In his book Blink, discussed in this column in February 2005, Malcolm Gladwell advised us to place faith in intuition based on experience in deciding many things quickly. Now Michael Mauboussin, with his book Think Twice, makes the case for a more careful approach, suggesting that we place too much emphasis on intuition and personal experience as opposed to the "wisdom of crowds," mathematical models, and systematically-collected data. He argues that "blink" serves us well in stable environments where feedback from previous decisions is clear and where cause-and-effect relationships can be identified. Unfortunately, in his view these conditions are more and more rare. As he puts it, "intuition is losing relevance in an increasingly complex world … more is different." You ask, what's new here? Perhaps these sound like "dog bites man" assertions.
[This article was provided with permission from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.]
'Blink' vs. 'Think Twice' - I think this is why we need to read and also implement what Daniel H Pink has told us in his book, "A Whole New Mind".<br />
on Mar 22, 2010