What we "know"!

I'm reading an interesting book entitled "The Wealth of Networks", How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, by Yochai Benkler, a professor of law at Yale Law School. It's a bit of a hard read, which is understandable given this guy teaches law at Yale, but it also quite interesting and very relevant to what I do for a living. I'd like to share a quote from the book with you....."Overcoming what we intuitively 'know' requires disciplined analysis". What an absolutely remarkable thing to say and what a remarkable thing to think about.......Intuition is the power or faculty of knowing things without conscious reasoning; and to know is, to have understanding or direct cognition of, to be aware of the truth of, to have a practical understanding of. How many of the things that we "intuitively know" are we willing to question? How many of those things should we willing to question?

"The Conservative Soul" caused me to question a number of things that I thought I knew, but I'm not certain I knew them intuitively (well, maybe except for the fact that George Jr. is two beers light of a six pack.....I think I intuitively knew that awhile ago).

Most of us are taught some form of religious belief and at some point we either believe or we don't and often intuition plays a big role in the assumption of belief because it's hard to prove one way or the other. I think faith is somewhat intuitive after a certain point although it takes conscious reasoning to reach that point. My intuition also tells me that the folks living at the hard right edges of their faith are wrong and that destruction and death don't assure us happiness in heaven, or in whatever afterlife exists according to the faith.

I suspect the same level of thinking can and should be applied to our business intuitions. The pace of change that is created by a networked economy means that much of what we learned in the beginning of our careers no longer applies. You have to open yourself up to new possibilities and discard the old way of doing things. You have to question what you intuitively 'know" because intuition is now longer a basis for managing a business or a career.

Deep thinking on a Wednesday evening. By the way another reminder of Newport, New Hampshire. You should all go there and spend a weekend at the Backside Inn!