Joseph Grammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "intuition"
Intuition Peak
In Antarctica, there is a mountain named for that feeling you get when you just know somebody is a scumbag, even if you can't put your finger on why. Your judgment of this dude is influenced by your past experiences with scummy-looking guys, to the point where your brain makes a conclusion without considering other options. Maybe you see him on a street corner where you've seen other scumbags standing, hollering at ladies, making vaguely threatening remarks to passersby. This guy is a scumbag, then, because he's doing the same thing.
Can this heuristic be wrong? Sure, why not. It sounds like a pretty reliable way to stereotype, and as a result I propose to challenge intuition whenever I can.
In a dangerous situation, I won't have time to decide the best course of action. I just react. But with a less damaging problem, I look at my gut feeling and skeptically tilt my glasses at it.
Post angry comment on Facebook? My belly says yes, but a host of pathways in my brain remind me how I value courtesy in my exchanges with others. Maybe saying "You're a dumb asshole" won't bring me the satisfaction I initially think it will.
Now, plenty of people never do this. Someone snipes at them, they snipe back. It's human nature, you might say, and to a degree it is. But reason is as equally human in my book.
Having said this, I'm not an exceptionally logical guy. I'm crappy at math and engineering, and I've been heavily right-brained my entire life. I prefer parallel links and feelings to hierarchies of logic; it's what helps me write fiction. To sense a random impulse and follow it along in a story is an immensely rewarding activity.
But I've written myself into some holes this way, too. At the time it might seem like an awesome idea to add an action-style firefight, but then I realize the repercussions of such an event in a realistic book. Characters' injuries would severely slow them down; the police would arrive, and would give chase; fingerprints would be everywhere.
What are the odds, then, that my narrator will actually escape to Denmark like I want?
Now, it's cool to stretch credibility in a story. You can make a guy super-smart and superhuman, so that he makes it onto the departing ship with three bullet wounds in his torso and nine squad cars in pursuit. But it's not always what you want.
Intuition is supposed to save you time by shoving the right choice in your face. This is a fantastic brain invention, even if it fails sometimes. The way to minimize failure is to gain a great deal of experience with whatever it is you're making decisions about. Which means learning.
In many stories and films, there's some elderly character who believes his intuition is infallible, and an opposing young character who spends the tale proving the old person wrong. "The world has changed, old man. You can't judge things by your outdated standards and expect to come out on top."
Intuition Peak is so named to honor the contribution of "gut instincts" to science and research. Some people view it as being "in tune" with yourself, tapping into a spiritual "oneness," or seeing things "as they really are." Whatever. It's just a way to save brain space.
Intuition led me to write this tangent and keep myself moving so I don't feel like crap about my career, which felt much better than sitting and weighing the merits of a possible blogpost would have. Maybe I should've used my time to do my taxes or dead-lift 100 pounds, but I didn't.
Sometimes my gut tells me to make astoundingly shitty choices. It's difficult, then, to parse out when instincts are helpful and harmful, and when reason is helpful and harmful. Everything turns into this gray, nebulous mass. How do I decide anything?
By accepting most decisions won't be perfect, I guess. Relinquishing some control and trusting your body and mind, while not abandoning all choice to fate. Here lie the boundaries of human action.
If intuition is a mountain, don't bother climbing to the top: you'll only dig yourself into a hole. But it's cool to have a mountain in the background.
Can this heuristic be wrong? Sure, why not. It sounds like a pretty reliable way to stereotype, and as a result I propose to challenge intuition whenever I can.
In a dangerous situation, I won't have time to decide the best course of action. I just react. But with a less damaging problem, I look at my gut feeling and skeptically tilt my glasses at it.
Post angry comment on Facebook? My belly says yes, but a host of pathways in my brain remind me how I value courtesy in my exchanges with others. Maybe saying "You're a dumb asshole" won't bring me the satisfaction I initially think it will.
Now, plenty of people never do this. Someone snipes at them, they snipe back. It's human nature, you might say, and to a degree it is. But reason is as equally human in my book.
Having said this, I'm not an exceptionally logical guy. I'm crappy at math and engineering, and I've been heavily right-brained my entire life. I prefer parallel links and feelings to hierarchies of logic; it's what helps me write fiction. To sense a random impulse and follow it along in a story is an immensely rewarding activity.
But I've written myself into some holes this way, too. At the time it might seem like an awesome idea to add an action-style firefight, but then I realize the repercussions of such an event in a realistic book. Characters' injuries would severely slow them down; the police would arrive, and would give chase; fingerprints would be everywhere.
What are the odds, then, that my narrator will actually escape to Denmark like I want?
Now, it's cool to stretch credibility in a story. You can make a guy super-smart and superhuman, so that he makes it onto the departing ship with three bullet wounds in his torso and nine squad cars in pursuit. But it's not always what you want.
Intuition is supposed to save you time by shoving the right choice in your face. This is a fantastic brain invention, even if it fails sometimes. The way to minimize failure is to gain a great deal of experience with whatever it is you're making decisions about. Which means learning.
In many stories and films, there's some elderly character who believes his intuition is infallible, and an opposing young character who spends the tale proving the old person wrong. "The world has changed, old man. You can't judge things by your outdated standards and expect to come out on top."
Intuition Peak is so named to honor the contribution of "gut instincts" to science and research. Some people view it as being "in tune" with yourself, tapping into a spiritual "oneness," or seeing things "as they really are." Whatever. It's just a way to save brain space.
Intuition led me to write this tangent and keep myself moving so I don't feel like crap about my career, which felt much better than sitting and weighing the merits of a possible blogpost would have. Maybe I should've used my time to do my taxes or dead-lift 100 pounds, but I didn't.
Sometimes my gut tells me to make astoundingly shitty choices. It's difficult, then, to parse out when instincts are helpful and harmful, and when reason is helpful and harmful. Everything turns into this gray, nebulous mass. How do I decide anything?
By accepting most decisions won't be perfect, I guess. Relinquishing some control and trusting your body and mind, while not abandoning all choice to fate. Here lie the boundaries of human action.
If intuition is a mountain, don't bother climbing to the top: you'll only dig yourself into a hole. But it's cool to have a mountain in the background.
