What do you consider to be basic, common sense knowledge?

[Zelfouz]

I remember 5 years ago, when I would hear "calculus" and think "really hard math that you'll never be able to figure out". But now, in my last year of a physics honours degree, I very often forget that there are people who don't even know what it actually is! To me, that seems like knowledge almost as basic as knowing which way is up. Of course, it isn't, but after being immersed in a culture for so long it's easy to forget that.

What knowledge can you not imagine yourself living without? Bonus points if it's something most other people actually do live without.

An example from the other end, I live with a bunch of liberal arts students who often have discussions about philosophy and state a lot of things in a very "this is common knowledge" way, but I usually don't know what they're talking about. It's buckets of fun (It really is! I learn a lot).

 

[Ellie]

The ability to use a computer and the Internet. Or rather my ability to use a computer and the Internet. I used to always get asked how to make tables in word and shit, asked with simple things like "whats a search engine", etc. Nobody knows how to use a computer >:|

 

[Zelfouz]

That is something I take for granted as common knowledge, too. Even if I don't know how to do something off of the top of my head, it just seems like a matter of screwing around for a minute and making shit happen, but a lot of people don't see it that way. I suppose whatever new technology develops after I turn 40 will be really confusing for me, too.

 

[Tindy]

How to use a search engine...... got really annoying my first year in college when my roomie would say "I can't find it!" And I'd immediately go to her computer and find whatever in a minute....

How to use punctuation! Not even grammar, just punctuation. "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" is an entire book devoted to the phenomenon...

Geishas are NOT Chinese... Neither is sushi...

Read BEFORE you act! Argh it's so annoying when you can tell someone's doing whatever (though I'm referring now to the forum) when you can tell someone didn't bother to read the rules, guidelines, etc...

How to find anything on your computer desktop.

 

[Venetia]

outside of the obvious technology-related things, ... driving. even though i spent more time in my life not knowing how to drive than the opposite, it's very difficult for me to imagine not knowing how to do it.

what else ... hmm ...

knowing that "PTO" stands for "Paid Time Off". It's been that acronym at every job I've ever had, but when I casually say "PTO" in conversation, only half of the listeners know what the hell I'm talking about.

 

[High Hopes]

A lot of my video game skills are like instinct to me after years of playing them. I can quickly learn from and adapt to any new and confusing video game.

 

[candle]

knowing how to burn a cd. this may seem trivial to most people but I dont think my parents have quite figured it out yet. I remember just after we had my mom's computer built close to 10 years ago and we had a cd-rw drive put it. it came with nero 4 and my dad couldn't figure it out. a couple months later i wanted to burn a cd and sat there for maybe 5 minutes before i realized how to do it.

 

[Velocir_X]

Downloading torrents, and utilizing cracks/keygens....

When I asked a cousin of mine how to do it ages ago, all he did was give me a couple of websites, and I sat down and figured it out in like 5 mins. It's pretty self-explanatory

On the other hand when I try and teach my pals over here, I have to spend around an hour on the phone trying to explain to them, and they still don't get it :pissed:

 

[Venetia]

Oh yeah, same here on that. About 3 years ago or so, I had no idea what a torrent was. Now ... They are my life :angel:

 

[candle]

I know what a torrent is but i dont like them. almost all the torrents i try to use are dead

 

[psiclone]

ye need to go to better sites and/or your client is effed up the a.

 

[Glitchfinder]

Knowing how to program and write code. Seriously. I can't really imagine doing without that, yet almost nobody seems to know what the hell I'm talking about when I mention it. Aside from that, knowing how to actually do pretty much anything computer related. A lot of people I know can't solve even simple problems with a computer, and it seems like they just aren't trying, when the reality is that they simply have no clue what they're doing.

 

[Brewmeister]

I can easily imagine living without computers or calculus, cell phones, video games, even cable/satellite TV... (because I did)

"Basic, common sense" knowledge, as you refer to it, would be more like...

Starting a fire
Disinfecting & preserving water
first aid
growing, foraging, hunting & food storage
cooking
building a shelter
sewing & weaving
swimming, climbing
and of course... fermentation. :scruff:

 

[Tindy]

Ahaha Brew.... that reminds me of...actually EVERY year that I've been at college so far.

Without fail, at least ONE person in the dorm has to say "I don't know how to cook. I've been living off bread for the last three weeks." No! No! You DO know how to cook! Try harder!

 

[Glitchfinder]

Ahaha Brew.... that reminds me of...actually EVERY year that I've been at college so far.

Without fail, at least ONE person in the dorm has to say "I don't know how to cook. I've been living off bread for the last three weeks." No! No! You DO know how to cook! Try harder!

I'm that person.

As for other common sense knowledge, there's a really good one for the workplace. Specifically, do NOT leave money where someone could make off with it, like a bunch of C notes in the far left portion of some of our registers, where a good thief could grab one the moment you look away. (Honestly, it's happened to some of my coworkers, and they still do it, even AFTER being told exactly why they were $300 short that day...)

Another one is that, when restocking the bags at the register, to make sure you take the partially used sets of bags off, before putting new sets on, so that you don't end up wasting space with a bunch of partially used bag sets. (Because of how the bagging system at my workplace is set up, there is a physical limit to how many sets of bags you can put in them)

Oh, and another piece of common sense that somehow gets ignored: Make sure you have enough bags for Black Friday, well in advance. We've been forced to snag bags from other stores because our operations supervisor conveniently forgot to order more before quitting a week ago.

 

[Ellie]

What's black friday?

 

[Glitchfinder]

What's black friday?

It's an American thing. Basically, the Friday after thanksgiving. Traditionally, its the day when most businesses make it into a positive cash flow for the year (going into the black, and out of the red). It's also one of the single biggest shopping days of the year, with many places of business opening far too early, and offering far too much in the way of good sales. At least one person dies every year because of the event, usually through something preventable like being crushed into the doors of a store by a large crowd. (Last year a pregnant woman and someone else died at a store in New York, after the crowd literally pushed through the closed glass doors and into the store, trampling those two. And then they had the gall to complain when the police forced them out of the store and started questioning them about the deaths)

 

[Venetia]

it's the day after thanksgiving. all the stores here drop their prices significantly for a one-day-only extreme shop-a-thon in prep for xmas. it's insane, I never take part in it. Don't want to get trampled.

Man when I worked retail, black friday was the WORST.

edit: dangit glitch >:O

 

[Ellie]

Sounds like an IKEA opening event lol; people die/tramples/ow there too

 

[Glitchfinder]

it's the day after thanksgiving. all the stores here drop their prices significantly for a one-day-only extreme shop-a-thon in prep for xmas. it's insane, I never take part in it. Don't want to get trampled.

Man when I worked retail, black friday was the WORST.

edit: dangit glitch >:O

I still work retail. And you're right, its the worst day of the year to work retail. I'm just glad that people don't swarm to office supply stores like they do toy stores and such. For many people, working black Friday is the equivalent to working at a toy store the day they release a new video game system, and knowing your store only got five of them to sell. I had a few friends with horror stories of days like that. (For example, one of them used to work at a Target, when they released the Wii. They had to call the mall security, because people were being jumped and having their Wii's stolen the moment they left the store)