How often do you interact with someone, only to shake your head and wonder to yourself, “Does this person have any common sense whatsoever?” If you’ve ever worked in any service industry, or had to deal with customers, or people, on any level, you probably ask yourself this question dozens of times every day. That customer that put his bread and eggs at the bottom of the bag, only to put the 5-lb bag of oranges on top; the patient that drinks two liters of soda every day and wonders why his blood sugar is so high; the BMW driver that spends $40k on a car, but doesn’t understand what a blinker is used for; and on and on.

As much as we like to dismiss these people as idiots, buffoons, or simpletons, the reality is that there are multiple factors at play, including lack of knowledge and/or experience, culture, religion, etc. Common sense is exactly what it means – common with regards to your own experience or senses. Let’s try out some examples:

1) You’re at a friend’s house and the toilet won’t flush. Common sense says you should probably go tell your friend – it’s their house, they probably know what to do. How many of us instead, try to flush it again, only to have it overflow. How many of us try to open the toilet and fix it? Or search for the plunger to try to unstuck it? How many just simply close the lid and try to pretend it never happened?

2) You’re in line at the newly opened coffee shop, only to realize the menu looks totally different than the one posted online. Common sense says you should stand to the side, maybe spend some time looking at the menu, then actually get in line to order once you have an idea of what a super mocha limon twist grappo is. Instead, most of us just walk right up to the cashier with a dumbfounded look on our face, stare at the menu for several minutes, while the line behind us gets longer, then just order a plain coffee because nothing makes sense.

As much as we tend to berate others for lack of common sense, we hardly ever stop to consider if our common sense isn’t all that common. The truth is most of us lack the patience or empathy to consider another person’s perspective. Instead, we prefer to project our own experiences onto others because it takes less effort. So maybe it’s just common sense that we all lack some common sense.