What's an Intuition Pump?

If you find that the average value of posts we tend to see on LinkedIn is declining, you can do something about it.
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• Post your 𝚒̲𝚗̲𝚜̲𝚒̲𝚐̲𝚑̲𝚝̲𝚜̲
• Write simply, be positive, and exercise 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞
• Inspire 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 novel ideas and let them take flight
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I use what I've come to call "intuition pumps" (gracias, Daniel Dennett. R.I.P.)
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I'm a bit abusing Dennett's term here. They could also be referred to as "intuition weed wackers" or "mind machetes" since they're about learning space and letting ideas flow, but no matter.
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Intuition pumps, as I think of them, are techniques for mining my doubts and meager knowledge to answer questions that open roads to insight. They aren't necessarily insightful in and of themselves (they can be). But devices that clear the paths in my mind through which insight may come.
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Here are just a few examples of intuition pumps that we'll learn about in the course that starts this Friday:
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• 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐝: Why has this growth trend not already run its course? "Why has X not already eaten the known universes?" or "Why does this continue?"
• 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐂𝐀: What are some of the main causes behind the "root cause" before you arrive at the Big Bang? (RCA = Root Cause Analysis)
• 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐚𝐰𝐬: Compare 2 seemingly unrelated things to find essential points of commonality and strip down our conceptions of what is and is not.
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I'll explain these and provide examples of how I used them to create consistently thought-provoking writing.
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𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞: To "𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑜𝑘𝑒" is to upset to prompt a response or change. That doesn't mean I want to offend anyone. It means helping readers break through (or let go of) their learned and often not-useful mental models of the word and 𝚑̲𝚘̲𝚠̲ ̲𝚝̲𝚘̲ ̲𝚕̲𝚒̲𝚟̲𝚎̲ in it.
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In yesterday's newsletter, I wrote about a return to the natural curiosity that we all have as children. "Why is the sky blue?" is a very powerful question. Let us return to that way of thinking and create a habit of PUBLISHING those ideas on a weekly or even daily basis.
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For information about the LinkedIn Power Tools course for cybersecurity practitioners, to here: LinkedIn Power Tools 30-Day Course (nearshorecyber.community). Registration ends this Friday, July 12 at noon CST (Oaxaca/Dallas) or 2:00 PM Eastern Time. So don't wait!

If you're interested in joining our FREE community, click here.
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​[Photo taken last weekend in my hometown of Oaxaca de Juarez by my sparklingly creative and extraordinarily insightful daughter, Luna Estrella de mi Corazón]