Uncommon Sense:
Counter-intuitive principles and parables for our increasingly complex times

A significant part of our on-going discussion will focus on the need to develop what might be dubbed “Uncommon Sense” – a set of counter-intuitive principles and parables that can help to guide us through today’s post-Goldilocks world.

More specifically, we have entered a X-treme environment in which the phenomena that we encounter often go far beyond the traditional experiences that we encountered in the more familiar, common-sense world of the past.

• Today’s challenges increasingly involve figuring out how to handle situations that involve unprecedented extremes of being too hot, too cold, too fast, too slow, too big, too small, too complex, too simple,….

Recurring themes that will be part of our continuing Uncommon Sense explorations will include:

• In praise of “bad” ideas (which will build on the discussion that was begun in the essay with that title.)
• FYI – Follow your irritation, and it probably will lead you someplace good.
• How to build your success on the strength of weak ties.
• Valuable lessons from expert novices.
• The future of prediction…and the long arm of the law of unintended consequences.
• The art of turning problems into your most important product.
• The art and science of fruitful failure – how failing well can be a key to your success.
  
• Unleashing the power of thinking the unthinkable.