Which is more important? Intelligence or Common Sense?

Canada
December 12, 2007 5:24am CST
I came upon this question a few days ago and it's boggled my mind since! I tend to lean towards Common Sense. What would you say?
3 people like this
19 responses
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
12 Dec 07
How ironic you would start a discussion like this. My husband has more intelligence, (not that I am stupid, he just understand his math and science more than I do, lol), and I have the common sense. They are both important, but it would be nice if my husband had a little more common sense and I had a little more intelligence. Because he loves to make fun of my lack of certain knowledge and it irritates me to no end to see him do or not do something that common sense would have him make the right decision and instead makes the wrong choice..:(
• Canada
13 Dec 07
My husband is more intelligent than I am as well. Doesn't bother me unless I start feeling stupid in a situation however he would never purposely make me feel that way. I think it's very immature of your husband to make fun of you, lacks common sense!
1 person likes this
• United States
13 Dec 07
There you go, proof that he has no common sense,,lol
1 person likes this
• Canada
13 Dec 07
I knew you would see the irony in that one LOL I think it's normal for a common sens-er to marry an intellectual. It's like you now complete each other... in that sense anyways!
1 person likes this
• United States
13 Dec 07
I lean toward common sense more than intelligence. The reason being that you can be book smart and have absolutely no common sense whatsoever. This is crazy!! If you have no common sense, you will not make it far in this world today. It just helps to have common sense along with your knowledge of other things because if you don't life will kick your butt!!
1 person likes this
• United States
13 Dec 07
This is soo true. It takes good common sense to make it in any industry these days. Like back in the day, business owners weren't all that intelligent, they just had enough common sense to make the right decisions and their businesses flourished because of those decisions.
1 person likes this
• Canada
13 Dec 07
Like I was just discussing with hubby. Take two employees, one from a fast food chain and the other a vice-president of a high tech company. We can assume that chances are VP is more intelligent however in no sense does it mean he has more common sense! With good common sense, you can still survive on a McDonald's income however you still need good common sense to run a business.
1 person likes this
@SViswan (12051)
• India
13 Dec 07
I would say common sense. No use of intelligence without common sense. And if you have common sense you can succeed in life without being intelligent.
1 person likes this
• Canada
13 Dec 07
Absolutely.
@nengs10 (3180)
• Philippines
13 Dec 07
They go better together. But separately, I think common sense is more reliable. It is the same as being a street-smart. There are really things that can't be learned in school.
• Canada
13 Dec 07
Very Very true!
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
13 Dec 07
I think Intelligence will pay the bills, but common sense will pave the life. I hear so much the quote " Engineers (like civil or industrial) can solve world peace on paper, but they can't balance a check book!" Unfortunately, I have witnessed this "quore", seen it in action with my own eyes!!
1 person likes this
• Canada
13 Dec 07
I've heard that quote too, thanks for bringing that up!
@Estina54 (385)
• United States
12 Dec 07
Common sense is one of the best qualities a human owns. Intelligence is important and so is creativity. However it is our common sense that helps us use our knowlege right in order to be productive and creative. Somebody might have plenty of information is his/her mind, but it is common sense that is organizing this information, that helps them use this knowledge intelligently and productively.
• Canada
13 Dec 07
I agree 100% which is way I also chose Commone Sense! Thanks for your input!
@Ravenladyj (22902)
• United States
12 Dec 07
I think they are of equal importance actually....Being a former street kid, there were times and situations when "intelligence" as in book smarts were of no use..whereas commen sense as in street smarts were what got me through.....Sometimes being "intelligent" is the needed thing and other times its "common sense"
1 person likes this
• Canada
13 Dec 07
I had not thought of separating intelligence and common sense into 'book smart' and 'street smart' but what you say makes a lot of sense.
@Ciniful (1587)
• Canada
12 Dec 07
I'd say they're equally important, since they're reliant on each other. A person can contain a world of common sense, but without intelligence wouldn't have the capacity to put it to good use. On the flipside, an intelligent person lacking common sense wouldn't have the simple mechanics required to apply his intelligence to anything worthwhile. This is all assuming we're talking about intelligence, not IQ. They're two entirely different things.
1 person likes this
• Canada
12 Dec 07
I completely agree! Having one without the other would seem ridiculous! However we were trying to come up with a single answer! If I had to pick one of the two, I'd say common sense is more important.
• United States
12 Dec 07
While I'm inclined to agree with Cini, watching my fiance, I'm going to have to say that common sense is slightly more important. He is extremely intelligent and highly educated, but he literally has no common sense whatsoever and it's ridiculous.
1 person likes this
• Canada
12 Dec 07
Ok you made me laugh! I can only imagine how frustrating that can be! This question came to us as we were eating dinner at a restaurant. It had some cards with interesting questions such as this one. Hubby is stuck on Intelligence where as I tend to lean towards Common Sense! Thanks for your input!
• United States
5 Jan 08
Put me down for common sense.These days it isn't as "common" as it used to be.There are many smart people that do stupid things.And there are many who have common sense that may never pass a science test.The one with common sense would make better decisions than the intelligent person who may out think the problem.In the perfect world, a little bit of both would work very nicely.
@pilbara (1436)
• Australia
13 Dec 07
I think they are both important. However I also lean toward common sense. I have known a few people who were academically brilliant but didn't deal very well with the day to day common sense stuff that most other people had no problem with. I think it would be easier to have sense but not be brilliant than to have no sense and be extremely clever.
1 person likes this
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
12 Dec 07
While being intelligent is important in how a person does in a profession, common sense is just as important. Some people used to call common sense "street smarts". I have one daughter who was very smart in school but she really did not have a lot of common sense. I had another daughter who had more common sense. She seemed to figure her way around the world better than the intellegent one. I really think for any one to be sucessful it is important to have common sense and intellegence. Common sense makes the intellegence work better.
1 person likes this
• Canada
13 Dec 07
I agree that they both go hand in hand. My daugthers are exactly like you described yours. One is intelligent but lacks common sense, and the other vice versa. My husband and I have had many discussions about them. Even though my oldest is quite intelligent, we suspect that the youngest with more common sense would make wiser choices in life.
@Modestah (11179)
• United States
13 Jan 08
doesn't matter how large your genius if you haven't a lick of sense in how to apply it.
@bbsr13 (4196)
• India
12 Dec 07
Hello,Momma! in every body's life both intelligence and common sense bear the same importance.but in absence of common sense you can not manage your affairs smoothly.i am telling you from my experience.once my officer was called by the authority and asked the reason of fall in the growth rate of population of an important area and my officer could not say any reason.he returned and asked me to bring up all papers relating to census and did lot of exercise but could not get a reply and got perturbed.i asked him the reason of his tension.he narrated the episode and instantly i replied that in the previous years the area was developing for the establishment of an industry for which there was influx of population but when the indstry was completed the influx was checked and that is the only reason for falling the growth rate of population of that area.the authority was convinced with this.was the officer or the authority not intelligent?they were rather more qualified than me but they lake the IQ.so think what is important.IQ is more important definitely.thank you.good day.
• Canada
13 Dec 07
That's an interesting story however I would say that your brillance was common sense and not intelligence. You were able to see things clearly where as the other two needed some sort of explanation. They might be intelligent but you had more common sense!
@balasri (26537)
• India
17 Dec 07
I have seen many so called intelligent people behaving with out a common sense.You can acquire intelligence if you want to .It is your wish.But as the common sense involves the public you must have it first.
@cuterose (1698)
• India
14 Dec 07
I feel comman sense is more important than intelligence. without comman sense intelligence is not 100% fit.
@rosema (1145)
• Philippines
25 Dec 07
I think common sense is more important than intelligence. what is intelligence without common sense? this is only my idea, lol
• United States
14 Dec 07
Common Sense all the way! I've known a lot of highly intellegent people who don't have a lick of common sense and it ain't pretty if you know what I mean.
• India
25 Dec 07
i feel common sense is more important.............as we got to know how to behave in ta suitable environment.....