Are you intelligent but sometimes lack common sense?

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What I was saying about my Chemistry teacher 'telling me off' - when it happened on Monday it really annoyed me! She said assertively but jokingly, "Do you sometimes leave your common sense at home? Hmmm?" to which I replied, "Yep, people with AS do sometimes." Then she ignored that and said "But you're an intelligent person!"
I wasn't entirely sure how to reply to that.

I can't help but feel extremely conflicted and annoyed by her reponse, and I might just tell her that there is no such thing as 'true' common sense. For example, it was once common sense that the world was flat!

Yes my mother says I am the most stupid intelligent person she has ever met. She said this after I made scrambled egg and dropped it in the kitchen. I used a tea towel to clean it up and then put the tea towel in the dirty laundry basket. She was annoyed because the bits of scrambled egg on the tea towel got over all the other washing.

People having been telling me my whole life that I have no common sense and it is so obviously true. I am an Electrical Engineer, graduated Magna Cum Laude and was in advanced placement classes most of my life. I am good at learning and understanding complicated topics that I find interesting but when it comes to simple things in life that my less "gifted" friends can do no problem, I often feel challenged. I am frequently a little nervous to try something new because it may present challenges which though simple and obvious for most people might require some trial and error for me to accomplish. I can always manage to get done what I need to, but in the process I might look pretty stupid to your average person. I have a 6 year old daughter who seems better adjusted to certain aspects of life than I am. She helps me dress myself when my wife isn't around and I have to wear something that doesn't clash (I'm also colorblind which I feel is in someway related to my condition, but I don't think it fully explains my inability to recognize which clothes go together). For me personally (not counting relationship difficulties) this is the most challenging aspect of aspergers and I think it boils down to the fact that I just don't care about the usual mundane aspects of life. They aren't interesting so I don't think about them much and have to relearn them every time I encounter them. Anyways.. this is actually my first post ever since I came to realization that I have Aspergers. My coming out so to speak.. Hope it wasn't too boring.

Sounds exactly like me. I have always felt that I lacked that which is termed common sense. When I need to make a quick choice in "real life" the outcome is pretty much random. I have always sucked at practical things. I tried playing football when I was a kid, but the first thing I did was to kick the ball into the wrong goal. But at the same time I have no problems scoring the highest grades on courses at university. It's as if I'm incredibly stupid yet above average intelligent at the same time. I guess it evens out.

Just because something isn't "common" sense, it doesn't mean it's the incorrect thing to do. There's nothing wrong with having uncommon sense if what you are doing works. People often accuse me of missing the obvious, which I guess is the same or very similar.

To answer the OP, yes, I sometimes lack common sense. For example, this week I walked out of my house and promptly cost myself nearly eighty pounds sterling, because like a prannok, I forgot to take my key out of the back door. I was locked out, had to call a lock smith, and now have had to spend a week's grocery's for myself and my son, plus travel expenses to his school five days a week, on getting a lock smith to let us back in.

URGH

to me that seems a little bit like inattention, maybe ADHD'ish. i have the same issue....my mind is elsewhere. or, just because i'm a "dreamy" person. you could be a absent-minded professor type. i know this is long after the original post. but, maybe paying attention to your thoughts when those things go on. awareness.

Same thing happens to me unfortunately. Is it ADD? Guess so.

I've always had a weird procedure for doing things, sometimes I consider it incredibly intelligent.. other times.. i'm like what the heck?

I also have incredibly bad short term memory and if i'm stressed.. forget about it. I'm organized, but I used to do things like used keys in the car if I got yelled at or was dealing with someone who stressed me out.

I can't remember phone numbers through any other method other than dialing them, which is why it took me so long to remember the house phone number. (Muscle memory?)

Something like the whole lab thing you did, i've done..countless times. Something will come off as really logical to me and then it'll be shown to be otherwise. Can't think of a recent example tho.

Yeah, I'll always find a problem, start fixing it, and halfway through realize "Gee, there's a way that's alot easier and faster than this. Ah well, too late now. "

This is certainly me! I typically have done very well in school (excluding math), yet miss out on often what should be obvious. I am not surprised to see a connection between lack of common sense and Aspergers. Is it not one of the symptoms?

I suppose my lack of attention, single-mindedness, and strong individuality make me somewhat absent-minded, even foolish, but I still consider myself to have a reasonable amount of common sense.

Ha ha! Story of my life!

I can relate to some of those scenarios and a lot of us do. I often get looked at for being impulsive all the time. I cannot think of any good examples right now but when I think of any, I will revise.