Intuition: science’s secret weapon?

Intuition. Is it, perhaps, science’s dirty little secret?

The number of intuitive scientists – and other tech peeps – I’ve met is…. HIGH.

The number of sciencey peeps who’ll publicly OWN their intuitive skills is… MINIMAL.

Why is something so damn useful, supposed to not bloody exist?

Like it or not, if you’re sciencey, you’re more intuitive than most, only you don’t know it because hey, don’t everyone’s brains work like that?

Or if you DO know it, you’re damn well not going to fess up on it.

It’s only in the last 100 or so years that intuition has been harshly sidelined like the flamboyant star player parked on the bench by the grouching ‘do it my way’ team coach in a fit of grump.

Before that, we had Galileo holding lead balls in the hand while falling asleep so he could catch dreamzone inspiration.

We had Einstein raving about imagination.

We had Cavendish going out on nighttime perambulations, deep diving into the mysteries of how to weigh the earth – and finally doing it.

Breakthroughs come from hard, solid work, yes, of course.

But also from creative leaps of genius firing interdisciplinary synapses almost at random but totally on target.

Intuition IS the targetfinder.

In-built course control, short-circuit finder, knows the backstreets you have no clue about kind of satnav.

Like a sharp-eyed taxi driver who knows how to get you from A to Z without having to navigate cumbersomely through B, C, D…

Whether that’s to get you out of depression towards happiness, from a dull job to a brilliantly stimulating and rewarding one, or to the next creative leap in the lab, honing your intuition is what’ll get you there.

What breakthroughs are you missing out on?