mark++

Intuition is the brain’s way of compressing huge sequences of logical cause and effect down to a single “feeling”. It’s a lossy algorithm. Eventually, you throw away all the reasoning and just keep the nice compact conclusion.

In some sense, our intuition defines us.

I’ve spent most of my life developing intuition, which I implicitly trust, since I created it. Others don’t trust my intuition, any more than I trust theirs — and I don’t blame them. So, more and more often, I am forced to deconstruct my own intuition; to decompress my brain. I say to myself, “I know that sounds wrong. It just doesn’t feel right. Now, why the hell do I feel that way?”

As with all lossy compression algorithms, intuition is damn hard to reverse.

Update:
Apparently someone has written a book about this called Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. I’ve just added this to my Amazon Wishlist.