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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think that "go with your gut" is

56 replies

seeker · 01/05/2012 06:30

...the worst possible advice anyone could ever be given?

We have reason and intellect- going with them is surely always going to the best option!

OP posts:

camdancer · 01/05/2012 08:22

YABU. Twice recently I let "reason and intellect" take over and didn't listen to my gut. One was just a bit rubbish, the other was a fucking disaster. I'm going with gut next time.

porcamiseria · 01/05/2012 08:22

yabu

its not referring to a digestive organ ya know!

Morloth · 01/05/2012 08:25

The few times I have ignored my gut instinct, things have gone wrong. As I appear to lead a charmed existence I think I will continue with what works.

wordfactory · 01/05/2012 08:29

Hmmm. Difficult one.
On the one hand, having all the information in front of you and carefully analysing it, is often the best way of making a decision. It can cerainly overcome ingrained prejudices.

However, there are times when analytical thinking serves little more than to hold you back and slow things down. You have to go against the evidence based on your own feelings.

Knowing which situation requires which approach is hard.

MrJasc · 01/05/2012 08:33

YANBU. It is rational to be rational. Our instincts are clouded by neuroses and cognitive biases. Unfortunately a lot of the time so are people who think they are being rational.

Original poster

seeker · 01/05/2012 08:37

But surely what most of you are calling "following your instincts" is actually applying a lifetime of accumulated knowledge and experience to a situation?

OP posts:

exoticfruits · 01/05/2012 08:39

There really is no definite answer. If you don't have gut feelings or they don't work- don't use them. If you have over 30/40 years of finding they work, stick with it.
I really don't understand why we have this weird expectation of everyone being the same and if only we do it 'the way' it will sort out our lives!
My gut feelings work better than anything else, so I am not going to be swayed by those who think I would do better to be rational.

Tee2072 · 01/05/2012 08:40

Which is what gut instinct is, Seeker. The accumulated knowledge from all your years of experience.

What else would it be?

exoticfruits · 01/05/2012 08:40

That is true to a certain extent seeker but I also had gut feelings at 5yrs.

nothingoldcanstay · 01/05/2012 08:41

I read a article in the Observer many years ago about the similarities in physical and chemical make up between the brain and the gut.
Guts are so alike they almost can think was the conclusion!

I know my brain is a load of rubbish so I always go gut especially where my son is concerned.

Sirzy · 01/05/2012 08:41

Yabu - my gut has been right every time in the A and E/no A and E decision process.

I am going to use my gut to guide my choice in a new nursery for Ds to!

DaisySteiner · 01/05/2012 08:42

Was also going to recommend Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Very interesting read.

shesparkles · 01/05/2012 08:45

I go with my gut instinct. On the few occasions when I haven't I've made massively wrong decisions and ended up very badly hurt.
I listen to and trust it now

wordfactory · 01/05/2012 08:47

But sometimes seeker you have to overide your own experiences. Otherwise they will always lead you down the same path no?

Sometimes you have to say, this is the way I've always done it and it's worked so far, but today, somehting tells me to do it differently.

Tabliope · 01/05/2012 08:48

I agree with all the others

Sirzy · 01/05/2012 08:50

There is more to it than that seeker. Before having Ds I had no experience of babies, certainly no experience of poorly babies but my guy instinct told me that Ds had more than the cold the gp had diagnosed. When we got to a and e he was rushed onto oxygen and later into hdu. If I hadn't followed my gut I dread to think what would have happened.

OhChristFENTON · 01/05/2012 09:15

Sometimes you instinctively know what to do as a result of accumulated knowledge / past experience but other times it's something else, - a gut instinct that 'something is not' right or 'I must do this right now' (like Sirzy's example above)

My 'gut' feelings, i.e. those that have not be due to basic common sense or experience, have never let me down although I have sometimes ignored them and kicked myself for it afterward.

DaisySteiner · 01/05/2012 09:18

Have a read about Thin slicing

valiumredhead · 01/05/2012 09:20

Going with gut instinct can sometimes be right , equally it can be very very wrong.

petitepeach · 01/05/2012 10:08

YABU call it gut instinct/intuition etc if you feel something isn't 'right' you can bet your bottom dollar it isn't....

As someone further up mentioned; if you go against your own instinct as it were a lot of the time I find I've made a wrong turn....

tumbletumble · 01/05/2012 10:11

How about buying a house? You can make a list of pros and cons etc, but at the end of the day you have a 'feeling' about a house. If you love it or hate it when you first walk in that will be a huge influence on whether you buy it - and will usually be right IMO!

entropygirl · 01/05/2012 10:13

The problem with reason and intellect is that you need data to operate them on. For most decisions in life (is DP the right one, should we have kids, should I buy this house) you will never have enough information to make a truly informed decision.

So you are left with major guess work.

The main reason you should go with your gut is that if you go with your gut and you are wrong, then hey, what could you do, you did what you felt was right and you didn't have all the facts. If you go against your gut and get it wrong you feel like an idiot.

In general it feels better to think life is conspiring against you than to think you are an idiot. So go with your gut.

BonnieBumble · 01/05/2012 10:15

When I have just gone with my gut instincts I have made mistakes. When I have ignored my gut instinct I have made mistakes. In my opinion you need to apply reasoning skills AND listen to your instincts.

CallMeAl · 01/05/2012 11:33

Your instincts ARE reasoning skills, just not always at the rational and concious level. It's not actually your intestines speaking.

exoticfruits · 01/05/2012 13:06

Your conscious mind is the tip of the iceberg- the rest is the subconscious, which is very active-you would be silly to ignore it. They both have a part to play.

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