Posted on September 6, 2009 - by Sgbluechip

Counter-intuitive and property investment

Photo by woodleywonderworks

An intuitive proposition is one that seems to be true when assessed using intuition of gut feelings.

A counter-intuitive proposition is one that does not seem likely to be true when assessed using intuition or gut feelings.

For example, before we proved that the world is round, many folks believed that it is “common sense” to assume it is flat, or at least, not round! It takes great wisdom for another person to question the assumed belief or “common sense” and often takes great rigour to uncover the truth. I mean, who would actually observe the Earth’s circular shadow during a lunar eclipse?

In real life, many decisions were made based on intuition or “common sense”. However, many people are time and again proved wrong. Hence, humans are never rational. Their intuitions are often imagination of sorts, rather than based on actual facts and figures.

Objective truths are often discovered the hard way, either true scientific research or personal horrific experiences. Many scientific ideas that are generally accepted by people today were formerly considered to be contrary to intuition and common sense. For instance, 0.9999… is equal to 1 is considered counter intuitive. People used to believe 0.9999…. is smaller than one.

There are definitely more examples if you search the web. I shall not list them all.

In investment, many risks are assumed to be absent and thus brought the downfall of many. One have to be counter intuitive to be able to see the hidden risks. Read more…

Related posts:

1. New measures to ensure a stable and sustainable property market might cool interest in property stocks for a while…
2. Common sense approach towards investment products
3. Property as Limited Resources??