Intuition

I've been thinking this week quite a a bit about intuition. More and more I've come to realize that I'm an intuitive person. I've know this for some time, being identified as an "N" as part of the Myyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

I think I've always known though, that I have a knack for figuring things out, relatively easily without thinking about them much. I also really enjoy puzzles, particularly word puzzles.

One of the moments that's burned in my memory of seemingly pure intuition on my part happened when I was 13 years old. I was sleeping and woke up suddenly after hearing a sound I couldn't immediately identify. After about 3 seconds, the thought popped in my brain battery acid!. It was was one of those moments of intuition where everything all of a sudden makes sense.

So I jumped out of bed, realizing that the batteries in the back of my stereo on my nightside table had busted. I grabbed some towels and started cleaning it up.

For me it was incredible how quickly I was able to identify the problem, simply by the sound. I must have been able to sort through the possible causes of that in a flash.

Since then I've always had a keen sense that I am a highly intuitive person. It sounds arrogant but I that's a misunderstanding of what that means. For me, it means I like to try and figure things out by reasoning myself, and that my thinking is not linear. Often flashes of insight, which have been built up through acquired knowledge appear to me.

It means I also enjoy puzzles and figuring out what acronyms are without needing them explained.I would guess that many intelligent people would have this ability to see shapes and patterns where others simply see data.

In fact, John Ralston Saul in his book On Equilibrium speaks about Intuition as one of the key qualities that makes us human. The others include, Common Sense, Ethics, Imagination, Memory and Reason.

Currently Reading:


Filthy Lucre by Joseph Heath
Welcome to the Urban Revolution by Jeb Brugmann
Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Book of Negroes

I just finished reading the Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill.

I was an intersting one, and really makes one think about the historical legacy of slavery. I was thinking as well about the actual globalization that this involved. It was really about the movement of people physically across oceans.

It also made me think about the role of education in emancipating people. That seems to be the subtext to the book, as the protagonist, is able to escape from her situation in part because of her education and her ability to read.

It reminded me of an recent article on another blog about the importance of the Public Broadcasting in terms of education here . It was a really interesting one and made me think even more about how the CBC has made me feel Canadian. I think it's been one secret ingredient in the successful integration of immigrants as well. This important function of public broadcasting, particularly in my experience CBC is underrated.

Ottawa International Writer's Festival

So I've been volunteering and enjoying the Ottawa International Writer's Festival over the past few weeks.

It's been a blast and it ends today, so I thought I'd post about some of my highlights. (I have a feeling that the two sessions I'm going to today, will be fantastic as well.)

One of my favorite sessions actually came unexpectedly, it was a session on "Our Urban Future" with Alan Broadbent and Jeb Brugmann.

Now I read Alan Broadbent's recent book and wasn't too impressed and I found the same thing about his presentation. It made me think about the importance of presentation skills. It wasn't that his ideas weren't good (though everything he said was extremely Toronto centric) , it was that he wasn't a very good speaker.

It was even more evident because the first presentation was so good. I'd never heard of Jeb Brugmann before, but I will keep an eye on him in the future. He was fantatsic, read from his new book. Being a writer's festival of course the authors are there to sell their book, and he really sold me on his. He has a conception of "ubranisms" and the global city which were new to me and seem quite exciting.

I'm not all that interested in urban theory and having recently bought the "Canadian" edition of Richard Florida's new book Who's Your City, and that has just about filled up my desire for urban books, but this one is a welcome exception.

Another session that i enjoyed was with Andrew Cohen and Nino Ricci about leadership. It was a bit disappointing to hear how dismal they thought our current political leadership is. It was interesting because they are both authors of biographies in the current Extraordinary Canadian series. ANdrew Cohen wrote a biography of Lester B. Pearson, while Ricci did a biography on Pierre Trudeau. Both were great.

Finally I was lucky enough to get the last question to Michael Ignatieff after his presentation about his new book. I asked about how he feels about the fact that his call for national unity goes over better in some parts of the country than others. While I disagreed with his answer I was surprised that he wouldn't repeat his comment about I think "it's ok for "Quebecois" to be Quebecers first and Canadians second, or Canadians first and Quebecers second" in English, and only said it in French.

I enjoyed the festival and I'm hoping that there's some good sessions left. Joseph Heath is presenting today on his nwe book Filthy Lucre, and a former professor of mine Heather Menzies is promoting her new book, about dealing with her mother's dementia.