11 June 2021

最近看书碰到了一个词“gut feeling”,并且碰到不止一次:

Although managers try to quantify a decision when possible by using payoff and regret matrices, uncertainty often forces them to rely more on intuition, creativity, hunches, and "gut feel".

尽管经理们尽可能的尝试通过支出、遗憾矩阵等方式量化决策,然而世界的不确定性常常限制他们更多的倚靠直觉、创造性、预感以及本能感觉。

Their decisions in complex situations are explicitly not made by long rational-analytical considerations, but rather come from the gut.

在复杂情况下,他们的决策往往不是通过长时间的理性分析得出,而是通过本能。

gut feeling is not a mysterious force, but an incorporated history of experience. It is the sedimentation of deeply learned practice through numerous feedback loops on success or failure.

本能直觉并不是什么神秘力量,而是对个人历史经验的内化。这是一种对各种成功或者失败的实践的深度沉淀。

然后,今天开会的时候,因为项目进展不顺,遇到一些决策延迟,欧洲的老板讲了这么一句:

We cannot estimate the project schedule based on gut feeling.

我们不能基于本能直觉评估项目计划。

我猜想参加这会的人大概直到这句话什么意思,但是肯定没有留意 gut feeling 这个词的。学习单词的好处就是可以在这种情况,领会到它的意思。

gut 本意是消化道,内脏,肚肠,肠胃。所以 gut feeling 可以直译为肚肠感觉。那种感觉,大概只有自己能感觉到,所以就是一种 本能直觉 了。

另外,还有一些类似的说法:

My gut told me that he was the one to arrest, and I was right.

我的直觉告诉我 ,他要被捕。结果我对了。

My initial gut response was that the merger would result in a drop in stock prices, but the opposite turned out to be true.

我最初的 本能反应 是这次兼并会导致股票价格下跌,然而事实正好相反。

If you're worried because your daughter isn't home yet, go with your gut and call the police.

如果你因为女儿现在还不在家而担心, 相信你的直觉 ,赶紧报警吧。