Common sense choices are not always your best choice.

In fact, Albert Einstein once claimed that common sense is just the collections of prejudices that we acquire by the age of eighteen. I have to admit that I agree with him whole-heartedly. Too often, what people call “common sense” is a failure to understand another's point of view, or an inability to think outside of the box.

Obviously, common sense is not all bad. Common sense tells me to not step in front of a moving car. Common sense tells me that if I put my hand on a hot stove I will get burned. I don’t think that I will question the accuracy of my “common sense” in order to test those beliefs. However, many beliefs that we fail to question -- believing they are common sense -- can actually signal a failure to expand a limiting belief system. Here are a few humorous examples of some famous people who failed to think outside of their own limited boxes and ended up going down in history as somewhat foolish men.

_____* In 1899, the director of the US Patent office, Charles H. Duell, is said to have announced, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

_____* In 1905, President Grover Cleveland once commented, “Sensible women do not want to vote.”

_____* In 1923, Robert Miliken, Nobel Prize winner for physics, claimed, “There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.”

_____* In 1885, Lord Kelvin, president of England’s Royal Society—a scientific organizing, make the assertion, “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."

_____* In 1921, baseball great Tris Speaker is quoted as saying, “(Babe) Ruth make a big mistake when he gave up pitching.”

It seems that we humans can begin to sound foolish when we trust our “common sense” without question and fail to ever look outside the boxes of our own perception. So here is my question, “How well do you think outside of the box?” Here is a riddle that I often give my students in order to demonstrate the human tendency to think inside of the same old patterns. Try to connect all nine dots with only four straight lines while not lifting your pencil. And yes, you are allowed to cross the same dot twice.


Hint: You will never get it right unless you can think outside of the box. If you would like to view the official answer, click here...

Good luck, and let me know how you do...