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There should be a term for things we know on an instinctive level that we can use to guide our decision making.


There is, it's called intuition. Unfortunately the new mantra in big tech is "data driven decision making", which is supposed to mean that you do research and collect data prior to making decisions, not that you A/B test everything to a local maxima ignoring intuition and the holistic bigger picture, but companies have taken it to mean the former. Intuition is the basis of taste-making and aesthetic and is one of the most important things to develop if you're doing product design, and it's absolutely something that can be learned, it's not innate. All intuition is, is your mind making inferences and extrapolations from prior knowledge to the current situation before you, which you can't adequately explain or don't follow the strict rules of formal logic / rationality.

Part of wisdom is being able to apply knowledge in new situations, and this is the basis of intuition. Intuition is wisdom in action, and we ignore our intuitions as people and as societies at our peril, both in our personal lives and in business.


Intuition

“ a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning.”


The term is 'gut' ask in 'I know it in my gut' or 'gut check.'


"Delusions"

Things we know instinctively are frequently wrong. It leads to us discarding any information that goes against our intuitive beliefs. It leads to use thinking that anyone who disagrees with us is mentally deficient.

Guard against this whenever possible.


Common sense is what Aristotle called it.


Morals. Dearly lacking these days.




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