How Intuition Inspired the Mac

The best testimonies about the value of intuition come from people who are unarguably successful. In this excerpt from a commencement speech at Stanford University given by legendary Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs a few years back, Jobs talks about following intuitive choices throughout his life that had no practical value at the time. Yet, years later, he would credit those choices with helping him to achieve monumental success as an entrepreneur.

He gives the example of taking a class in calligraphy during his college years. He didn’t think calligraphy would help him along his career path; he wasn’t considering a career in it. But something told him to take the class, and he did. Ten years later when Apple was designing the first Macintosh computer, memories of that class inspired him to create a computer that used “beautiful typography.”

Jobs also said that he didn’t know the importance of following that hunch back then; it took 10 years for him to understand – and reap the benefits of – going with his gut.

Intuitive Action Item: Refrain from coming up with a reason to do something you have the urge to do. As Jobs discovered, intuition is about acting even if you don’t know why: “You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,” he said. “You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”

Noticing What You Notice

Accessing your intuition isn’t something you have to try hard to do. You’re constantly getting hunches and feelings about things, but you may be conditioned to ignore them. Or you may be so distracted by what’s going on around you that you’re not aware of what you’re thinking or feeling in the first place.

One way to become more in tune with your own thoughts and feelings is to limit your outside distractions. In other words, maybe you turn the tv or radio off and cut out the background noise so you can hear yourself think. Another suggestion is to simplify. When you’re multi-tasking, you’re probably thinking about a lot of different things so it’s harder to pay attention to any particular thought.

According to Laura Day, author of Practical Intuition, one of the keys to accessing your intuition is noticing what you notice. In other words, just pay attention to your thoughts and what catches your eye and you’ll begin to realize that your hunches were right or you’ll discover that you’d sized up a situation accurately even before you knew all of the details.

Intuitive Action Item: This article from ScrippsNews has some good tips for accessing your intuition. Among them: The next time your mind wanders, instead of pulling it back to the task at hand, see where your thoughts end up taking you. Another tip is to take a walk and notice what catches your eye, as well as what thoughts are conjured up in the process. You may find that inspiration is ready to strike once you’re ready to listen.

Don't Get Caught Up in Words

Someone made the comment that the notion of intuition is more likely to appeal to women than men because women are more intuitive by nature. Men, on the other hand, rely more on logic than feelings. I thought about this, and while I know plenty of men (and women) who feel more comfortable dealing with facts and reasoning, I wondered if this person wasn’t getting more caught up in the language and missing the bigger picture.

I don’t agree that women are more intuitive than men. While the phrase ‘women’s intuition’ implies that women have this special ability to know things, I’ve heard many men describe some of their choices as being gut decisions. In fact, when I looked up intuition in a thesaurus, I found several words that people use regularly that describe intuition, some of which seem to be more acceptable to logical folks than others.

Instinct, inspiration, hunch, perception and discernment are just some of the words that describe intuitive moments – when one goes beyond logic to assess a situation. Some people feel more comfortable crediting their intuitive decision-making to a hunch, or saying they’d been inspired to turn left when everyone else was going right. Others say they were following their heart rather than their head – another way to express the notion of being inwardly guided, rather than depending on external logic.

Intuitive Action Item: If the word ‘intuition’ conjures up the notion of a special power that certain people have (or don’t have), or if it makes you feel uncomfortable, that may be blocking you from trusting some of your decisions that aren’t based on logic. Replace that word with a word or phrase that may be a little less loaded for you whether it be instinct or even divine intervention. Whatever you call those moments, don’t let the words stop you from acknowledging the experience of marching to the beat of your own drum.