In many circles, “gut feeling” is considered of value, while assumptions (when not backed by any data) are considered a no-no. But what exactly makes the distinction between the two?
Example: I think there’s a market for an innovative product; I think it should be developed or at least prototyped and tested. When do you call this instinct and when do you call it an assumption? Or is one man’s instinct another man’s assumption?
In my opinion, an “instinct”, or an “intuition” (set of instincts?) does not have to be based on anyting; you just “know it”. An “assumption” is an “educated guess”. In your example, you knew something about innovations, market, etc., although you did not do any particular market research about that product.
I’d say it is the other way around. An intuition-based guess is made from having past experience with similar types of situations, or seeing patterns from other types of situations and applying those patterns to a current (different) situation. This is a “gut” feeling. For example, a detective in a murder case may think a person is guilty based on intuition, just because the facts and patterns in the case seem similar to other cases he’s seen before. You have to have a body of experience to draw on to have a gut feeling or intuition.
An assumption is not necessarily based on any previous knowledge- in fact, it might be made BECAUSE there isn’t any experience, and no intuition to go on.
Of course, it’s partly just semantics- the detective may have a gut feeling that someone’s guilty, then “assume” that that’s true for the rest of the investigation.
