Older than the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys is the argument between those who trust in intuition and those who trust in rational thought. And as with all ancient feuds, everybody’s a little bit wrong. Intuition is a conviction you hold without knowing exactly why you hold it. Sometimes it’s the end result of a long, mostly unconscious thought process. Maybe it’s a brilliant solution, and maybe it’s a dud.Philosophers have long understood, though, that intuitions are powerful tools for idea-testing. Using thought-experiments like Plato’s famous cave allegory, they arrive at and test intuitions for rational validity. Philosopher Daniel Dennett calls these thought-experiments “intuition pumps”. Inventing your own intuition pumps to fit your professional challenges is a great way to consider possible solutions before investing serious resources in them.Intuition: A conviction that you discover without knowing how you arrived at it.Don’t trust your intuitions. Do tak...