free_LUNCH

It is now almost trite to say ‘Common sense in not common‘. We all know this. Ironically though, everybody, including yours truly, strongly believes that he/she has that “common” sense.

Then what is this common sense. Why is this uncommon and why does everybody think they seem to possess it?

Symptom 1 : Curse of knowledge

Partly, I think it is to do with today’s world and the environment we live in. There is an abundance of knowledge everywhere. At the same time, we are forced to have a steep learning curve because of the nature of our profession. What this leads to is learning but not to understanding. What I mean is this – Because we have to assimilate so much in such a short duration, instead of experiencing or living the knowledge one step at a time we have decided to memorize and move ahead. Unless the knowledge is not experimented with we don’t develop that intuitive instinct that separates an expert from a generalist. Look at great painters, musicians, and architects. Each of them understands a brush, a guitar string, and a brick respectively. That is why they are able to innovate. They are able to derive something from them a common man does not see. Something obvious, yet hidden. Common sense.

Symptom 2: Challenge me!!!

There is another aspect which can be directly or otherwise derived from the first analysis. We have been fed on complexity – complex puzzles, complex exams, complex movies, complex workstyle, and so on. It seems that we are ingrained with the thought that what sounds simple is not that simple. With time, they turn out opposite. What was thought complex, was very simple. There is a story of a great mathematician who was giving one of the most difficult exams (in those days). He got stuck in a problem and was unable to solve it. Desperate, he started looking around the room and saw the most stupid guy in the class had completed the problem. Naturally, he felt both amazement and jealousy at the same time. After pondering for a few seconds he thought why not approach the problem simply. After all thats the best a stupid guy can do. Problem solved. We tend to see and approach a problem as if it has a twist, something hidden. But if we just take a step back and remove that thought from our mind, we will see that the problem was simple, easy, intuitive. Common sense.

Symptom 3: You know, I’m lazy.

Finally, there is a lack of discipline that forbade us from practicing common sense thus eroding it from our minds. When we hear a learned guru speak about how to conduct your life, don’t we say – Common sense, man. When we read about how to organize our time and work, don’t we say – that’s obvious, but can’t do. There are so many more examples. Following common sense forces us to come out of our comfort zone, makes us do things uncommon in our environment. We cringe from it. Hide behind an excuse. But don’t you think you will benefit immensely by following these many small baby easy steps diligently. Common sense.

DIY

Do an experiment and test my hypothesis. Approach day to day problems simply. Without branding it difficult, complex, one-of-a-kind. Act on it based on the first solution that comes to mind. Trust your instincts. Check the results. If what I feel is correct, you will see a sea change in your attitude towards problems, towards challenges, towards everyone else. Your “common sense” will come back to you. Common sense!!!!