
Why you (entrepreneurs) should trust your gut. Always. - transburgh
http://www.foundread.com/view/why-you-should-trust
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nostrademons
If you do this, you have to be very aware of when your gut will let you down,
namely when "all available information" does not constitute much information
at all. It's very easy for your gut to give you a false sense of expertise
when you really don't know much about the topic at all. If this is your
situation, you really need to do more research to "prime" your gut into
reacting based on a more complete set of information.

 _Blink_ described this as the "Warren G. Harding" paradox, where many people
voted for him because he seemed tall, confident, and commanding, while he
really was an idiot. A more modern version might be George W. Bush: half of
America voted for him because their gut instinct said he was a friendly, down-
to-earth guy who cared about the common man, but that's only because his PR
people carefully crafted his public persona to give off that impression.

~~~
aswanson
I actually know a guy who voted for him because he looked like 'He had a lot
of composure.'

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comatose_kid
What is it with these fuzzy entrepreneurial articles, and how do they get 15
votes? An article's appearance on foundread.com must kill off the 'critical
thinking 101' brain cells or something...

1) The author's examples aren't terribly convincing, especially when they're
trying to support an argument followed by the ever-definitive 'Always.'

2) In 3 out of 3 examples, his gut totally rocked. In fact, I don't think I've
ever seen a more statistically significant sample. I wonder if it helped him
out as effectively in multiple choice exams.

2) The author is an 'Internet Marketing Manager'. That's a respectable job,
I'm sure, but his advice would probably carry more authority if his gut
started a really successful company.

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motoko
My gut says that I shouldn't always trust it.

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davidw
Could this be one of those cases where bias comes into play? You remember when
trusting your gut worked, but tend to shrug off or forget when it didn't?
Humans tend to make errors like that...

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geofharries
Trusting "your" gut is fine and all, but which road do you take when there's
multiple people, with differing opinions, involved in the final decision? This
is when it's key to lean on people you are able to trust, communicate with and
most importantly, forgive, if the situation doesn't work out.

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mdakin
"The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually
given. When, momentarily, there is a flash of greater power it is termed a
hunch, or insight, or intuition." -Isaac Asimov

~~~
rms
Note that this wasn't Asimov speaking as Asimov, it was a character in
Foundation and Empire.
[http://easygold.cn/library/admin/upload/kehuan/asimov/fdep/f...](http://easygold.cn/library/admin/upload/kehuan/asimov/fdep/fdepe26.htm)

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awt
Have you ever ignored your gut and not regretted it?

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nostrademons
Sure. My gut told me to buy Motorola stock about a year ago. But I decided I'd
wait until after I'd bought a new cell phone and use the research from it as a
gut check to see whether they were still worth investing in. After that I
changed my mind, about both the phones and the stock.

The stock has since fallen nearly 30%.

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juwo
here's why it is dead wrong - have you heard of the word 'prejudice'?

