In keeping with recent themes, whats more important Book Smarts or Common Sense?

Discussion in 'The Thunderdome' started by Oldvol75, Mar 3, 2012.

  1. Oldvol75

    Oldvol75 Super Bigfoot Guru Mod

    I would say Common Sense.
     
  2. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    Really depends on what you do, I'd say.
     
  3. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    I agree with kpt. I also think its a false dichotomy in a lot of instances, though there are plenty of examples where an individual lacks one.
     
  4. Oldvol75

    Oldvol75 Super Bigfoot Guru Mod

    I asked it because I know some really smart people that can't even seem to be able to get out of the rain. For instance, even simple things around the house, they have no clue about how to fix it. My Father-in-law, he's now 90 and has a 6th grade education, has taught me more about construction, mechanical things, etc... than I've ever learned from a book on the subject. Heck some of his ways are even easier than what someone has laid out in a book.
     
  5. awebb7

    awebb7 Contributor

    I am a project manager for a construction company. Both are equally important. I have seen brilliant architects and structural engineers design building aspects or components that cannot physically be built (at least of this planet) as drawn on their plans. I have also had subcontractors working in the field that couldn't read the words printed on plans but could put together a finished project almost without error.

    A combination of both is best. If had to choose, I would say common sense would serve most people better in general.
     
  6. justingroves

    justingroves supermod


    I've seen it too webb. It's amazing to me how some of the most book smart people can't apply it to the real world.
     
  7. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

    It seems like book smarts is what gets you in doors in a lot of fields, unfortunately.
     
  8. volfanbill

    volfanbill Active Member

    I think it's a combo of both. To open doors though, I honestly don't think it matters. It's about knowing people. Although I guess you could say to know people you have to have common sense and social skills. To keep those people on your good side, you have to have the book smarts. So again, I think you have to have both. Having only one or the other is only going to take you so far.
     
  9. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

    I guess I'm referring to things like getting into professional schools. I work at the UT College of Vet Med, been there 12 years, and I see people in every class who just make you wonder in the common sense department. There are other elements to getting in than GPA, but if you don't have the GPA, then you're fighting a steep uphill climb.
     
  10. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Book smarts alone are completely useless.
     
  11. volfanbill

    volfanbill Active Member

    You should spend a month in an Army unit. Lack of common sense will blow your mind. At all levels too.
     
  12. rbroyles

    rbroyles Chieftain

    Unfortunately in your field it can blow a lot more than your mind.

    Book smarts can impress someone and win on Jeopardy, but common sense will serve you best in day to day real life.
     
  13. JayVols

    JayVols Walleye Catchin' Moderator

    I would argue that common smarts are best.

    One of my best friend's wife is a chemical engineer for a company that produces nuclear fuel for the US Navy. She left that job for a while to work at Eastman Chemical. She went back to her old job. The story we got from the large nosed, (apologies to OldVol) Squatchesquely hairy, obnoxious and egotistical, [itch bay]y Greek woman was that she missed her friends at the old job and wanted to go back despite a significant pay cut. The story I got from one of my softball player's dad who worked with her was that she was lazy (she spent 3/4 of her workdays planning her wedding rather than doing her job at Eastman), incompetent (she was smart but couldn't apply those book smarts in the work environment), had a terrible Chicago yankee attitude resulting in her inability to get along with anyone on her team (his words), she received one of the lowest performance evaluations in the history of the company, and was to be fired if she didn't voluntarily leave. She's a piece of work. Does it show too much that I despise her?
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2012
  14. rbroyles

    rbroyles Chieftain

    I should add that social skills are paramount to succeed or advance in the workplace. Just as in Jay's example, the inability to get along with coworkers is one of the more common employee shortcomings, and can and usually does result in being disruptive to productivity. To my mind, it takes common sense to develop social skills. The super intellect often comes with a superiority complex that lacks sociability and seems to disdain being sociably effective.
     
  15. ole_orange

    ole_orange Board Simp

    Agree, social skills is an art of intelligence in itself. Just look at our friend Steve C
     
  16. rbroyles

    rbroyles Chieftain

    I think we all are.
     
  17. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    If you had to choose between the two, I would think you should go with common sense. You can be successful with a good common sense but not a lot of book smarts. I think its tough to succeed with the opposite combination. No reason to have to choose, though...I think you can work at both. One may come more naturally than the other, of course.
     
  18. droski

    droski Traffic Criminal

    book smart people can pay others to do all teh around the house crap than can't manage.
     
  19. JT5

    JT5 Super Moderator

    Social skills are far more likely to get you laid than are book smarts.
     
  20. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    What? Nothin gets those panties on the floor like some well-placed Nietzsche quotes.
     

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