Wednesday, December 27, 2006

On Intuition (Major Axiom VII)

The Seventh Major Axiom: A hunch can be trusted if it can be explained

Minor Axiom XI: Never confuse a hunch with a hope.

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I have a companion book for this and that is Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. It's a fascinating read on how we make judgments seemingly based on intuition, but in fact our brain is processing in a way that is occulted from our consciousness.

Gladwell's Tipping Point is also a favorite of mine. I read it at a time when it was very meaningful in the business in which I was in--I came away with a couple of very solid ideas that I was able to implement within the company that I worked.

I think that Gladwelll as a very accessible and engaging style. His work certainly put the phrase "Tipping Point" into the vernacular!

2 comments:

russell1200 said...

Hunches and the blink affect work when you have a body of knowledge and expertise in the area under question.

I see finance people discuss their "hunches" with regards to various construction-development economic activities and it is often laughable. They have not done their home work and have no clue what they are talking about.

If a hunch is supporting something that you wish to believe it is very suspect.

Leisa♠ said...

"Hunches and the blink affect work when you have a body of knowledge and expertise in the area under question."

Agreed. That's the nice thing about being older. You realize that you have amassed all of this body of knowledge and so many things just don't make it past your sniff test.