The never-ending flight of stairs.

One of the main focuses of Chapter 1 was that we cannot always trust our common sense. Although this point is probably very obvious, I believe that it is often overlooked. One example of how we often mistakenly rely on our common sense is the idea of naive realism, which is defined as the belief that we see the world precisely as it is. Yes, it is true that we use this naive realism in our everyday lives. For example, if we were to approach a green stoplight while driving, we would unconsciously trust that that stoplight was indeed green, and proceed to drive through the intersection. However, there are moments where our eyes and our brains can perceive us.
One example that I found online was this picture of a building with several levels and several flights of stairs. When you first glance at the picture, you probably do not notice anything wrong with the structure and design of the building. However, if you were to look more closely, you would find that the staircase at the top of the building is in fact never-ending. There is no entrance or exit, and it appears that the people are continually walking the same flight of stairs. Even after making this observation, it may be hard to wrap your brain around this concept of a never-ending staircase. Through this example, we can more easily recognize that what we notice initially, and what we believe we are looking at, can be deceiving.

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