‘Trust Your Gut’ Might Actually Be Profitable Advice on Wall Street, Study Says (Published 2016)

This advice may sound familiar; it lies at the heart of books like Blink and Gary Klein’s The Power of Intuition, which promise to help readers harness their gut feelings. But for executives taught to methodically frame problems, consider alternatives, collect data, weigh the options, and then decide, cultivating emotional self-awareness may seem l... See more

Trusting Your Gut

My favorite advice about the role of feelings in decision-making is this short Quora post by Auren Hoffman (founder/CEO of LiveRamp). The concise summary of the advice is: “You should trust your gut to avoid things, but you should use data to decide to take action.”

“Gut reactions are usually very wrong or very right.

They tend to be wrong when they are based purely on emotion and in domains where you lack experience. They tend to be right when they are rooted in deep understanding and well-developed taste.

Trust your gut when you have the experience to back it up.”