Practical Intelligence: The Art and Science of Common Sense

Chapter 3. WHAT IS PRACTICAL INTELLIGENCE?

"... if we once start thinking, no one can guarantee where we shall come out—except that many ends, objects, and institutions are doomed. Every thinker puts some portion of an apparently stable world in peril, and no one can wholly predict what will emerge in its place."

—John Dewey (American educator)

ACCORDING TO A WIDELY CIRCULATED STORY that quickly became an Internet parable—or possibly a legend—a bricklayer had injured himself while working on a repair project at the top of a low-rise building. On his claim form for medical insurance, he tried to minimize the incident by answering the question, "What caused the accident?" with the brief response, "Faulty judgment." When pressed by the company's claims ...