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> Reed Hastings' decision to pivot Netflix into original content production is a great example ... based on years of experience in entertainment and technology

> Reed Hastings' decision to pivot Netflix into original content production is a great example ... based on years of experience in entertainment and technology Is it? How do you show that? Was he just lucky? Did he divine the right answer by listening to the voice in his head? I don't disagree with the premise; when your body is screaming at you to do something that should feel unnatural you should be listening. That's evolution and learned experience trying to steer you away from danger or toward some kind of reward. But the blanket statement of "Stop analyzing your gut feelings" is just silly. My gut tells me to do stupid shit all the time; if I didn't spend time thinking through the impacts of what may appear to be an "irrational" decision I'd expect to make many mistakes. This also gives leaders a complete scapegoat excuse when things explode (see WFH vs RTO, explosive hiring vs mass layoffs); hey, he was just following his gut, can't get it right every time.

mulmen 2y ago
> I don't disagree with the premise; when your body is screaming at you to do something that should feel unnatural you should be listening. That's evolution and learned experience trying to steer you away from danger or toward some kind of reward. But the blanket statement of "Stop analyzing your gut feelings" is just silly. Unless you’re a pilot. Or a serial killer.
WgaqPdNr7PGLGVW 2y ago
> My gut tells me to do stupid shit all the time Does it? Can you provide some examples? My intuition rarely lets me down. Perhaps you don't have enough experience in the areas where you are trying to listen to your gut? I'm sure if I was trying to apply my intuition to an area I didn't understand at all it would let me down. That is different from listening to my intuition in a field I have been working in for almost two decades.
- awesome_dude 2y ago
  You only have to read my sorry posting history to see where my intuition has let me down.
- atoav 2y ago
  This kind of advice generally rests on it being useful to the majority. And I certainly have seen leaders who trusted their guts while making absolute dumb, idiotic and really avoidable mistakes on the way. If you are a 2,5m of height and your basketball advice is to "just lift your arms and let the ball fall in", you are not wrong, but your advice only applies to yourself and a small minority with a similar physique. Similarily here, going with your gut is either good or absolutely horrible advice — depending on what someones gut tells them. If you look at the history of violent crime for example, most of it was based on someone's gut feeling. If you're the type who does a lot of overthinking and in hindsight could have just trusted your gut, it might indeed be good advice, if you're a bundle of bad impulses controlled by a thinking mind, rather not. And advice that is not generally useful to all, should always be given with a caveat
fallous 2y ago
An important part of leadership is explaining decisions so that everyone has sufficient understanding of the goals as well as their contributions necessary to achieving said goals. This also invites feedback that may improve the process of achieving the desired outcomes, or reveal that the decision conflicts with other initiatives. I have a predictable response to leaders that cannot explain decision-making but instead hide behind hand-waving statements like "it's a gut feeling" and that response is "well then let's get a scalpel so we can share that with everyone else."
- thrixton 2y ago
  In addition, a gut feeling needs to be proven quickly and cheaply, so treat it as an experiment and strictly time-box it and have a measurable goal or milestones which must be met before the path is continued. Leaders who have too many of these hand-wavey directions that fail, should be relegated to an advisory position to my mind, until they have better gut feelings or can articulate them better.

mulmen 2y ago

> I don't disagree with the premise; when your body is screaming at you to do something that should feel unnatural you should be listening. That's evolution and learned experience trying to steer you away from danger or toward some kind of reward. But the blanket statement of "Stop analyzing your gut feelings" is just silly. Unless you’re a pilot. Or a serial killer.

WgaqPdNr7PGLGVW 2y ago

> My gut tells me to do stupid shit all the time Does it? Can you provide some examples? My intuition rarely lets me down. Perhaps you don't have enough experience in the areas where you are trying to listen to your gut? I'm sure if I was trying to apply my intuition to an area I didn't understand at all it would let me down. That is different from listening to my intuition in a field I have been working in for almost two decades.

awesome_dude 2y ago
You only have to read my sorry posting history to see where my intuition has let me down.
atoav 2y ago
This kind of advice generally rests on it being useful to the majority. And I certainly have seen leaders who trusted their guts while making absolute dumb, idiotic and really avoidable mistakes on the way. If you are a 2,5m of height and your basketball advice is to "just lift your arms and let the ball fall in", you are not wrong, but your advice only applies to yourself and a small minority with a similar physique. Similarily here, going with your gut is either good or absolutely horrible advice — depending on what someones gut tells them. If you look at the history of violent crime for example, most of it was based on someone's gut feeling. If you're the type who does a lot of overthinking and in hindsight could have just trusted your gut, it might indeed be good advice, if you're a bundle of bad impulses controlled by a thinking mind, rather not. And advice that is not generally useful to all, should always be given with a caveat

fallous 2y ago

An important part of leadership is explaining decisions so that everyone has sufficient understanding of the goals as well as their contributions necessary to achieving said goals. This also invites feedback that may improve the process of achieving the desired outcomes, or reveal that the decision conflicts with other initiatives. I have a predictable response to leaders that cannot explain decision-making but instead hide behind hand-waving statements like "it's a gut feeling" and that response is "well then let's get a scalpel so we can share that with everyone else."

thrixton 2y ago
In addition, a gut feeling needs to be proven quickly and cheaply, so treat it as an experiment and strictly time-box it and have a measurable goal or milestones which must be met before the path is continued. Leaders who have too many of these hand-wavey directions that fail, should be relegated to an advisory position to my mind, until they have better gut feelings or can articulate them better.