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Is there such thing as Common Sense?

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I had some great conversation recently which included a few conversations about the lack of common sense in the world. Interestingly from my conversations the lack of common sense in the world appears to be a fairly common view! 

 

So I was listening to Marcus Buckingham author of "Discover Your Strengths" and I found my mind relating back to the common sense conversations I’d had. This is the essence of what Marcus said

 

On the 42nd day after conception the brain starts developing neurons, but not a few neurons, a 100 billion, and not over a life time, But 100 billion neurons in 120 days that's 9500 per second.

 

But just like transistors which make up computer chips neurons can't do anything unless they're connected.

 

So 60 days before birth our neurons start trying to connect to each other and when they make a connection a synapse is formed.

But neurons don't just join to one other neuron, on average every neuron connects to 15,000 other neurons. 
So just to be clear this means that by the time your 3 years old you have 100 billion neurons each with 15,000 connections

 

Digressing slightly, from the age of six your synapses start to fail, yes those pathways you don't use simply fall into disrepair and break.

By the time you wake up on your 16th birthday half your network has gone.

You can build a few more connections through developing memory or learning but you can never rebuild your network to the size it was when you were six

 

Back to the plot, according to Marcus the areas of the brain which have the strongest connections are the ones which govern most of our thoughts

Now this got me thinking over a very nice glass of Chapel Hill Vedehlo (a wine I would recommend if you ever see it)

With so many neurons and synapses the configuration of my brain and hence my strongest connections are going to be very different to everyone else’s in the world. 

You and me are absolutely unique, not just a little but if we (6.5 billion people) were computers and our neurons were identical transistors it would take more than 2,100 years before an identical configuration was built. Add in the complexity of biology, learning and memory and the figure becomes an infinite length of time.

 

To me this means

I can think in a way that no one else has, will or would, and hence I will do things that no else has, will or could do.

And if I'm looking for “my view of common sense” then maybe its going to be a little harder to find than I used to think.

Which I guess is why a lack of common sense in the world is a fairly common view.

 

Till next week be yourself

David Gardner

 Recommended Audio CD's
 
THE MUST HAVE
"THE ACHIEVERS EDGE" 
By Peter Thompson
 
More Great CD Programs
 Think & Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
 Good to Great - Jim Collins
 Psychology of Achievement - Brian Tracy
 Discover Your Strengths - M Buckingham
 7 Habits of Highly Effective- Stephen Covey
 Rich Dads Secrets - Robert Kiyosaki
 Maverick Mindset - John Elliot
 Vocal Power - Roger Love
 Quantum Memory - Dominic O'Brien
 Getting Things Done - David Allen
A Short History of Nearly Everything- B Bryson

 

 Recommended Books

 Good to Great - Jim Collins 
  7 Habits - Stephen Covey
  The Automatic Millionaire -David Bach
  Discover you Strengths - M Buckingham 
  Richard Branson's Auto biography
  Brilliant Memory - Dominic O'Brien
  Think & Grow Rich -  Napoleon Hill 
  Freakonomics - Stephen Levitt
 Getting Things Done - David Allen
 The Machine That Changed the World
 Watching the English - Kate Fox
A Short History of Nearly Everything- B Bryson

 

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Other books and CDs I've mentioned can be found here

There are loads of great audio programs at Nightingale Conant's ,web site here,