Use Your Common Sense Day

The Day We All Pretend We’ve Had It All Along

Common sense is one of those things everyone believes they possess and occasionally suspects everyone else has misplaced. We use it when we look both ways before crossing a road, avoid putting metal in the microwave, or decide that climbing onto a rolling office chair to change a light bulb might not be our finest idea. None of this requires an advanced degree. It simply requires stopping long enough to consider what happens next.

Observed every year on November 4, Use Your Common Sense Day celebrates practical thinking, sound judgment, and the remarkably useful habit of thinking before acting. It is also an opportunity to recognize that common sense isn't quite as automatic as its name suggests. Sometimes experience teaches it. Sometimes our parents teach it. And occasionally we learn it while standing in the remains of something we really shouldn't have touched.

Use Your Common Sense Day therefore comes with wonderfully simple instructions: pay attention, think ahead, and try not to do anything today that will result in somebody asking, "What on earth made you think that was a good idea?"

What Is Use Your Common Sense Day?

Use Your Common Sense Day is a lighthearted observance with a serious underlying message. It encourages people to use practical judgment when dealing with everyday situations rather than making matters unnecessarily complicated.

Common sense is difficult to define precisely because it covers so many ordinary decisions. It can mean recognizing an obvious danger, anticipating a likely consequence, choosing the straightforward solution, or simply stopping to think before doing something impulsive.

It isn't the same thing as intelligence. An extraordinarily intelligent person can still make an extraordinarily foolish decision. Common sense is less concerned with how much somebody knows than with how effectively they apply what they already know.

If dark clouds are gathering and the forecast calls for rain, take an umbrella. If the fuel gauge says empty, find a gas station rather than beginning an experiment into precisely how accurate the manufacturer made the gauge. If an email has made you furious, perhaps don't press Send until tomorrow morning.

There. Three problems solved without establishing a committee.

The History of Use Your Common Sense Day

Use Your Common Sense Day is celebrated on November 4, which is also the birthday of American humorist and entertainer Will Rogers, born in 1879. Rogers became famous for his homespun observations about politics, society, and human behavior, often finding a straightforward truth hiding underneath layers of complication.

The modern observance is generally credited to Bud Bilanich, an author, consultant, and career success coach who established Use Your Common Sense Day in 2007. His idea was to encourage people to apply practical judgment to their professional and personal lives rather than making simple matters unnecessarily difficult.

Choosing Will Rogers' birthday was particularly appropriate. Rogers built much of his reputation on observing human nature and expressing conclusions in language ordinary people could immediately understand. He could find humor in foolishness without requiring a lengthy explanation of why it was foolish.

The resulting observance combines that tradition of plainspoken wisdom with a modern reminder that practical judgment remains useful regardless of how sophisticated the world becomes.

Technology changes. Fashion changes. Business changes. Human beings still occasionally need reminding not to make life harder than it needs to be.

What Exactly Is Common Sense?

The expression sounds simple, but philosophers and thinkers have been wrestling with the idea behind common sense for centuries. In everyday life, we generally use the term to describe practical judgment: the ability to look at a situation, consider what we already know, recognize the likely consequences, and make a reasonable decision without requiring specialist knowledge or an instruction manual. It is the sort of thinking that tells us a wet floor may be slippery, an unattended pot may eventually boil dry, and a suspiciously cheap offer from a complete stranger probably deserves more investigation before we hand over the credit card.

Common sense isn't quite the same as intelligence, knowledge, or instinct. Someone can possess an impressive education and still make a spectacularly poor practical decision, while another person with little formal education may have excellent judgment developed through decades of experience. Knowledge tells us facts; common sense helps us decide what to do with them. It combines observation, experience, reasoning, and an awareness of consequences, often so quickly that we barely notice ourselves doing it.

Much of common sense develops by recognizing cause and effect. Leave something valuable unattended and it might disappear. Drive too quickly on a wet road and stopping becomes more difficult. Ignore a small leak for six months and eventually you'll discover that water has considerably more patience than you do. We remember what happened previously, notice similarities in the present situation, and adjust our behavior accordingly. Over time, lessons that once required conscious thought can become the practical judgment we casually describe as common sense.

Experience therefore plays an enormous role in developing it. People learn by watching others, listening to advice, solving problems and, inevitably, making mistakes of their own. Some lessons are passed from one generation to another; others are acquired through the considerably less elegant process of discovering firsthand why somebody warned us not to do something.

That last method is particularly effective.

Is Common Sense Really Common?

Perhaps the greatest joke contained in the expression "common sense" is the assumption that everyone shares the same supply. They don't.

What seems obvious to one person may be completely unfamiliar to another because common sense is influenced by upbringing, culture, occupation, environment and experience. Someone raised on a farm may regard certain precautions around animals or machinery as obvious. Someone raised in a large city may possess equally instinctive knowledge about situations the farmer rarely encounters.

Age and experience matter too. Many things adults describe as common sense are actually lessons they learned so long ago that they have forgotten ever learning them. That makes common sense less of a universal collection of rules and more of an ability to assess circumstances sensibly using available knowledge and experience. It also explains why shouting "It's common sense!" doesn't necessarily settle an argument, although humanity continues giving that method an impressive amount of practice.

Why Common Sense Still Matters

We have access to more information than any previous generation could have imagined. A phone in your pocket can provide directions, weather forecasts, instructions, reviews, translations, calculations, medical information, news from the other side of the world, and answers to questions within seconds. Yet having immediate access to information is not the same thing as knowing what to do with it. Facts can help us make decisions, but common sense is often what tells us whether those facts are relevant, believable, or useful in the situation actually facing us.

In fact, having enormous quantities of information available can make good judgment even more important. Advice can be incomplete, contradictory, outdated, misleading, or completely wrong, and there is usually no shortage of people confidently offering opinions on subjects they barely understand. Common sense provides a useful filter. It encourages us to consider the source, compare what we're being told with what we already know, and ask the wonderfully effective question, "Does this actually make sense?" Sometimes a few moments of practical thought can accomplish more than another hour spent searching for somebody on the Internet who agrees with us.

Common sense also helps us anticipate consequences rather than merely react to them. A strange noise from the car might be worth investigating before embarking on a thousand-mile road trip. A suspicious message supposedly from your bank deserves scrutiny before you click anything. A loose roof tile is easier to deal with before the next storm arrives, and noticing that the freezer isn't quite as cold as usual is considerably more useful before discovering several hundred dollars' worth of food has thawed. None of these decisions requires extraordinary intelligence. They simply require paying attention to what is happening and thinking one or two steps ahead.

That ability to prevent small problems from becoming large ones is one of the greatest benefits of practical judgment. Common sense saves time, money, effort, and occasionally a great deal of embarrassment. It reminds us that taking five minutes to check something now may save five hours repairing it later, and that the easiest problem to solve is frequently the one we prevented from happening in the first place.

There is nothing particularly glamorous about prevention. Nobody holds a parade because you replaced a worn hose before it burst, checked the oil before a long journey, or remembered to bring the washing inside before the thunderstorm arrived.

But you also didn't spend Saturday afternoon standing ankle-deep in water, waiting beside a broken-down car, or chasing your underwear across the neighbor's yard ~ sometimes that's reward enough.

Common Sense and Technology

Modern technology has made everyday life easier in ways previous generations could scarcely have imagined. We can communicate instantly with someone on the other side of the world, navigate unfamiliar roads, manage bank accounts, shop without leaving home, control household appliances from a phone, and find answers to obscure questions in seconds. Technology can perform extraordinary tasks, but one thing it has not managed to replace is human judgment. No matter how sophisticated the device or clever the software, there are still moments when somebody needs to look at what it is telling them and ask the decidedly low-tech question, "Does that make sense?"

The internet provides perhaps the clearest example. It contains an astonishing amount of useful information alongside misinformation, scams, exaggerations, outdated advice, and things apparently written by someone who became an expert approximately seven minutes earlier. Common sense online means checking where information came from, being suspicious of extraordinary claims, protecting passwords and personal information, and thinking carefully before clicking unfamiliar links. It also means remembering that the mysterious stranger offering to transfer several million dollars into your bank account probably hasn't selected you because of your outstanding character and trustworthy appearance.

Social media has created another arena where a little practical judgment can prevent a great deal of trouble. Something written or photographed in seconds can be copied, shared, and preserved long after its creator wishes it would disappear. Posting while angry, sharing a story without checking whether it is true, or joining an argument with complete strangers can turn a momentary lapse of judgment into a remarkably durable problem. Waiting a few minutes before posting, commenting, forwarding, or replying may not feel particularly exciting, but neither does spending the following morning explaining what you meant to half the people you know.

Technology also encourages us to trust automated systems, sometimes more than we should. Navigation systems, recommendation algorithms, spellcheckers, automated assistants, and artificial intelligence can all be extremely useful, but they remain tools rather than substitutes for judgment. A GPS may suggest a route that is unsuitable because of flooding, construction, or some other condition it doesn't fully understand. An automated system may confidently produce an answer that looks perfectly reasonable but is nevertheless wrong. Common sense means using the assistance technology provides while remaining willing to question the result when circumstances suggest something isn't right.

There is also the simple matter of knowing when technology is making something unnecessarily complicated. Sometimes the quickest solution to a misbehaving device really is to turn it off and turn it back on. Sometimes writing something down is easier than downloading another app, creating another account, choosing another password, confirming your email address, accepting seventeen permissions, and watching a tutorial explaining how to accomplish something a pencil could have handled in thirty seconds.

Technology will continue to become faster, smarter, and more deeply woven into everyday life, which makes common sense more important rather than less. The best relationship with technology is not blind trust or stubborn resistance, but sensible use: understand what the tool can do, recognize what it cannot do, and remain responsible for the decisions made with it.

And if your navigation system tells you to drive into a lake, the correct response is not, "Well, that's what the GPS said."

Common Sense at Home

Home provides endless opportunities to practice common sense, largely because it contains so many things capable of leaking, burning, breaking, overflowing, falling over, or mysteriously stopping the moment you actually need them. Most household common sense isn't complicated. Turn appliances off when you've finished using them, keep dangerous substances away from children and animals, lock doors when leaving, don't leave candles burning unattended, and investigate unusual smells or noises rather than hoping they'll develop some initiative and repair themselves.

A large part of common sense at home involves dealing with small problems while they're still small. A dripping faucet, loose railing, damaged electrical cord, missing roof shingle, or suspicious patch of dampness may not demand immediate panic, but ignoring it rarely improves matters. Houses have an unfortunate habit of turning inexpensive little problems into impressive repair bills when given sufficient time. Five minutes spent tightening something today can prevent several hours spent discovering exactly how much water can escape from a pipe tomorrow.

Safety around the home is another area where practical judgment matters. Using the correct tool for a job, keeping walkways clear, checking smoke alarms, storing chemicals properly, and making sure a ladder is stable before climbing it are hardly revolutionary ideas. Nevertheless, household accidents often begin with somebody deciding that the proper tool is all the way out in the garage and this nearby chair will probably do. There is a considerable difference between probably and definitely when you're six feet above the floor holding a light fixture.

Common sense can also save time and frustration. Check that you have everything before beginning a job. Measure before cutting. Make sure the replacement part actually fits before dismantling the old one. And despite generations of confident resistance, reading the instructions before assembling something is occasionally worthwhile. Discovering three hours into the project that Part B should have been installed before Part A is an excellent way to expand both your vocabulary and your understanding of furniture design.

Much of this practical knowledge is passed down through families. We learn how to care for a home by watching parents and grandparents, helping with repairs, doing chores, and eventually discovering why they were forever telling us to put tools back where we found them. These ordinary habits may seem old-fashioned in an age of smart appliances and automated homes, but technology hasn't yet invented a washing machine that can remove a red sock from a load of whites before everything turns pink.

Common sense at home ultimately comes down to paying attention, anticipating what might happen next, and recognizing when a small amount of effort now will prevent considerably more effort later. You don't need to be an expert plumber, electrician, carpenter, or mechanic to notice that something doesn't look right and decide it deserves attention.

And when a household repair begins with the words, "I don't really need to shut the power off for this," common sense may wish to leave the room.

Common Sense at Work

Common sense is every bit as valuable in the workplace as technical ability or professional knowledge. Procedures, policies, training manuals, and job descriptions establish expectations, but they cannot anticipate every situation that might arise during a working day. Practical judgment fills the gaps. It helps people recognize when something doesn't look right, ask questions before making expensive assumptions, and deal with small problems before they become large enough to require a meeting involving twelve people and a PowerPoint presentation.

Good judgment at work often begins with paying attention. An unusual sound from a machine, figures that don't add up, instructions that appear contradictory, or a customer request that seems out of the ordinary are all reasons to stop and investigate. Blindly following a procedure when circumstances clearly suggest something is wrong isn't necessarily good discipline; sometimes the sensible response is to ask somebody before proceeding. Ten minutes spent checking can be considerably cheaper than ten hours spent explaining why nobody did.

Common sense also matters when mistakes happen, because eventually they will. Sensible employees acknowledge problems early, tell the appropriate person, and concentrate on correcting them rather than hiding them and hoping nobody notices. A small mistake reported immediately can often be fixed easily. Give it three days, several additional decisions, and enough opportunities to reproduce itself, and that same mistake may eventually acquire its own project number.

Then there is the human side of work. Colleagues will occasionally disagree, customers will occasionally be difficult, and everyone has days when patience is operating on reduced staffing. Practical judgment means knowing when to argue a point and when to let something go. It means criticizing the problem rather than the person, listening before responding, and understanding that being technically correct doesn't automatically make every confrontation worthwhile.

Email and workplace messaging have made that last lesson particularly important. Written words don't carry facial expressions or tone of voice particularly well, and a message composed while furious can remain in somebody's inbox considerably longer than the anger that produced it. If you've written an email that begins with "As I have already explained three times," common sense may be suggesting that you save the draft, get a cup of coffee, and reconsider your diplomatic strategy.

Ultimately, common sense at work is about being dependable. Do what you said you would do, arrive prepared, ask when you don't understand something, admit when you don't know, and don't create unnecessary work for everyone around you. None of those qualities sound particularly revolutionary, but workplaces have been built on them for generations.

And not every email needs seventeen people copied into it.  Sometimes the greatest contribution you can make to workplace efficiency is simply leaving Reply All alone.

Common Sense on the Road

Few places demonstrate the importance of practical judgment as clearly as the road. Traffic laws provide rules everyone is expected to follow, but safe driving requires much more than obeying signs and staying below the speed limit. Weather, visibility, traffic conditions, road surfaces, pedestrians, cyclists, animals, construction, and the unpredictable behavior of other motorists can all change within moments. Common sense is what helps a driver adjust to those circumstances rather than continuing simply because the law technically says they may.

A speed limit, for example, establishes the maximum permitted speed under appropriate conditions; it isn't a personal challenge that must be achieved regardless of torrential rain, fog, standing water, or ice. Practical judgment means slowing down when visibility deteriorates, leaving greater stopping distance when roads are wet, using headlights when conditions require them, and allowing enough time for a journey that there is no need to treat every traffic light as a personal insult.

Common sense also means paying attention to the vehicle itself. Warning lights, unusual vibrations, strange noises, worn tires, low fuel, and rising temperature gauges generally deserve more than an optimistic glance followed by turning up the radio. Checking tires before a long trip, keeping enough fuel in the tank, maintaining the vehicle properly, and dealing with warning signs early can prevent an inconvenient problem from becoming a dangerous one. Cars are remarkably good at communicating that something is wrong. Unfortunately, their owners are occasionally remarkably good at pretending they didn't hear them.

Perhaps the greatest exercise in road-going common sense is anticipating what other people might do. A vehicle waiting at a junction may pull out. A child near the roadside may suddenly run into the street. A car ahead may stop unexpectedly. The driver beside you may change lanes without signaling because apparently turn indicators were an optional extra on that particular model. Defensive driving isn't pessimism; it is recognizing that you have control over your own decisions but considerably less control over everybody else's.

Distractions make that awareness even more important. Phones, navigation systems, food, passengers, and countless other things compete for a driver's attention, but a moving vehicle demands concentration. A message can wait. A missed turn can be corrected. And if the GPS announces that you've missed your exit, there will almost certainly be another road available that doesn't involve reversing down the interstate.

Common sense also recognizes that having the right of way doesn't make an accident worthwhile. Sometimes avoiding a collision means yielding to somebody who is completely wrong, impatient, careless, or apparently conducting their first experiment with a motor vehicle. You may be legally entitled to proceed, but the satisfaction of proving your point diminishes considerably while exchanging insurance information beside a crumpled fender.

Good driving has always depended on patience, awareness, preparation, and respect for the fact that several thousand pounds of moving machinery deserves your full attention. Laws can establish rules and technology can provide assistance, but neither can replace the judgment of the person behind the wheel.

Sometimes the sensible thing is simply to let the idiot go first.

You can enjoy being right afterward—preferably with an undamaged car.

How to Celebrate Use Your Common Sense Day

Fortunately, celebrating Use Your Common Sense Day doesn't require decorations, expensive gifts, reservations, or ceremonial clothing. Nobody needs to organize a parade, and there is no traditional Common Sense Day cake—although introducing cake into the proceedings would hardly be an unreasonable decision. The simplest way to observe November 4 is to pay a little more attention to the ordinary choices you make throughout the day and see how often practical judgment quietly makes life easier.

Start by deliberately slowing down before making decisions. That doesn't mean spending twenty minutes considering whether to have toast or cereal for breakfast. It simply means giving yourself a moment to think when the consequences actually matter. Before sending an angry email, making an unnecessary purchase, beginning a repair, clicking a suspicious link, or agreeing to something you haven't properly considered, stop and ask what is likely to happen next. A few seconds of thought can prevent hours—or occasionally years—of wishing you'd taken those few seconds.

Use the day to simplify something you've been making unnecessarily complicated. Common sense often involves recognizing that the obvious solution is perfectly adequate. Perhaps you've developed a twelve-step system for doing something that could be accomplished in three, or you've been postponing a simple household job because you've convinced yourself it requires an entire weekend. Take another look at it. The sensible answer may have been sitting in front of you all along, patiently wondering what has taken you so long.

November 4 is also a good opportunity to deal with one of those little problems you've been ignoring. Tighten the loose handle. Replace the battery you've been meaning to replace. Check the tires. Back up the computer. Make the appointment. Put the important document somewhere you'll actually be able to find it. None of these jobs will provide much excitement, but that is rather the point. Common sense frequently consists of doing something mildly inconvenient now so you don't have to deal with something spectacularly inconvenient later.

You can also celebrate by sharing useful knowledge with somebody else. Parents, grandparents, experienced coworkers, tradespeople, and anyone who has spent enough years solving everyday problems usually possess a collection of practical lessons worth passing along. Show somebody how to do something properly, explain a shortcut that genuinely works, or share advice you once received and have never forgotten. Just try to avoid beginning every piece of wisdom with, "When I was your age," unless you're prepared for the traditional rolling of the eyes.

Another worthwhile exercise is to think about one of your own memorable lapses in judgment. Everybody has them. Perhaps you ignored a warning, tried to save five minutes and created two hours of work, bought something you knew was too good to be true, or confidently assembled an object before discovering three important pieces still sitting in the box. Instead of merely being embarrassed by the memory, consider what it taught you. Many of the things we now regard as common sense were acquired precisely because we once did the opposite.

Use Your Common Sense Day can even be celebrated with friends or family by swapping stories about those occasions when common sense temporarily went missing. Most families have an impressive archive of them, and the passage of enough time can transform minor disasters into excellent stories. The best examples usually begin with phrases such as "I thought it would be fine," "It didn't look that heavy," or the immortal "Watch this."

Most importantly, spend November 4 being willing to reconsider your own decisions. Common sense isn't about believing you're always right; quite the opposite. Good judgment includes recognizing when new information changes the situation, admitting when an idea isn't working, and changing course before stubbornness turns a small mistake into a much larger one.

You don't have to make every decision perfectly to celebrate Use Your Common Sense Day. Just pay attention, think ahead, learn from experience, and try to finish November 4 without doing anything that requires an explanation beginning with: "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Everyday Examples of Common Sense

Common sense usually appears in small decisions rather than dramatic ones. Most won't earn applause, but they'll make the day considerably easier.

• Check the weather before deciding what to wear.
• Lock doors and windows when leaving home.
• Back up important files before something goes wrong.
• Read instructions before using unfamiliar equipment.
• Don't give passwords or financial information to strangers.
• Keep enough fuel in the vehicle to reach the next gas station.
• Allow extra travel time when conditions are poor.
• Don't make important decisions while angry.
• Fix small problems before they become expensive ones.
• If something smells like it's burning, investigate.

That final one is particularly important.

"Let's see whether it stops by itself" has introduced humanity to quite a few firefighters.

Can Common Sense Be Learned?

Absolutely. Although some people appear naturally more cautious, observant, or practical than others, much of what we describe as common sense is learned over time. Nobody arrives in the world knowing that a wet floor is slippery, a sharp knife deserves respect, or leaving home five minutes before an important appointment twenty miles away might present difficulties. We acquire that knowledge through experience, observation, instruction, and occasionally the unforgettable consequences of getting something spectacularly wrong.

Experience is probably the greatest teacher of common sense because it connects decisions with consequences. Forget an umbrella and get soaked; next time those dark clouds receive considerably more attention. Run out of fuel once and the little warning light on the dashboard suddenly becomes much more persuasive. Leave a household repair unattended until it becomes an expensive emergency and you'll probably approach the next suspicious drip with greater enthusiasm. The lesson doesn't necessarily come from the mistake itself, but from remembering what happened and changing what you do the next time circumstances look familiar.

Fortunately, we don't have to make every mistake personally. Much practical knowledge is learned by watching and listening to other people. Parents, grandparents, teachers, coworkers, tradespeople, friends, and neighbors pass along lessons accumulated over years of their own experience. A child learns not to touch a hot stove because an adult explains the danger. A young driver learns to leave more stopping distance because an experienced driver teaches them why. Someone tackling a repair for the first time may avoid hours of frustration because another person says, "Before you start, here's something I learned the hard way." Borrowing somebody else's experience is one of the cheapest forms of education available.

Common sense also develops through observation. People who pay attention begin to recognize patterns: what tends to go wrong, which warning signs appear beforehand, and what successful people do differently. Over time, those observations become almost automatic. An experienced cook notices when something doesn't smell right, a mechanic hears a sound that others barely notice, and an experienced traveler spots the circumstances likely to cause a delay. What looks like instinct may actually represent hundreds of previous experiences quietly contributing to a decision.

Age can help, but simply getting older doesn't automatically produce better judgment. Experience only becomes useful when we're willing to learn from it. Someone who makes a mistake, considers why it happened, and changes their behavior has gained something valuable. Someone who repeats exactly the same mistake while blaming the weather, the equipment, the instructions, three other people, and possibly the alignment of the planets may require a little more time.

Perhaps the most important part of learning common sense is developing the willingness to stop and think. Ask questions when something isn't clear. Listen to people who know more about the subject. Consider what happened last time. Think about the likely consequences before acting. And when the evidence suggests your original idea was wrong, change it rather than defending it simply because it was yours.

Making a mistake doesn't demonstrate a lack of common sense. Everybody makes them, and many of our most useful practical lessons come directly from those occasions when judgment briefly deserted us.

Making the identical mistake repeatedly while expecting a different result, however, may eventually cause the rest of us to raise an eyebrow.

Fun Facts About Common Sense

The concept of common sense is much older than the modern observance devoted to it. Philosophers have discussed forms of shared perception and practical judgment since antiquity, although the meaning of the term has changed considerably over time.

Common sense is also heavily influenced by circumstances. What is considered sensible behavior in one place, profession or culture may be unfamiliar somewhere else.

Experience remains one of its strongest teachers, which helps explain why practical judgment often improves with age. Years provide more opportunities to recognize patterns, anticipate consequences and remember what happened the last time somebody said, "Don't worry, I've done this before."

Perhaps most importantly, possessing common sense doesn't mean never making mistakes. It means developing the judgment to avoid unnecessary ones—and learning something useful from those that inevitably slip through.

Why Use Your Common Sense Day Still Matters

Use Your Common Sense Day may have a humorous name, but its message becomes more relevant as everyday life becomes increasingly complicated.

We are surrounded by notifications, advertisements, opinions, instructions, algorithms and endless streams of information competing for attention. Being able to stop, examine a situation and ask whether something actually makes sense is an increasingly valuable ability.

Practical judgment also encourages personal responsibility. Rather than assuming somebody else will notice the problem, common sense asks whether there is something we can reasonably do ourselves. Rather than blindly accepting information, it encourages us to question it. Rather than waiting for consequences, it encourages us to anticipate them.

Those aren't particularly modern ideas. Parents and grandparents have been teaching versions of them for generations: look where you're going, take care of your belongings, don't believe everything you hear, finish what you start and think before you act.

The tools around us may have changed dramatically, but human nature hasn't kept quite the same pace.

Uncommonly Common Sense FAQ

Common sense sounds as though it ought to be simple. The clue is supposedly right there in the name. Yet the more closely we look at practical judgment, the more interesting it becomes. What seems perfectly obvious to one person may never occur to another, and much of what we confidently call common sense turns out to be experience wearing a very convincing disguise. Here are answers to some common questions about Use Your Common Sense Day and the decidedly uncommon business of common sense.

When is Use Your Common Sense Day?
Use Your Common Sense Day is observed every year on November 4. The date was chosen because it is the birthday of American humorist and commentator Will Rogers, who was born on November 4, 1879. Rogers became famous for his plainspoken observations about politics, society, and human nature, making his birthday an appropriate occasion for celebrating practical thinking and good judgment.

Who created Use Your Common Sense Day?
The modern observance is generally credited to author, consultant, and career success coach Bud Bilanich, who established Use Your Common Sense Day in 2007. The idea was to encourage people to use practical judgment in their personal and professional lives and to remember that complicated problems don't always require complicated solutions.

What does common sense actually mean?
Common sense generally means using practical judgment based on everyday knowledge, observation, reasoning, and experience. It helps us recognize likely consequences and make sensible decisions without requiring specialist expertise. In its simplest form, common sense is the ability to look at a situation, consider what is likely to happen next, and act accordingly.

Is common sense the same as intelligence?
No. Intelligence and common sense can certainly work together, but they aren't the same thing. A person can possess tremendous academic knowledge while occasionally displaying questionable practical judgment. Likewise, someone without extensive formal education may develop excellent common sense through years of experience. Knowing a great many things is useful; knowing what to do when something starts leaking at two o'clock in the morning is useful in an entirely different way.

Why isn't common sense common to everyone?
Because people don't share identical experiences. What seems obvious often depends on what someone has previously learned, seen, or encountered. Culture, upbringing, occupation, environment, education, and age can all influence practical judgment. Something considered basic common sense by a farmer, sailor, mechanic, parent, or computer technician may be completely unfamiliar to somebody encountering that situation for the first time.

Can common sense be learned?
Yes. Much of common sense develops through experience, observation, advice, and mistakes. We encounter a situation, discover what works—or what very definitely doesn't—and remember the lesson for next time. We can also learn from other people's experiences, which is generally preferable because it allows us to acquire the wisdom without necessarily acquiring the repair bill.

Does common sense improve with age?
It certainly can. Growing older provides more opportunities to encounter problems, recognize patterns, and learn from previous decisions. However, age alone doesn't guarantee good judgment. Experience becomes valuable when people reflect on what happened and adjust their behavior accordingly. Twenty years of experience can teach an enormous amount; repeating the same year twenty times is rather less productive.

Can technology replace common sense?
Technology can provide information, warnings, recommendations, and assistance, but it cannot remove the need for human judgment. Navigation systems can suggest routes, search engines can provide information, and artificial intelligence can help solve problems, but people still need to decide whether the result is appropriate for the circumstances. Technology works best as a tool supporting good judgment rather than replacing it.

What are some examples of common sense?
Common sense appears in countless ordinary decisions: locking the house when leaving, slowing down when roads are wet, checking the weather before an outdoor event, backing up important computer files, keeping dangerous substances away from children, questioning suspicious messages, and dealing with small maintenance problems before they become expensive ones. These decisions rarely attract attention precisely because, when common sense works properly, nothing dramatic happens.

What is the best way to celebrate Use Your Common Sense Day?
Spend November 4 paying greater attention to everyday decisions. Think before acting, deal with a small problem you've been postponing, simplify something unnecessarily complicated, share useful practical knowledge, or learn from one of your previous mistakes. No special equipment is required. Although having a roll of duct tape nearby has rarely hurt anyone.

One Last Sensible Thought

Use Your Common Sense Day doesn't ask anyone to become a philosopher, solve the world's problems or spend November 4 contemplating the deeper mysteries of human judgment.

It asks for something much simpler.

Pay attention. Think ahead. Learn from experience. Question things that don't seem right. And before making a decision, give yourself just enough time to consider what is likely to happen next.

You'll still make mistakes. Everyone does. Common sense isn't some magical ability that prevents every bad decision; it's the accumulated wisdom that helps prevent us from making quite so many of them.

And should everything else fail, there remains one remarkably dependable piece of practical advice handed down through generations:

If you don't know what the button does, perhaps don't press it.

At least not until someone else has left the room.