Seek And Your Intuition Will Be Stronger

We all think we know what to do until we know what to do.

intuition

noun

— the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning

— a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feelings rather than conscious reasoning.

I also hear heuristics. I think of neuroscience. I think of agency. I think of connections and connectedness.

I've been thinking about intuition lately. I have thought about intuition for decades, and what I think about it is constantly evolving. The evolution of understanding is the core of intuition. 

The more curious one is, the more one explores and experiences, the better one's intuition gets. 

• Ontology

• Epistemology

• Empiricism

If you read a lot across many subjects; if you have traveled and worked in several different businesses or industries; if you are deeply curious about the nature of things and how things work; if you are constantly questioning what you know and what other people seem to know; if you are not afraid of reality or truth no matter how uncomfortable it may be; and, most importantly, if you embrace these experiences and attitudes with openness, a bit of joy and excitement — perhaps even love and compassion — your intuitions will be strong and more accurate than average.

Many people are comfortable on a well-worn path. Most people are happy with what they have learned long ago, are at home in their inherited circumstances, and are uncomfortable with unfamiliar things. Perhaps, we could say that they are more traditional. 

We are creatures of habit, all animals are, but homo sapiens have the capacity of profound exploration. The need to explore is one of the traits that make our species unique and successful. Throughout our species history, there have been those who would wander off the path and explore unfamiliar things. In doing so, they ignite their imagination and liberate creative impulses that allow them to discover new things, new experiences, new challenges, and new knowledge. With new knowledge, we would create new stories, ideas, processes, tools, and technologies. 

I often wonder about the state of people's minds as they evolved towards the phase transition that brought us language. Can you imagine the first humans in one of our ancestral species that, for some reason, started naming things and later, much later, how grammar spontaneously emerged from the use of those symbols?

And the flesh made word a miraculous being.

It didn't happen suddenly, it only emerged gradually and imperceptibly, and then there were generations of creative people experiencing life in entirely new ways. For a long time, for many generations, we could not easily imagine what we might be able to create. Still, some of us ventured out and randomly discovered new possibilities. We learned through our active existence, acquiring knowledge, and experimenting until we deliberately created something. 

The trouble with our civilization is that it doesn't value intuition enough, the kind of intuition that comes from adventurousness, imagination, exploration, curiosity, and a deep appreciation of what one encounters. Here I am not talking about the market of such things — not Instagram. I refer to the intense desire to break free.

We are programmed to be timid and fit into our niche, and do our work. We are programmed to be greedy attention seekers. We are, perhaps, a bit too needy of validation.

I was reading about a study of people who claim to talk to God. It turns out that it takes a lot of practice to experience that. One has to pray a lot. To quiet the mind and experience, one's more authentic nature. One might practice meditation, for example, for a very long time before a profound sense of what one truly is, disperses into one's consciousness. We practice sports, music, and dance diligently over time and experience flow states. You know what I mean. Getting good at anything requires commitment and practice: even our moral intuitions, feelings of compassion, empathy, and love. Before becoming loving, one must practice care, consideration, listening, affection.

Context and Preconditions

One can learn how to kill and how to love.

One can kill with reverence to survive. 

There is a context for everything. Depending on the conditions we've grown in and our sensibilities, our intuitions will be different. It takes many kinds of people to make our civilization operate as it does.

Intuition is not magic, and yet it's magical. 

I was listening to Liv Boeree talking with Alexander Beiner on the Rebel Wisdom channel on YouTube. Ms. Boeree is an impressive woman. When I hear people like her talk about things they know well, I am always impressed by their epistemic humility, their grappling with reality, and their courage in the face of failed experiments. Even if I don't understand some of the things they refer to, I have a strong intuitive sense that what they are communicating makes sense. I trust them and am inspired to consider carefully what they are trying to say. 

People I enjoy listening to have encountered some of the same things I have encountered on my journey. Yet, they have unique ways of expressing their experiences and knowledge that engage my imagination.

We have crossed paths; by that, I mean, explored the same things in different ways and at different times in different contexts from different perspectives. We are moving through reality, building on our experiences and what we've learned from others while feeling an intense need to communicate our experiences with those we've encountered. We are peering out at the world on the shoulders of giants, looking for more, knowing we will never know enough or have enough experience to be satisfied. And we are comfortable with that, even excited by the thought of our limitations and constraints.

Highly intuitive people need to share. Intuitive people need to learn from people. If you seek wisdom, knowledge, and novel experiences unleashing your creativity, you build intuitive power.

I looked at the video description of "A Poker Pro Explains Game Theory" and found a link to a Slate Star Codex post from 2014, Meditations on Moloch. I read that post in 2014. When I first read it, it was at once new, exciting, and very familiar. I reread it this morning and experienced the essay in entirely new ways, and it was still utterly familiar to me.

The magical aspect of a good intuition is that our ideas, thoughts, and feelings broaden as we explore strange things, allowing us to feel familiarity regardless of incomplete understanding.

Where one person is confined to the familiar because of fear or narrowness, a more intuitive person embraces the unfamiliar, no matter how scary or challenging. Seeking out the unknown leads to familiarity — and the world becomes more hospitable.

The more familiar one is with various things, the greater one's intuition. 

The tricky question is: What preconditions inspire these traits in some people and not so much in others. I recognize that all people are curious, but clearly, some more than others.

Intuition is still mysterious to me, no matter how much I read, explore, meditate or pray, there will still be new intuitive states I can look forward to experiencing.

In 2010 I would talk with people down the pub about Bitcoin and Climate Change, and they would look at me like I was a foolish goofball. Ten years later, they are trading Bitcoin for a bit of fiat buck and having climate change stories hurled at them from every media source twenty-four seven. You will not be very popular if you bring up strange things with people. Too few will engage with the unfamiliar.

Most of us will stay on the well-worn path until circumstances dictate that we find another way. 

The problem today is that we need more intuitive people to help navigate a world where our intuitions and explorations have helped us paint ourselves into a corner where existential risks have the potential to put an end to our species. 

If you have been paying attention, you feel it.

What, if anything, will we do about it?

When I encounter intuitive people, I'm thrilled to be in such good company. But what I need is to work with people nearby to cultivate values that lead to a wise, intuitive culture that loves and reveres everything about being alive and life on earth. That’s my utopia — simply doing that.

I want to intuit a loving culture emerging.