It is amazing that this book uses so many hard-to-pronounce German words. “Fingerspitzengefuehl” means, literally, “sensitivity in the fingertips.” Metaphorically, it means intuition of a very specific kind: the intuition that helps you negotiate delicate situations. For example, a doctor who has to communicate a devastating diagnosis to his patient benefits from having good Fingerspitzengefuehl, which summarizes the ability to understand the patient’s emotional state and find the appropriate words to help her make sense of the situation.
Hi Eleanor, my answer is: 1) Yes, quite a bit gets lost, and 2) that might just not be important for your purposes.
1)
Perhaps I should be a bit more specific about how to think about Fingerspitzengefühl. As I said, it means “sensitivity in the tips of your fingers.” Literally, good Fingerspitzengefühl is required when you engage in tasks that require great finger sensitivity. That is especially the case when you deal with small things. E.g. being a jeweler; a watch maker; a person putting seeds in the soil, one by one; someone who is transplanting very young seedlings; a graphic designer carrying out very fine brush strokes. Figuratively, Fingerspitzengefuehl is required when you are dealing with situations that can easily go sideways if you lack a very finely honed sense of what’s appropriate for the situation. I mentioned the doctor who transmits a devastating diagnosis. Another example is the Cuban Missile Crisis: How was the U.S. government to respond to intel that the USSR was amassing weapons on Cuba and that it was then sending two messages to the Kennedy Administration, the first letter being conciliatory, the second hawkish? One member of the Administration, with great Fingerspitzengefuehl, inferred that the two conflicting letters pointed to a power struggle inside the Soviet government. He therefore recommended that Kennedy should act as if he had never received the second, confrontational letter, and instead send a friendly response to the first one. Because of this maneuver, we very narrowly avoided nuclear war. Perhaps I should add that generally, figurative Fingerspitzengefühl applies to interpersonal relations.
The term “intuitive feel” does not really capture it, because intuition is simply learning that one has internalized to such a degree that one can draw on it without having to involve much conscious thinking. It is accumulated learning that has become a person’s second nature. As such, intuition can cover just about everything. For example, most people drive intuitively. I type intuitively - if I had to tell you where the various letters are on my keyboard, I’d have a hard time doing so. But when I don’t look at the keyboard and just type, my fingers will hit the correct keys with near perfect accuracy. None of these two situations require any particular Fingerspitzengefuehl.
The best translation for that term, in my view, is “delicacy.” As in, “transplanting seeds very delicately,” or “the doctor very delicately transmitted the devastating news to his patient.”
2)
But all of this may not be important for your purposes, because what you care about is not what the term means, if used correctly, but what message the author of the book wants to convey. Which is why yesterday, after posting my original comment on “Fingerspitzengefuehl,” I wondered if perhaps it had been just completely unnecessary … 🤓
> Developing good instincts helps you bias toward action in a useful way. When you are exhausted, you need to have the right habits, the right muscle memory. When I first started answering customer emails, it was kind of terrifying. I would agonize over every word and triple-check to make sure I hadn’t made an embarrasing email. Now, it’s second nature.
I identify with this!! Also - lots of people who are young, new to their job, or overstressed will benefit massively from hearing this concept! That, actually, sure they can't imagine dealing with any MORE volume of Challenging Task X right NOW... but they also can't imagine how much they will CHANGE themselves through training their minds through habit - developing disciplines and knowing the expectations of the role so much that their "gut feelings" about what to do.. are actually just usually right.
> "[Author] really went all-in on the idea that English doesn't even have the right words for the things that make businesses successful... I found this pretty ironic given that the USA... is still going strong in terms of being a haven for entrepreneurs..."
Well, maybe 200 years from now, people be reviving terms that are in common parlance in the U.S. in this century to capture the nuances of meaning that they need then! 🤪
It is amazing that this book uses so many hard-to-pronounce German words. “Fingerspitzengefuehl” means, literally, “sensitivity in the fingertips.” Metaphorically, it means intuition of a very specific kind: the intuition that helps you negotiate delicate situations. For example, a doctor who has to communicate a devastating diagnosis to his patient benefits from having good Fingerspitzengefuehl, which summarizes the ability to understand the patient’s emotional state and find the appropriate words to help her make sense of the situation.
Do you think much is getting "lost in translation" but just calling it ... "Intuitive feel" ?
Hi Eleanor, my answer is: 1) Yes, quite a bit gets lost, and 2) that might just not be important for your purposes.
1)
Perhaps I should be a bit more specific about how to think about Fingerspitzengefühl. As I said, it means “sensitivity in the tips of your fingers.” Literally, good Fingerspitzengefühl is required when you engage in tasks that require great finger sensitivity. That is especially the case when you deal with small things. E.g. being a jeweler; a watch maker; a person putting seeds in the soil, one by one; someone who is transplanting very young seedlings; a graphic designer carrying out very fine brush strokes. Figuratively, Fingerspitzengefuehl is required when you are dealing with situations that can easily go sideways if you lack a very finely honed sense of what’s appropriate for the situation. I mentioned the doctor who transmits a devastating diagnosis. Another example is the Cuban Missile Crisis: How was the U.S. government to respond to intel that the USSR was amassing weapons on Cuba and that it was then sending two messages to the Kennedy Administration, the first letter being conciliatory, the second hawkish? One member of the Administration, with great Fingerspitzengefuehl, inferred that the two conflicting letters pointed to a power struggle inside the Soviet government. He therefore recommended that Kennedy should act as if he had never received the second, confrontational letter, and instead send a friendly response to the first one. Because of this maneuver, we very narrowly avoided nuclear war. Perhaps I should add that generally, figurative Fingerspitzengefühl applies to interpersonal relations.
The term “intuitive feel” does not really capture it, because intuition is simply learning that one has internalized to such a degree that one can draw on it without having to involve much conscious thinking. It is accumulated learning that has become a person’s second nature. As such, intuition can cover just about everything. For example, most people drive intuitively. I type intuitively - if I had to tell you where the various letters are on my keyboard, I’d have a hard time doing so. But when I don’t look at the keyboard and just type, my fingers will hit the correct keys with near perfect accuracy. None of these two situations require any particular Fingerspitzengefuehl.
The best translation for that term, in my view, is “delicacy.” As in, “transplanting seeds very delicately,” or “the doctor very delicately transmitted the devastating news to his patient.”
2)
But all of this may not be important for your purposes, because what you care about is not what the term means, if used correctly, but what message the author of the book wants to convey. Which is why yesterday, after posting my original comment on “Fingerspitzengefuehl,” I wondered if perhaps it had been just completely unnecessary … 🤓
Unnecessary or not it was interesting, thank you for the explanation!!
One serious comment and one semi-heckle!
> Developing good instincts helps you bias toward action in a useful way. When you are exhausted, you need to have the right habits, the right muscle memory. When I first started answering customer emails, it was kind of terrifying. I would agonize over every word and triple-check to make sure I hadn’t made an embarrasing email. Now, it’s second nature.
I identify with this!! Also - lots of people who are young, new to their job, or overstressed will benefit massively from hearing this concept! That, actually, sure they can't imagine dealing with any MORE volume of Challenging Task X right NOW... but they also can't imagine how much they will CHANGE themselves through training their minds through habit - developing disciplines and knowing the expectations of the role so much that their "gut feelings" about what to do.. are actually just usually right.
> "[Author] really went all-in on the idea that English doesn't even have the right words for the things that make businesses successful... I found this pretty ironic given that the USA... is still going strong in terms of being a haven for entrepreneurs..."
Well, maybe 200 years from now, people be reviving terms that are in common parlance in the U.S. in this century to capture the nuances of meaning that they need then! 🤪
As long as it's not "rizz" 🤪
I was also thinking about how it will NOT be "synergize"! (:
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. As usual, a lot to ponder...
Happy thanksgiving!