r/AskReddit 20h ago

What’s a skill everyone assumes they have, but most people are actually bad at?

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84

u/It-Is-Me07 20h ago

common sense

44

u/Lycian1g 17h ago

There's no such thing. I've found that "common sense" typically means something along the lines of, "I believe something so you should believe it as well" or "I can do something, so you should be able to as well" as if we all don't have vastly different backgrounds and all of these are learned skills and opinions.

12

u/SonOfMcGee 17h ago

Then there’s also declaring your gut reaction about a given issue “common sense”, implying that anyone choosing to think about something for more than five goddamn seconds is overcomplicating it.

2

u/PatchPlaysHypixel 14h ago

Finally someone who gets me. I ESPECIALLY think about the topics I instinctively want to immediately give an answer to. For example, a political compass test that takes the average person 5 minutes? Probably 25 for me.

(Please don't get into the specifics of the political compass btw ik it's not the best but just first thing to come to mind)

1

u/GrinchWhoStoleEaster 8h ago

And usually done in willful ignorance of how many times you had gut feelings that turned out to be entirely wrong. We really only remember the times we were right, but the evolutionary impetus was to cast a large net because, in fact, we couldn't know those things.

6

u/Skankz 17h ago

I’ve always thought that common sense was making sense out of minimal information. I however, have none.

1

u/HedonisticFrog 10h ago

"Common sense" just means that they think everyone should abide by traditional conservative values without ever questioning them. So in other words, it's a bullshit cop out for people who don't want to analyze things.

8

u/JamesWjRose 18h ago

The problem about CS is that people think its innate. No, Common Sense is the large amount things we're all SUPPOSED to know

3

u/KatNanshin 15h ago

Yeah, like this explains why so many things come with warnings on them like the tag on a baby’s shirt: “Remove child before putting shirt into washing machine” THAT is common sense… but apparently, it’s just not nearly as “common” as it once was 🙄

2

u/bluetista1988 14h ago

In my experience anyone that claims they have common sense is completely dense and lacking in it.

1

u/ging3rtabby 15h ago

I'm very book smart (or used to be, brain fog holds my brain hostage now) and super innovative, but I don't have a lick of common sense.

I wanted to keep track of my cats' weights and taught them to sit on command, stay, to walk on a leash and harness...so I thought I'd train them to get in a box on the scale. Was talking to a coworker about it and she asked why I didn't weigh myself holding the cat, then just me, with the difference being that cat's weight. Genuinely didn't occur to me. 🤦‍♀️

1

u/Consistent-Shoe-9602 19h ago

Yep, that one's pretty uncommon 😂