The Wiles Way

The closest the term “Common Sense” comes to reality is within a *bailiwick (area of expertise).

Sense is the ability to ably apply learned information. Adding the term “common” onto sense implies that everyone should know a specified piece of information and apply it correctly. Considering the use of the term sense, it really doesn’t need anything tacked onto it to improve the term.

People who are professionals often have difficulty communicating concepts that they consider simple to people outside of their profession.

Example: Doctors and lawyers learn Latin as an integral part of their jobs, yet this does not mean that they communicate with each other any better than a doctor talking to a computer technician.

A clearer example might be a technician trying to explain computer terms to anyone that is not a technician. Example: A CAT5 cable is a more accurate but a less common term than a LAN cable. Regardless of this, even the people who understand that the LAN cable is the one that connects the computer to the Internet (via the modem and router), might not be able to identify that the term LAN means local area network or that it refers to a small home network or a network contained within a relatively small area (usually a single building).

Respectively, a MAN or metropolitan area network connects several buildings and a WAN or wide area network may incorporate a multitude of LANs and MANs. The Internet is the biggest public access WAN. (Now that we’re a little more edumacated, {as my mother would heartily joke}, back to the topic).

Perhaps you might think that there is a common core of information we are all taught in school… Yes, there is a certain amount of information that is supposed to be made available to anyone who attends the same school system. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean we all learn that information. Each teacher manages to impart their charge to educate people to a greater or lesser degree than is expected. Some students learn easier than others, some students retain information better than others, some students simply have more drive or ambition than others (and thus study harder), while some students don’t wait for the education to come to them. This last group of students has a thirst for knowledge that sends them scrambling and seeking for learning, rather than waiting in the classroom nice and patient for it. The point is, that we are all different and learn at different levels and get different things out of school, even with all these factors considered… I’m afraid that applying that knowledge is not the same as learning it, especially since the application of knowledge learned in school doesn’t tend to happen until we hit the job market.

The old saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” comes into play here.

Using the term “common sense” implies that everyone should come up with the same solution that the person making the statement has come to and implies that someone is lacking this particular “skill.”

This term is complete nonsense. I have never heard this term used to compliment anyone. It’s a term commonly used to imply someone is stupid and lacking in problem solving skills.

It’s a mean and heartless term that I do not recommend anyone use, ever. You can only alienate or hurt people by using it.