TEDxMidAtlantic 2011 - Duncan Watts - The Myth of Common Sense

Duncan Watts is a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research, where he directs the Human Social Dynamics group. Prior to joining Yahoo!, he was a full professor of Sociology at Columbia University. He has also served on the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute and Nuffield College, Oxford. His research on social networks and collective dynamics has appeared in a wide range of journals.

[thatoneuser]

So basically, someone saying "it's common sense" is just like any other insult - superficial. And if they use it as their main point to defend their viewpoint, then it means they don't actually know why they think they're right.

[lavonwheeler]

Awesome video. I was never a fan of the phrase, common sense, because of it's variety of definitions.

[thatoneuser]

Common sense doesn't exist, it's common sense!

[serga]

im relatively young but an older person told me that, before the internet, when people had questions often times when they ask other people, the other people just make up whatever as an "answer". im assuming that even with the prevalence of the internet in our lives, people havent changed. maybe overall weve gotten worse. i see this being prevalent with the news and politics, art and media, the list goes on.

[jameskeating]

Common sense is multiple perceptions coming to a conclusion that best suits everyone . We have ample information on what does not work .

[edwardtang]

The myth is that it is "common".

[DessyGallegos]

I do not have common sense, ..because my common life growing up was a destructive and traumatic time. My whole life was drama and pain until I was 18

[Error-hkvz]

I think the example given for common sense was bad...
I don't think common sense is people reasoning out why something may or may not make sense, which was the given example, essentially.

I think the term "common sense" is used in a way that means good sense, like, differentiating right from wrong, what should and shouldn't be, and accepting what is and isn't.

Examples:

- it is *right* to do good and *wrong* to do bad.

-you *shouldn't* unload a gun in the air in a city, you'll be arrested and the bullets may kill someone when they come back down.
You *should* be as responsible as possible.

- 1 + 1 *is* 2, it *isn't* 3.

This is what common sense means to me.

[henryarero]

People looking at the same picture or object giving different kinds of Answers

[jlupus]

When there are 2 opposite answers/explanations to the same issue, then they’re not obvious.

Common sense is used to navigate everyday situations... it’s a rule-if-thumb, slogan/analogy method of rhetoric.

[cheezenip]

Who else is just here for the comments?

[boing]

i would disagree slightly. history follows patterns, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it repeats. most social events may follow some pattern but also vary considerably depending on different contextual factors. that's what makes historical comparisons so tricky and hard (and why if you're good at it you'll get a university job with a good salary)

[thewanless]

Basically when you come down to it ( I agree with you..) ... for example, its only common sense, that a Mechanical Engineer with a MBA will not be as successful in running a $ 200 mil. business as a high school gradate, who start a newspaper route at the age of 10, etc...

[n-stryker]

Here we are nearly ten years later and the revolution that all this data collection he discusses towards the end of the video has brought is hyper-targeted ads and echo chambers. We need to turn the tide and it's going to mean funding ethical use of this data.

[DarthZevrel]

I don't understand a word he just said.

[henryarero]

Sociology is the Study of Society of the World 🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎, An attempt to Solve human problem, Study human character and Behaviour

[Well_possibly]

Interesting talk, but...e-mail? 14:01 Is he referring to data mining our e-mail? To what extent?   I would like some privacy.

[Silly.Old.Sisyphus]

there is no myth of commonsense, other than that what you think is commonsense is not what someone else thinks it is. exceptio probat regulam. because we all use logic, even if post-hoc more often than pre-hoc.

[francismausley]

We need more Spiritual sense. "The master-teachers are the expounders of divine common sense which is the pathway to a knowledge of universal law, the result of which will be a harmonious humanity." ~ Abdu’l-Baha, Baha'i Faith

[SOWHAT]

The thing is that such science has nothing to do with public purpose, and everything to do with social control and social engineering. can you explain this pls? just wondering how you came to that conclusion?