???Intuition???

[usantic]

This is a slant off of the ???Faith??? thread.
How would you term intuition? Is it a gathering of fact into an educated guess? Or is it a feeling, a,,,,,,,,,,sense?
Woo Hoo lessee how this one stacks up!

http://www.nochicktrix.com/fun/oth/vb/usantic/ilp.jpg

[Redallnite]

Hey didn't you try that thing on another thread???

[thestarsfall]

im not sure what intuition is...and feeling and sense can be the same thing..i do believe ppl have some type of intuition..one of my guy friends and i seem to have some sort of connection in mind and we can understand each other and i knew stuff about him before i got to know him so there must be something there

[kittyroze]

Intuition is the act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; immediate cognition. Knowledge gained by the use of this faculty; a perceptive insight,
a sense of something not evident or deducible; an impression. (got that off of dictionary.com, I did).

Anyway, my point is that intuition by definition of the word, is an impression or feeling...without much logic or reasoning. Which is why I don't depend on intuition too much. An educated guess is something else entirely.

[usantic]

Originally posted by kittyroze

Anyway, my point is that intuition by definition of the word, is an impression or feeling...without much logic or reasoning. Which is why I don't depend on intuition too much. An educated guess is something else entirely.

So you've never had an opportunity arise where all the facts told you it was logical to "jump" yet you "second guessed" or "felt" you shouldn't?
(I feel like I should have Mini Me exercising quotations with me) :cheesy:

[kittyroze]

Of course I have...but that is intuition...intution is not logic...sometimes there's logic to back it up...but intuition is that feeling...that inkling towards SOMEthing. It's instinct.

[usantic]

Woof!

[kittyroze]

Um... rrraow?

[usantic]

If I were a dog my instinct would be to sniff your um......whats this thread about?????? Oh yeah,,,, intuition. Perhaps we need an instinct thread. My instinct tends to bark at me occasionally. Pardon the thread interuption

[Sterling]

I think intuition is your sub-conscious working on problems and coming up with the solutions. It feels weird because we're not consciously aware of the 'workings' and just get the results.

I strongly believe that it's something that can be learned in specific domain areas, much in the same way that you learn to do physical things. For example, when you first learn to ride a bicycle, you have to be consciously aware of the process involved - it's hard work. Then after a while you just do it without thinking (but if you ever do think about the mechanics of it, you're quite likely to fall off!). Intuition is, I think, the same but for purely mental activity.

My example of this is learning to do mathematics. I spent years learning to be a mathematician. At Cambridge, I basically spent three years doing 50-60 hours a week of solid work on nothing but maths. Now, I just have a really good 'feel' for how math problems are going to turn out. I can look at a solution, and just know that it 'seems right' or 'seems wrong' without going through the details consciously at all. What's more interesting is that I've trained my mathematical intuition away from the 'common sense' intuition people have about mathematics (which is often wrong). For example, check out the 'birthday problem':

You have a party for 25 randomly selected friends. What is the probability that two of them share the same birthday. The answer is just over a half (i.e. it's more likely than not that two of them do have the same birthday). For most people this is a surprising result, because it feels intuitively that the probability should be much lower. I remember thinking the same thing when I first heard about it. However, now when I think about the problem, it 'feels' like the right answer to me. I think it's because my subconscious actually goes away and analyzes the problem without me being consciously aware of the steps (just like riding the bike). If I stop to work out the problem consciously, it still takes me a while to do in my head.

[Jake]

When you have to, you can describe a scene up to the tiniest detail. Something that 'doesn't seem right' may simply be comparing what we know to be normal and something out of place. The difference is we don't focus on details often and simply chalk it up to a feeling.

[usantic]

Hey Diva??? How many members share the same B'day?
Granted Sterling, a solution to a mathematical problem may "feel" right, but wouldn't you have to see it from start to finish on paper, blackboard, calculator, to verify? I'm certain your answer will be in the positive. I'd hate to think of Nasa engineers rely on intuitive insight to place a lander on Mars. (Even though lately their record indicates they may.)
I've never personally had an experience where some one felt a loved one was in danger, (when every thing was in its normal setting), yet I've read and heard of many. Do you see this as just so many coincidence? Twins seem to have an extraordinary ability
to do this.

[usantic]

Originally posted by Redallnite
Hey didn't you try that thing on another thread???
Sorry Red,,,,I can't help myself,,,,,I like that little Ilp!

[Sterling]

Sure, I have to work something out in order to verify that my intuition is correct. And you rarely get a specific solution from intuition, more a feel for the 'general shape' of the solution. And sometimes your intuition is wrong. However, it's been my experience that (a) my intuition tends to be right more often than not, and (b) it definitely got more accurate the longer I studied the subject - which is why I mention that it's something you can train.

[Princess]

I think you can't really train intuition.... maybe fine tune it, but it is really different then habitiual learning..... with math, you memorize and ... sure get a feel for the solutions... but intuition seems like more than that. It is literally like a 6th sense. Ok, so you can develop and train your senses,.... but intuition is more than logical predictible outcomes of specific situations.

[Sterling]

I think you can train it. In the math example, it still feels odd when it happens, it's just that I can understand with hindsight what process must be going on in my brain. With other intuition it's just not as obvious, but I think it's still the same mechanism - you are applying some thought process that's based on your experience, but you are just doing it sub-consciously.

[kittyroze]

I've most certainly sensed when a loved one has been in danger...although I chalk it up to my own paranoia and coincidence.

[dc]

I was still just a dollop of very potent man-custard in my dear father's nutsack when I realized intuition is ...

[Diva]

...something you either regret or swallow?

[Gracie]

Every person posses intuition..... I think it just matters how open you are to listening to it.

[Jake]

Hi dimples. What do you believe intuition is? Memory or a sixth sense of some sort?

[Gracie]

*smiles* I love it when you call me that :)

I think intuition is a sort of sixth sense if that's what you would call it. I think people possesses a kind of power with-in themselves to determine the outcome of pretty much any situation pretty accurately. It's kind of an inner voice that we either choose to listen to, or not? Could happen? :)