Don't follow your intuition

When was the last time you felt that pang of “Damn! I wish I hadn’t followed my intuition!”

It just doesn’t happen, does it?

Does that mean you should always follow your intuition?

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1 Mark Aufflick // Nov 11, 2006 at 10:48 PM

I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes I think our logical thought process can be a liability because life is not a series of parallel finite state machines or even a complex petri-net ;) Life contains things much less tangeble that we can't 'model' in ways that our logical brains would like, but we have a part of our being that seems tuned to these intangible aspects. My question is the same as yours - how do we balance the two kinds of our 'thoughts'. It's not as simple as just doing what we 'want' to do (although sometimes it is), and it's not as simple as just doing what seems 'right' according to the prevailing social context either. The measuring problem is that we don't keep a good mental record of our instincts. What I think you are expressing is a culmination of a number of remembered regrets where you didn't follow your instinct, and that had negative consequences. Regret is a very strong stimulous to our memory. I imagine there are times that your brain overrode your instinct, and it turned out to be the right thing. I just don't think we recall those moments as easily. Food for thought!
2 robin // Nov 12, 2006 at 09:22 AM

Depends how realistic you are. How many times do you not follow your intuition and after it becomes apparent that you were off the mark think "that was lucky"? Incidentally, if you consistently have incorrect intuition, then you can consistently do the opposite and still succeed! :-)

Lars Pind