By Mr. Maverick
We can all agree that intuition is a key feature of human beings. What is otherwise known as “gut-feeling” (and no it doesn’t derive from our stomach or heart), intuition is a non-voluntary process that takes place in our brains. It is the ability to understand a situation and act on it instinctively, by unintentionally making use of past experiences, in combination with internal signals and cues from the environment.
In various treatises on strategy and war, we often bump into a French term synonymous to intuition, which is known as “coup d’oeil”, roughly translated to glimpse or glance. Interestingly, we can find analogous descriptions and phrasings of the same concept elsewhere. For instance, the “power of glance” as Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book Blink, or “ankhínoia”, the word ancient Greeks used to describe someone’s shrewdness and quick-wittedness, are just a few other equivalent terms.
The phrase of coup d’oeil increased in usage after its use by the great military theoretician Clausewitz in his tome On War, where he underscores the importance of coup d’oeil – a commander’s ability to make timely, effective decisions on the battlefield. For Clausewitz, coup d’oeil is “the rapid discovery of a truth which to the ordinary mind is either not visible at all or only becomes so after long examination and reflection.” In his Military Instruction from the Late King of Prussia to His Generals, King Frederick the Great of Prussia defines coup d’oeil as “the perfection of that art to learn at one just and determined view the benefits and disadvantages of a country where posts are to be placed and how to act upon the annoyance of the enemy”. Therefore, in simpler terms, coup d’oeil is, in short, the ability to assess without particular reflection a complicated situation swiftly, and, develop and implement at once the most suitable course of action. By “zooming out”, we can safely say that coup d’oeil is an essential and valuable quality that certainly comes in handy nowadays.
Have you ever played the board game Jungle Speed or the smash hit videogame Temple Run that took the world by storm? Well if you think about it, on every scale, from people with normal 9 to 5 jobs to world leading individuals, our lives appear to have quite a few similarities. Don’t you often feel like you are running endlessly avoiding obstacles, assessing rapidly the next “turn”, “round” or move, relying on your observation and quick reflexes and wrestling for that totem, which perfectly resembles whatever you’re after in reality? I certainly do.
On top of that, if we add the extreme velocity and volume of information that cloud our judgment even further, it is clear that sharpening our snap mental capacity can dramatically improve our daily lives. The question that plausibly ensues, is, how do you develop and conquer the idea of coup d’oeil? While some believe that one can only be naturally endowed with this characteristic, others think that whoever is not a “natural” can gradually work their way toward it. According to Trent J. Lythgoe, associate professor of military leadership at the US Army Command and General Staff College, there are fundamentally three tools that can help build this attribute: deliberate practice, metacognition and emotional intelligence.
Deliberate practice in domain-related activities, must be goal-oriented, focused, repetitive and motivated, preferably with feedback from an expert. Metacognition, essentially involves thinking about one’s own thinking, becoming aware of, regulating and improving cognitive processes. Finally, emotional intelligence entails acquiring emotional self-awareness and self-regulation. As we have mentioned in our previous article Hypermania and the Decision-Making Fatigue, emotions can either assist or impede decision-making, so it is vital that we learn how to manage them.
There is no solid evidence that one can actually work and attain the virtuous and highly beneficial quality of coup d’oeil. Nonetheless, reality hits suddenly and hard, just like Muhammad Ali’s legendary jabs. Besides, our already fast-paced societies seem to become faster year by year, magnifying the already large confusion that permeates our daily lives. Working on our decision-making by starting with the above, seems, therefore, like a one-way road.
When fighting your everyday battles, choose your weapons wisely. Instead of scrolling infinitely on social media platforms and overwhelming yourself with worthless content, put down your phone and pick up a book, or, alternatively, spend some time on a learning app. Improve your cognitive abilities by exercising. Maybe give martial arts a try, since they have been found to train a person’s mind to remain calm and focused during tense and high-speed situations. As Edwin Markham said, “choices are the hinges of destiny”.
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