Intuition in Strategic Thinking

<p>One of the greatest powers of the human mind is strategic thinking: to come up with a feasible course of action to reach a worthwhile goal. Cast your mind back to the dawn of humankind, and then forward through the countless achievements that have brought us to where we are today. At the heart of each advance is a strategic thought that formed in someone’s brain. Modern science now understands the mental mechanism that creates strategic thoughts. Here we call that mechanism "strategic intuition," for reasons that will soon become clear. It is a form of "rational intuition" in exactly the spirit of this book.</p> <p>In the science of the brain, the old distinction of two modes of thought — reason versus intuition — gives way to a single mode of thought that integrates elements from both. There is no such thing as pure reason. There is no such thing as pure intuition. But it is not simply a matter of adding them together; if I die you two balloons filled with hydrogen, and one filled with oxygen, you’re still thirsty. How exactly these two elements combine to form water makes all the difference. So too with strategic intuition: it’s not just reason plus intuition. It’s a total remix of both.</p>