short, the little wisdom that we learn after the discussion is simply to stop listening to and make judgement based solely on the so-called “common sense” from now!

Monday, April 23, 2012 around 2am
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 around 2pm
Posted in Time Management. Tagged If you like it, show some

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