[KaylRyck]

The ENTj does not trust common sense...

Even beyond that: its never really felt very "common" to me. I've never grasped the idea. It feels more of a foreign thing than anything else.

My sense is my sense...oft-judged as far too elaborate and extravagant - "looking into things too much" - the reason I tend not to let it show alot. Can anyone else relate?

...He likes to look behind preconceived ideas. He does not care about consensus or other people opinions. He wants to examine the facts by himself, with a fresh new look. The difference with other NT's is that once the ENTj has found something new, he wants to shout it to the rest of the people in the world and convince them that they were wrong. This makes the ENTj look like a Galileo trying to tell people that the earth is round. Few people like to have their beliefs challenged this way and so the ENTj can sometimes appear as pretentious. Fortunately, this attitude is also what makes him a potential leader.

 

[NastyCat]

People ask how I get through some of my exams without studying; I always reply with "common sense". It then turns out that I'm the only one who prefers to piece thing together based on what little knowledge or data that I've been given in the exam rather than to prepare for it via rote learning.

ENTJs work with Te and Ni in a way that we can see what's wrong with the picture via Te which we can then poke our way around using Ni until we arrive at a [novel] solution (usually occurs quickly and without the absolute need to focus). We tend not to spend as much time ruminating as much as INTJs because they use Te to organise the mess from Ni, but that also means that they're more likely to be more thorough with their thoughts. The quickness in which this happens for ENTJs feels like common sense, a gut "feeling", but is more personal as it depends on what they've seen with Te and what pre-existing models they have developed using Ni for a distantly related situation (hence disregarding real common sense).

This is opposed to ESTJs who have Si as their auxilliary. Si supporting Te will prefer to work with more direct or related experience moreso than how Ni would, in a sense, typically blindly poke around (oft in new directions... hence the novel solutions).

 

[wiarumas]

I have MY version of common sense. I think someone referred to it as a 6th sense before.

It is a combination of what I perceive, what I know, and what my intuition tells me to make of it. I'd have to say that my intuition trumps what I perceive/sense though - and sometimes takes it off on tangents.

It generates ideas on its own - which may be a sense of general common sense, or a common sense specific to me.

It helps me generate ideas and see things others won't see. This is a blessing and a curse because it comes up with a lot of original, innovative thinking, but also, can sometimes make me come off as a know it all. Of course, I don't THINK I know everything... its just that I'm capable of providing my 2 very valid cents to everything. It seems natural that I can just know things.

 

[KaylRyck]

It helps me generate ideas and see things others won't see. This is a blessing and a curse because it comes up with a lot of original, innovative thinking, but also, can sometimes make me come off as a know it all. Of course, I don't THINK I know everything... its just that I'm capable of providing my 2 very valid cents to everything. It seems natural that I can just know things.

Exactly! I feel I've gotta tread very carefully when voicing an opinion - it has a tendency to sound know-it-all. I'm not a smart ass - when I do offer a suggestion I do so genuinely. But because I feel it just all flows so instinctively (often linking cause and effect of a particular issue, without a seconds thought), I can come across as a touch arrogant.

"Common Sense" however, that "sense" that "most" people have...escapes me. When solving a problem...its as if everyone else takes the big wide road, and I'm sprinting over a goat track to arrive at the same destination. Sometimes I get there ALOT faster...other times, well, it can fail miserably - and I look pretty retarded haha. "How did you manage that??"

 

[dude10000]

Can anyone else relate?

Common sense can be considered as the available stock of ready-made beliefs. We often don't have time to justify every single proposition in our cognitive set, nor do we often have time to wait until all of the evidence arrives. In these cases, prejudice can serve as a form of inductive shorthand.

That said, common sense doesn't common sense itself. To get beyond our own common sense -- our own prejudices, preferences, biases-- we need clear, insightful distinctions and the means to verify the consequences that follow predictively.

Common sense also has a negative use-- if someone offered a bizarre metaphysical thesis that implied that the universe did not exist, we could reject that out of hand, dogmatically, without argument, since if true it would entail that the speaker of such an assertion does not exist.

 

[Peter]

common sense: 1 + 1 = 2

any other way to get to 2, though most common, is not common sense.

 

[wiarumas]

common sense: 1 + 1 = 2

any other way to get to 2, though most common, is not common sense.

Reminds me of the 0.999... is equal to 1 argument.

 

[Peter]

Reminds me of the 0.999... is equal to 1 argument.

It is, unless it's a case where a change in that much detail seriously effects the outcome.

 

[wiarumas]

It is, unless it's a case where a change in that much detail seriously effects the outcome.

I was meaning it more in a way that demonstrates the application of common sense and its relativity to the person - as a follow up to your 1+1=2 statement and how there are uncommon ways to get to 2. It may seem like it is common sense that one number cannot be another number, but there are multiple ways of looking at it:

1/3 is 0.333 repeating. 0.333 repeating times 3 is 0.999 repeating. 1/3 times 3 is 3/3 which is 1. Simple explanation, but I'm sure you understand my concept. Essentially there are 2 different ways to look at it with neither being wrong... just a matter of perception. Common and uncommon.

 

[Peter]

I was meaning it more in a way that demonstrates the application of common sense and its relativity to the person - as a follow up to your 1+1=2 statement and how there are uncommon ways to get to 2. It may seem like it is common sense that one number cannot be another number, but there are multiple ways of looking at it:

1/3 is 0.333 repeating. 0.333 repeating times 3 is 0.999 repeating. 1/3 times 3 is 3/3 which is 1. Simple explanation, but I'm sure you understand my concept. Essentially there are 2 different ways to look at it with neither being wrong... just a matter of perception. Common and uncommon.

I understand what you mean. And it's in these kinds of discussions that the phrase "Let's use some common sense" starts to used. :tongue:

 

[Diphenhydramine]

I found this thread fascinating. My mother has always insisted that I have "no common sense." I just don't really get it.