James A. Little Theater
Community Event
  US Mountain Time

The Myth of Common Sense:  Why Everything that Seems Obvious Isn’t

Duncan Watts, Principal Researcher, Microsoft; author, Everything Is Obvious Once You Know The Answer; and former SFI External Professor.

Relying on "common sense" is the sensible thing to do, right? Not always. Although common sense can be useful for dealing with everyday problems, it can suffer from systematic failures when applied to complex problems in government, business, and marketing. Physicist-turned-sociologist Duncan Watts shows how we get duped by our shared assumptions and demonstrated how learning to question common sense can lead to better solutions. 

This lecture is generously underwritten by the Peters Family Foundation. Support for SFI's 2012 lecture series is provided by Los Alamos National Bank.

SFI Host: 
Ginger Richardson