Instinct vs Intellect
Follow your instincts!
Data rules our world now. In this myriad of information that we live in, one relies heavily on information and derives his conclusions. But it is often seen that the “gut feeling” you have is most likely to be right.
Gut feeling, or instinct, is your immediate understanding of something; there’s no need to think it over or get another opinion — you just know. Your intuition arises as a feeling within your body that only you experience. Because of this, trusting your intuition is the ultimate act of trusting yourself.
Relying on your instincts and being in the moment can definitely bring out the best in you. Sports can be a great example where your instinct matters more than your intellectual prowess. Those who follow and understand cricket closely know that the players on the field often make their judgments on the basis of their impulses.Whether it is DRS, aiming for a run-out, diving for a catch, etc. You might have all the statistics you need but ultimately it boils down to that few milliseconds before the moment. Even in Football&Hockey, when a penalty shoot is taking place, the goalkeeper has to rely heavily on his/her instinct.
The co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs after his visit to India had said :
The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.
People in tech are often in the conundrum of whether to follow instincts or rely on the details and information. Most companies have been relying on the other lately. But valuing data over design instinct puts metrics over users . And undermining the user might prove costly in the long run!
Even when we wonder about the Space Race in the 60s and the present Mars missions , it is our Survival Instinct that propelled us to the Moon in the first place and will most likely propel us to Mars also. Solely relying on intellectual prowess would not have made the US & Soviet Union accomplish their Space mission 60 years ago.
Another evidence is from the Stock Markets where you can have all the data and algorithms to predict the prices but more often than not it appears to behave irrationally or instinctively.
This quote aptly sums up the point :
Thanks A Lot for reading it till the end and feel free to drop your feedback. Have a good day! :)
