“常識”從來都不應該被視為理所當然。它是經年累月沈積下來的信仰與習慣，但它也可以是非常個人及自我中心的。

每次當認識一位新的客戶時，就是重新檢討何謂常識的最好時機；尤其當客戶不是個人單位－一對夫婦，一個公司，一個組織機構，等等。很有可能在一位“客戶”當中已經存在了數套不同的常識，而它們都不是絕對的。

接著設計案的性質也需要注目。它是私人用途（例如住宅），商業用途（例如餐廳），公共用途（例如大學）？使用者可以是特定少數，不特定多數，或介於兩者之間的任何一點。

很多時候設計案停擺的原因，在於參與的（很多很多）人不能夠達到共識。如同生活中許多事情，最小的第一步大概是開始接受每個人都有著跟你稍微不同版本的常識的事實，並且準備好出發去尋找大家不同常識版本中重疊的“常識分母”。

無論我們的常識是多麼不同，這些常識間必定或多或少有共通的分母。最終決定的是你，願意付出多少努力去尋找這個分母呢。

“Common sense” should never be taken for granted. It is the product of beliefs and habits formed over prolonged period of time, but it can be something very individualist and egocentric.

Every time when meeting a new client, it is the time to reassess what is common sense; even more so when the client is not singular - a couple, a company, an organisation, etc. It is highly likely that within the “client” there exists several sets of common sense, and none of them are absolute.

Then the nature of the project comes into play. Is it for private use (eg. house), commercial use (eg. restaurant), public use (eg. university)? The users can be specific small number, non-specific large number, or anything in between.

A lot of the time projects go on hold, because the common sense can not be shared amongst the (many many) people involved. Same as a lot of other things in life, the first baby step is probably to start recognising that everybody owns a slightly different version of common sense to that of yours, and be ready to seek out the “common sense denominator”, where the various versions of common sense overlap.

No matter how different our common sense are, there is ought to be a common denominator. It is about how much effort one is willing to invest in finding it.