Replies to "Common Sense"

Reply #1

       Pat, you beat me to it. I just got online to see if I could still rant on your page. The rant, of course, was going to be about common sense. All I know is there is nothing "common" about common sense anymore. The amount of people lacking it is amazing. That's why, from this point on, I will be refering to it as "uncommon sense".

Just a small example
       I run a Magic tournament every Fri. night because Wizards of the coast have this thing. You run a tournament for us every Fri. night and we will give you the prizes free and you keep all the profit. This program is offered to stores all over the country and it is called Friday night Magic for reasons I thought were apparent to all. Well I was checking my business emails the other day and there was one with a question about Friday night Magic. It said... and I could not make this up...

"Hello, could you tell me what nights you hold Friday night Magic?"

Long pause as I stared at my screen. I emailed back...

"Thursday"

...God I hope that man never finds my store.
                                                                  -Tim DiBartolo

       Look at it this way, if he does find your store, you'll undoubtably get another funny story from it.

Reply #2

Ahh, another product of the New Jersey public school system - you're just as pissed as the rest of us who managed to escape with an intact cerebral cortex. Thankfully, you're among those of us who laugh, not those who need the explanation. Tim is absolutely correct - it is rightly "uncommon sense".

A freakshow season ticket holder,

Colleen

       I'm not exactly the product of the NJ public school system...

Reply #3

Heh,
Well If I like your site, you better get used to my feedback -grin-

Math and common sense are not the same thing. I say this as an authority. I am a computer programmer with a math degree. Which is very close to a philosophy degree. After all, even up to the early 20th century, math and philosophy were branches of the same discipline. I offer the evidence of George Whitehead and Bertram Russell.

But more to your point. With the advent of advanced electronic devices, it is indeed more important to know when an answer is radically wrong, then when it is slightly wrong. Screwing up with a calculator or computer is far more likely to give an answer of 2 + 2 = 1,343,343.676 than 2 + 2 = 5, and it is important you figure out the former is wrong.

Accountants of course want to know things to the exact penny. Scientists know how to round. Computer programmers, depending on their area of discipline need to know if a large matrix is close to singular, especially with many iterations. Others (me for example) merely (ahem) have to understand set theory. Thoroughly.

My point? I flunked division in seventh grade because I could not get the exact answer to five division problems in a half hour period, no matter how many times I tried. I am dyslexic. Screw that. So how many digits did you want Pi to?

Near Math sounds strange, but for most people, knowing 7 divided by 2 does not equal 1,333,454 is far more important than knowing 7 divided by 2 is 3.5. Yeah, this was simplistic, but think taxes, interest rates, and other more complex calculations. Close will not kill you. Totally out of line... The bastard’s own you. Near math is approximations. And that is close enough for very many people (and many in my profession)

Dio

       Hmmm, I see and understand your point, I really do, but isn't estimation a slightly more advanced concept? I am really asking here, not just being a smart ass. While I understand that having the abillity to estimate is important, I can't help but think that it's more important to know how to get it right.
       'Close' is not good enough when counting out change. 'Close' is not good enough when making an appointment. 'Close' is not good enough for oh so many things.
       You must know when estimation is okay, don't you? Therefore, you must know how to do it right in the first place, and I am not talking about figuring out pi.

Reply #4

From: "Fatal Charm" (fatalcharm2@webtv.net)
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2003 19:56:14

I also liked what George Carlin said years and years ago...as the Hippy Dippy Weather man. (the sound of the news ticking) -->Dee dee dee deet deet deet...."This is your Hippy Dippy weatherman..with your Hippy Dippy News report"..."Scientists have discovered that... Breathing ..causes Cancer" How true that has become...around 20 yrs? later..to hear them tell it. Hope I am not bothering you with this ..dribble?

       Um... yeah.

Reply #5

From: "Timothy Vasicek" (erthkeepr@yahoo.com)
Date: Thursday, April 08, 2004 11:47 PM

Now I see where Matt Groening got the idea for Springfield.

        Do you even know what simile is? Obviously not...

Reply #6

From: Tom Anderson (tanderso.public+pquinn@oac-design.com)
Date: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 12:38 PM

I sympathize with the nine year olds. Home-ec shouldn't teach you how to manually churn butter, and math shouldn't teach how to use an abacus. These are topics for history class. Learning about the possibility of doing long division, etc., is necessary so that one might later look up a tutorial on how to do it if required for some reason, but spending weeks or months drilling on it simply deprives children from learning the contemporary ways to do things. However, "near math" isn't right either, as I don't want the next generation of engineers getting things just almost right. The curriculum needs to change so that children are taught how to appropriately round their results and evaluate the saneness of their answer. Afterall, 2+2 does equal 5 for very large values of 2. Teachers simply need to introduce the otherwise advanced concepts of significant digits, et al, earlier in education. It would actually be beneficial in the long run since it may otherwise be difficult to grasp the concept of "ideal world" vs "real world". In the real world, nothing is a whole number. There are always variables which affect measurements. You don't walk into a Home Depot and ask for blinds to fit a 2.898537663'x4.92384567' window. It may be an accurate and precise measurement, but "common sense" tells you to look for a 3'x5' product. Children need to be taught the ability to distinguish when precision is required and when precision simply throws off accuracy, and at which point in their calculations they should take these things into account.

        I’m stunned. That was beautiful!