There is an interesting interview in the New York Times with Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer, a German scocial phychologist, and director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, discussing "intuitive thinking" == or trusting your gut.
Dr. Gigerenzer has written a book entitled, Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious.
As Dr. Gigerenzer explains, a gut feeling "comes quickly into a person’s consciousness. The person doesn’t know why they have this feeling. Yet, this is strong enough to make an individual act on it. What a gut instinct is not is a calculation. You do not fully know where it comes from". These are based on "'heuristics.' These take advantage of certain capacities of the brain that have come down to us through time, experience and evolution. Gut instincts often rely on simple cues in the environment. In most situations, when people use their instincts, they are heeding these cues and ignoring other unnecessary information".
The Doctor believes that gut feelings in this country get a bum rap, where reviewing information like an accountant often demands too much information and is slow. He claims studies show that many times gut feelings can out perform the most complex calculations.
To some degree I think this is true, especially among attorneys who fret over moving home or going virtual. They over calculate what is not important, such as overhead items like rent, staff, etc, and well under evaluate the peace of mind issues and easy of work.
Sometimes we just have to go with our gut feelings.
In my life I think it is reasonable to state that I have made some bad decisions relying on my gut. But, I tend to think that I have made as many bad decisions, or have lost opportunities, trying to be calculating. The truth of the matter is I have probably made more right gut decisions than bad. I tend to call it "faith". And, the further truth is that often time comparing all of the information in the World does not make a decision better or easier. It is often just to hard to draw conclusions.
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