Where Does Intuition Come From?

It is amazing how many articles and videos I have watched lately in which they are talking about decision making based on “gut feel.” It is also disheartening how many first responders I have interviewed who have admitted to me that they have dismissed their gut feelings and proceeded to do things that resulted in bad outcomes. Let’s explore the origins of intuition.

Tacit Knowledge

To understand how you can benefit from intuition, we must first lay a foundation of where the knowledge comes that forms intuition. Your brain is constantly assessing and gathering information – some of which you do with conscious awareness and some are gathered completely unintentionally. The gathered information is stored as “patterns” of information. This information starts in short term memory and can then be forgotten or sent down the highway to your long term memory stores. How exactly this happens is a complex process beyond the scope of this article.

Once the information reaches its long term memory destination there are a number of factors that influence your ability to recall it (recency, familiarity, emotional connections, routines and repetition to name a few). Some information is recalled consciously, which is to say you have a complete awareness of the information (examples would include your home address, names, and faces of loved ones, where you were and what you were doing when specific tragic events occurred, etc.)

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Thank you!