I worked with an Idiot today. How does one teach common sense?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

I mean. Really.

[hobbit709]

1. Pain is a very efficient teacher.

Unfortunately for some, Darwin wins first.

[tango-tee]

9. And here's the classic: Lawn Chair Larry!

http://www.darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid1998-11.html

Good grief, I hope that link works. It's my first attempt. Maybe I should keep my big mouth shut about Darwin and stupidity.

[Dr. Strange]

2. You can't teach it.

Sadly, common sense is the least common of all senses.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. so.damn.scary.

prioritize, I said. how hard is that?

[Skittles]

4. LOLOL

I regularly work with offshore morons - you have no fucking clue

[Old Troop]

5. One doesn't. Separate yourself and let hin screw up

[Common Sense Party]

6. I don't think it can be done, ever after a long period of time.

Like eight years.

[Dr Morbius]

7. What we call "common sense" is really a series of self-evident truths.

"Self-evident" meaning if one's honest and thinks it through, one will inevitably come the same conclusion. This explains why it is called "common" - for all who have sense can agree upon it - and why it is so rare. Americans regard thinking as work, and see work as a bad thing. Common sense really is rational thought.

If you want someone to develop common sense, you need to first teach him or her how to think. Most textbooks on logic include sections on critical thought; start there.

Myself, I work with idiots every day. Our company just recently hired a new one. Patience helps.

[woo me with science]

8. Just respond

with Alice in Wonderland cartoons. :)

[tango-tee]

10. See post # 9, dear Tuesday.

I hope you'll get a chuckle out of it.

Realizing there are morons even worse than those we have to face on a day-to-day basis - absolutely refreshing!

[HopeHoops]

11. Start with a 5 lb setting maul.

If he/she survives that, move on to firearms.

[Ikonoklast]

14. Nah, just leave flammable liquids of various types and ignition sources

laying about.



Hilarity ensues.

[HopeHoops]

20. OOOH - Especially if you include a birthday cake with candles and matches!!

:evilgrin:

[sammytko]

12. need examples - what happened?

[Mopar151]

13. "ommon sense" is another term for the correct use of logic

If you have long experience - i.e. grew up with - folks who use logic correctly, it's common as dirt. Duck soup, nuttin' to it... But to those long exposed to intentionally defective, inductive logic, deductive logic is as foreign as Esperanto.

[sarge43]

15. Also common sense is realizing that the world is what it is,

not what we want or imagine it is.

And no it probably can't be taught. Narcissists are usually hopeless. They screw around with the laws of nature until they hit the windshield. If they survive, they might smarten up, but unlikely.

Best thing is stay out of their zone of total destruction and never ever role model them.

[rainbow4321]

16. More fun is when you are in a meeting

trying to encourage common sense in the workplace and it gets shot down by management using every excuse under the sun while the no common sense crowd get a pat on the head from that same management.
I honestly think they prefer the no common sense workers, they tend to be the ones who don't make waves, don't ask why policies change hourly, weekly, daily. I tend to bring INconvenient truths to the staff meetings which gets management talking over me in between their "STFU" glares when I try to talk. I can talk louder, pretty sure they have figured that out by now.

So I have started making out online reports (about things going wrong in the trenches) that get sent to people higher in the food chain (outside our clinic setting and to QA departments that then approach our management with "fix this problem and send us a report on how you fixed it"). Amazing how some of my concerns started getting addressed as opposed to me getting a "yeah, ok, uh-huh" and then the door shut in my face.
------------------------------------------------------

I work in a health care setting that once in a while has to call 911 to have a patient taken to the main hospital. Kid you not, we have had 2 management memos put out on HOW to call 911..first it was ONLY dial 911 and the hospital police dept will help you. Then after a few mishaps with the hospital police dept NOT calling an outside ambulance, it changed "dial 9, then 911 to get the city's 911, skip the hospital police dept".
The NEXT day we get yet another memo "disregard yesterday's 911 memo, we didn't know it would connect you with the hospital operator, go back to just dialing 911 and just let us know if an ambulance shows up or not ( translated: at least til we figure out what our next memo will be about"). Cuz we wouldn't want to upset the hospital police dept by finding out WHY they dropped the ball and make it so NO ONE will ever want to forget to call the ambulance ever again.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. that is hilarious.

how to dial 911 :D

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

18. You don't

some folks just don't have any and there isn't anything we can do about it.
:shrug:

[LawnKorn]

19. Shock collar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOInLQcRE8c

[quakerboy]

21. I'd like to think that using much much patience and care

one can teach the underpinnings, and then with more there is potential for more.

At least this is the route I've taken with those I care about. Sometimes I feel it is working. Others I feel that I have wasted years.

[rrneck]

22. Explain it manually.

:evilgrin: