Weekly Reflection #11 - Intuition and Experimentation
Each week, I share one insight. One piece of wisdom. One question to reflect on. (and a little Lagniappe)
Insight
The feedback loop between intuition and experimentation is a superpower. It is the difference between scanning a room with a very dim floodlight and a laser. Our intuition uses the dim floodlight carefully processed by our peripheral vision. It allows us to take the room in all at once, but we risk turning the dance of shadows into monsters that aren't there. Our experiment is the laser. It requires our conscious attention at the expense of the larger perspective. When we listen to our intuition and test our hypothesis as cheaply and as easily as possible, we unlock this superpower.
Wisdom
"If you fight against all your sensations, you will have no standard to which to refer, and thus no means of judging even those sensations which you claim are false."
— Epicurus, Principal Doctrines
If you don't trust your own experience, you lose the only foundation you have for making any judgment at all.
Reflection
What is your floodlight picking up that deserves a focused experiment?
Lagniappe
- We just wrapped up our fourth and final episode covering Designing Data-Intensive Applications — an amazing book that leaves the reader to contemplate the ethics of data collection. Watch the finale here.
- Debug Mode — free live office hours for founders and engineering leaders. Bring your platform engineering, infrastructure, or DevOps problems and get real-time help. Sign up here.
- As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Reply and let me know what resonates.