(08-02-2020, 04:24 PM)The Real Marty Wrote:

(08-02-2020, 04:00 PM)mikesez Wrote: They tested me for gifted right at the beginning of first grade, and I "passed". They told me it was an IQ test, and they told me that passing it indicated an IQ of at least 120.
Later, I found out that they don't screen everyone, and my parents didn't want me screened. The teacher had asked them to screen me. She saw an opportunity to get me out of her classroom one day a week and she took it.

The general observation that people with high IQ lack  "common sense" is not quite true. "Common sense" usually means a social consensus that people don't want to waste time arguing about. Most people pick "common sense" up from their parents and other elders without much deliberate effort. The people who do not pick these things up at all are not necessarily more or less intelligent than anybody else, they just lack a certain type of social intelligence.  There are some highly intelligent people that have simply missed the cues of common sense and other highly intelligent people who understand common sense perfectly, but nonetheless want to change society by questioning it.

One of the pressure points in society today is that the percentage of people who want to challenge "common sense" keeps growing. Common sense maxims that used to be a lot less controversial than they are today:

"The American military protects freedom here and abroad"
"This is a republic, not a democracy."
"A rising tide lifts all boats"
"Competition makes businesses better."
"A bunch of small, competing businesses is healthier than one big conglomerate."
"Employers should be held liable if the employee gets sick at work."

That's not common sense.  Common sense is defined as "good sense and sound judgment in practical matters."  Common sense means you have the ability to make sound choices in life and that you have the ability to accomplish a mundane task.  For example, a person would lack common sense if they can't figure out how to use a washing machine, or if they can't remember to wait for the light to change before crossing the street.  

What you are citing is more along the lines of "commonly accepted truth."  Which is something else entirely.  

I guess I've always taken for granted that I can figure out household appliances and figure out my way from point a to point B with just road signs and a map. I'm pretty good at that compared to others, actually. The one thing I lacked was, "leave the poor teacher alone while she's talking to the other students."
when people are using the term  "common sense" against me, it is almost always something regarding one of the things you call a "commonly accepted truth."

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