Intelligence vs Good ole common sense

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Aderyn, Aug 27, 2006.

  1. Aderyn Registered Member

    Messages:
    15
    Intelligence and common sense don't necessarily go hand in hand. Which do you think is most important? For example I know a woman who is a member of mensa but still needs her mother to sort out her daily life and she's 34!

    Oh, and by intelligence, I mean "above average".
     
  2. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. phonetic stroking my banjo Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,157
    Common sense will get you by. You can function in every day life and use common sense to get where you want to be.

    I think it's a little bit like practical ability. You see extremely smart people who are amazing at what they do, but then they can't fix a leaking sink or plaster a wall.
     
  4. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. wsionynw Master Queef Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,309
    I might be wrong but isn't membership of MENSA based on what they find your IQ to be? I'm yet to be convinced of the merit of IQ tests, although no doubt they are an indication of intelligence to some degree, it is obviously not the final word.
     
  6. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Blackrain Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    210
    You're correct intelligence and common sense are 2 completely different things. That's why book wormy nerds have tough time geting laid. Because they lack the common sense to realize what a woman really wants. But could explain her biological exterior down to the last molocule.
     
  8. redarmy11 Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,658
    Streetsmarts beats booksmarts every time. Except possibly during the job application process.
     
  9. That's an interesting question. All rather depends on how you personally define the term Common Sense I should imagine...

    Personally I've always considered the notion of intellect by itself the flawing of many an otherwise highly bright individual. Allow the intellect to get the better of you and literally everything becomes rationalised, no matter how unpalatable or insane.

    I'd be plumbing for the common sense being the more important.
     
  10. leopold Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    17,455
  11. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    19,083
    Common sense is not so common.
     
  12. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    It depends on how successful and prosperous you want to be. Common sense will prevent you from driving on bald tires or taking a vacation in Somalia. But average or below-average intelligence will prevent you from getting a good education, which will limit your career opportunities.

    Obviously luck plays a huge part in life. A man whose IQ is no greater than his body temperature (in Fahrenheit) became President because he had the good fortune to be born into a family with influence in an important industry.

    Nor are intelligence and bloodlines the only accidents of birth that confer an advantage. Charisma, athletic ability and musical or other artistic talent have all brought wealth and fame to C students. People skills are probably as useful as intelligence, because those who have them can--through genuine friendship or ingenuous dishonesty--secure the help and advice of people with intelligence to manage their money, or simply con them into giving up some of their own.

    One problem with intelligence, and I'm sure I speak for many of us SciForums geeks, is that in childhood we see right through all the artifices of the socialization rituals. With the cooperation of adults who love precocious kids we get by on our brains and grow up lacking in social skills. Sometimes we're even excused from chores so we can spend more time on AP math, and we grow up with no clue about "sorting out our daily life."

    I know some Mensa members here in the DC region and it seems like they all went to private schools. They grew up very poorly socialized and, yes, a little weak in basic survival skills. The ones I knew back home in California all went to public schools. While at least 3/4 of them have a noticeable geek streak, they still managed to figure life out and become functional members of the community.
     
  13. perplexity Banned Banned

    Messages:
    1,179
    Neither matters without the sensitivity.

    As the saying goes: shit in > shit out.

    --- Ron.
     
  14. Aderyn Registered Member

    Messages:
    15
    Now which president are you thinking of Fraggelrock?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    :

    To get the balance right what would you suggest?
    Nurture the child's intelligence whilst young and hope they work out the social skills in later life.
    Or encourage social interaction/skills in the childhood years with more emphasis on academia during the teenage years.

    I'm not implying that these children are "held back" just not "pushed"
     
  15. The Devil Inside Banned Banned

    Messages:
    8,213
    i am filled with common sense, but happen to be as stupid as a bag full of hammers.
    i seem to do fairly well in life.
    *shrug*
     
  16. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    You don't have to make that trade. My wife used to work in one of those myriad storefront "tutoring academies" whose students were 100% the children of Asian-American families. They had both social and academic skills. They also participated in sports and many of them were accomplished musicians, dancers, etc.

    What was their secret? They didn't spend sixty hours a week goofing off--playing videogames, window-shopping in the mall, getting high, etc. They had plenty of fun with their friends and they didn't feel that they were being treated unfairly because they were raised that way. They understood that the right to goof off is one of the many rights you only earn after you become an adult.

    Interestingly enough, when these kids finally become adults, they don't feel a pressing need to spend sixty hours a week goofing off then either. Some of the stuff we take for granted as necessary for a comfortable, balanced life... well perhaps it really isn't.

    And I'm not talking about the draconian childhoods that their parents may have endured in the "old country," which we read about as still common over there. Not to mention the draconian adulthoods that drive so many of them into depression, suicide, and family dysfunction. The Asian-American community seems to have a good grasp on balance. We could learn a lot from them.
     
  17. perplexity Banned Banned

    Messages:
    1,179
    You might also learn a lot from Americans who had the ways, the means and the sense to escape from the US to set themselves up abroad.
    I have met a fair number of those in my time, with the general impression of a much more aware and intelligent lot, as compared to those they left behind on the other side of the pond.

    --- Ron.
     
  18. The Devil Inside Banned Banned

    Messages:
    8,213
    i am one of those folks...but i am retarded as hell.
     
  19. Ogmios Must. learn. to. punctuate! Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    230
    Ugh. What does common sense or intelligence (as opposed to former) mean? Or rather, how do you define it..?
    Common sense vs. Intelligence;

    a) In any and every circumstance try to figure out how to solve ANY proble, as opposed to trying to solve this here problem right in front of you. In this sense, common sense would alway lose the competition, but then again would eventually stock up, whereas intelligence would become specialized and would always waste time gathering information useful for solving the problem but useless in "life".

    I find myself often in these kind of competitions (as the Commoner), and always seem to lose. But then looking at the winner makes me kinda sad. I suppose this would be a question of how much effort you put in things in front of you. In this case being intelligent makes you seem diligent, but ultimately makes you look like a geek, who doesn't know what to do without someone telling him the specifics.

    b)broad definintion (of words or things) as opposed to high (or tight) definition of things. Kinda like the previous, but on another level, the definition of things affects how focused you can be in what you're doing and also in how widely you associate things together. Being intelligent would (in this case) make thinking fast and furious, but you would be less imaginative or creative. Broadly defining things would mean understanding your knowledges and seeing how it all fits, instead of just being a human calculator incapable of looking around him.

    and c) Common sense as a sense of what things are common in this here society as opposed to (uhh) just knowing stuff like "violence is bad" or just plain lack of said sense in favor of figuring something else out.

    I think I'm just a bit biased here. I've just seen way too many smart people who have defined themselves inside a logical box, where everything makes sense but nothing fits. And they are smart people, educated and capable of complex thought, but still blind to whats going on around them.

    (And I suppose some other definitions are possible, just couldn't think of any..)
     
  20. kevk Registered Member

    Messages:
    1
    Best analogy of intelligence vs common sense I have ever seen is spock.

    Ultimate logic coupled with emotion.

    Of course vulcans aren't real but given this question of intelligence vs common sense, isn't Spock a good example of one at odds with the other?

    IMHO a mix of the two is preferable to one over the other.

    I have friends I can classify as intelligent who have no common sense and TBH they are often insufferable. I also have many friends who are of the opposite end of the specturm if you will I.E, have common sense and they tend to be more fun loving, spontaneous and sadly less intelligent.

    As much as it pains me to say, I would place myself on the more intelligent side alhough I want to be more spontaneous. I often rationalise situations and decisions but I can be spontaneous and unexpected.

    Despite my sons ability to read me like a book I can sometimes surprise him and him I.

    A balance is better but all of one and none of the other is like most other absolutes in life, not desirable.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2011
  21. hunter121 Guest

    I think intelligence is important.
     
  22. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,049
    "common sense" said the earth was flat and that homosexuals should be put to death. Intelligence and ethics are what advance the human race, not "Common sense"
     
  23. chimpkin C'mon, get happy! Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,416

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!


    Gosh, another thread out of the grave...

    Common sense is often just a nice way of saying prejudices and stereotypes.

    Actual data trumps common sense every time.
     

Share This Page