(Untitled)

[oxymoronia]

Think not, your intuition is better

Comments

[ext_90340]

Actually, the study reported isn't all that revolutionary. Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious by Gerd Gigerenzer (which I mentioned in my 'blog) is about this theme, and notes various studies supporting these notions.

I haven't finished reading Gut Feelings (I'm irritated by it, and got distracted from it), but I'll probably have another entry on it when I do.

[oxymoronia]

It'll be interesting to hear what you have to say about it.

[nixwilliams]

my instinct was to not click that link, and to ask you to tell me what it says instead.

WHAT? IT'S TRUE!

[oxymoronia]

My instinctive answer wouldn't have been much better than your instinctive question. ^_^

[merle_]

I've always been a believer in getting my subconscious to do as much work as it seems capable of, being lazy by nature. ;-) Some things, like coding algorithms, it of course cannot do. But it does pretty well at a lot of financial things.

[oxymoronia]

You should become a high roller!

I suppose we should be grateful that our sub-conscious is looking out for us, but it whittles away even more at the idea that we aren't bound by determinism.

[merle_]

Ah, the problem is that it's good at detecting patterns, but has horrible luck. I'll stick to the $2 tables, thank you.

Does it really mean we're deterministic? If you think about your subconscious, realize it's doing a great job, and try to find ways to use it, that could be considered an effect of will. Trusting something or someone who has not let you down (at least too much) doesn't mean you didn't have the choice of trusting or not trusting.

[oxymoronia]

True, although that raises the question of exactly what creates the frame-works that we use for the process of decision-making. I tend to think of it in terms similar to that of the nature vs nurture debate; nature sets the parameters, but nurture decides where it hits exactly.