Even though we have expensive downtown Toronto condos, plentiful fast food restaurants, cars to take us anywhere we want to go, and more malls than we can shake a stick at, surviving in today's world isn't always easy. Depending on who you ask, you either need a lot of street smarts or a hefty dose of common sense to keep from walking into an accident waiting to happen. But what is street smarts? Is it the same as common sense? Which is better? This article will help you figure it out.
When someone is said to have street smarts, they really know what is going on at the ragged edges of life. They know to avoid the dark alleys behind their Toronto lofts and how to cross the highway without getting run over. They know how to avoid - and if necessary deal with - drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless people, and muggers. They know which parts of the city are and are not safe to visit, both in daytime and at night, and can tell just by looking at someone whether they're dangerous or not.
The advantage of being street smart is that it keeps you from accidentally running into dangerous situations when you decide to walk home from school or your Richmond Hill dentists office. Street smarts tend to develop in city dwellers, especially ones who can't always rely on other people, such as their parents or the police, to protect them. Street smarts can be learned from a mentor or friend or through the "school of hard knocks” (i.e. making mistakes and learning from them).
Common sense, on the other hand, is the ability to make a good judgment call just based on what you see. It's the ability to figure out what's going on - even if you haven't encountered the situation before - and to come up with a course of action that gets you what you want. Someone with common sense, therefore, would not need to be taught not to spray the air pressurizer from the art shop into someone's face. They wouldn't need to be mugged by a homeless person to figure out that they're dangerous. They would just know intuitively.
The advantage of having common sense is that you can walk into any situation and feel confident in your ability to assess it, act, and come out safely on the other side. People with common sense could teach themselves how to FramedCanvasArt.ca. Unlike street smarts, common sense cannot be taught. You either have it or you don't, though some people choose not to use it, either because they mistrust their instincts or because they want to fit in with peers who do not act with common sense.
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