Let’s talk about intuition. This is where we make nearly all our decisions. The faster the decision, the more intuition is at play rather than the slow rationalization of facts. It is even argued that, in our deepest “rational” decision-making, we may actually be working backward from our intuition. This is a crucial mental process. What you may not realize is that we are always improving our intuition. Most importantly, one of the ways we can improve it is by making greater use of math.
First, a little more on intuition. I don’t have the background to explain what it is, so I’d love to hear from a reader that has expertise in this area. The best I can do is retell a story that Russ Roberts of EconTalk has shared several times. It is a true story.
A soldier is driving some high-ranking officers through Iraq in the mid-2000’s. The soldier suddenly stops the vehicle and backtracks, taking the officers on a different route to the base. When he is asked what he is doing, the soldier simply states, “I don’t know, but this doesn’t “feel” right.” They make it back to base safely, and the soldier is asked again why he took a different route. The soldier thinks for a minute and says, “I guess it was that I didn’t see any children out playing, and I usually see children out on this route. It was odd, and it made me think that something was about to happen.”
We don’t know if the soldier’s decision was good or bad. Did it save their lives, or is he simply rationalizing the change he made? But that is not the point of the story. The point is the role intuition plays in our lives. The soldier was taking in a myriad of observations, weighing them against his knowledge, and making a seemingly instinctive decision, though it was not actually instinct. It was logic based on previous observations and experiences. In the environment in which he was working, that quick decision-making could be the difference between life and death. Slow rationalization is no good.
Still, good intuition is improved through observation and the collection of facts. Those facts inform and educate our intuition over time. If it is true that we make decisions mostly with our intuition, then it may also be true that the facts and information we collect serve to refine and improve that intuition for the future and not solely for the decisions we are making in the present.
Good problem solvers are not born; they train their intuition. There is a problem described in Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity by David Bessis. I have seen it many times elsewhere. It is called the “Bat and the Ball” problem. I won’t go through it here. I encourage you to look it up.
When I read it in David’s book, it was at least the third time that I had seen it. The first two times, I got the problem wrong. The third time was different. I knew the right answer, but I could not remember why it was the right answer. My intuition on this problem was still broken. David provided an insight into how he imagines these sorts of problems in his head, and boom, it stuck with me. Now, sitting here, I have a picture of the problem that immediately pops into my head. My intuition has improved. He helped me educate my intuition. This is a big deal! It means that we can reprogram our intuition, and when we do, we become better problem solvers and better decision makers.
As problem solvers, we should be constantly retraining our intuition. We do this by formulating a hypothesis, testing it, and, if it is true, great. If it is false, even better. We have found something that helps us learn. There is not just something wrong with the hypothesis; there is something wrong with the process we used to create the hypothesis (our intuition). The facts provided by math give us this clear signal.
That rigorous, unforgiving language that I discussed in the last newsletter is a powerful way to expose the errors in the logic that is embedded and invisibly working inside our brains. The better we become at measuring, quantifying, modeling, and testing our ideas, the more informed our intuition becomes. And the better our chances of getting the right answer or making the right decision the next time.
So let’s thread this all together. Intuition is a mental process that works without our direct control to make decisions. This applies to every decision, from the quick to the complex. That intuition is the sum of our acquired knowledge, but that does not mean it will always lead us to the right answer. In fact, at any given moment, our intuition is simply what it is.
Over time, however, and through deliberate effort, our intuition can be improved. One of the best ways to improve our intuition is to measure and model. That is, use mathematics to imagine what we think (our intuition) will happen, and then test whether it is correct. Being wrong doesn’t mean we have failed. It means we have an opportunity to improve our intuition.
This can be really hard because these are deeply embedded mental processes that we cannot touch, see, or feel. Worse, it is difficult for others to teach us how “good” intuition works. We cannot look at someone else’s intuition and understand how it works. Nonetheless, it is worth the effort. Using math as a feedback mechanism will improve your intuition over time and make you a better problem solver. This is absolutely fundamental to continuous improvement.
Good luck on your journey!