GROUP INTUITION: TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Endless wars in oil-rich lands. Oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Through-the-roof electricity bills in our all-electric house. And we live in a spot where the sun shines brightly most days of the year.

“Why don’t we look into solar?” she says.

We call the local rep for a national solar distributor, and he emails preliminary information. The signature block on his email recites two interesting bits of information: “The earth receives more energy from the sun in just one hour than the world uses in a whole year.” and “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” - Thomas Edison, 1931. Indeed.

The rep’s signature block has one more quote: “The bitte
ess of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” - John Ruskin. And we all know what’s coming when we hear that — the bitte
ess of high price!

But we have the rep out to talk about solar anyway. Like all salesmen, he’s a sparkling conglomeration of smiles, nods, soothing words, and endless facts, figures, charts, and scenarios that would make perfect sense to an electrical engineer, but a good deal less sense to a writer. On the bright side, we learn that the equipment finance specialists have discovered the world of solar panels and have developed a Gordian Knot of programs, trade-offs, payment schedules, and options. But the bottom line is that a system costing $40,000 to install might be had for as low as $44 down and, working against the electric company’s monopolistic pricing structure, will produce some savings — and will produce enormous savings as the down payment escalates enormously. And the generation of the power is all provided by the friendly sun which beats down daily on our roof.

So we do the research. The companies look reasonably solid, though not many years in business; the technology seems state-of-the-art, but what do we know; and the system is guaranteed to produce the promised savings or money back, but there are many unknowns. We pour over the myriad purchase and leasing options, and we narrow it down to three that seem to best balance cost, performance, savings, and time to pay back.

What to do to make a good decision? We are obviously delighted to be part of the energy solution instead of the energy problem, but what’s the best course of action here?

For many years, we’ve used our intuitions to guide us in situations like this. We discuss the situation together and develop questions that we want our inner voices to answer. We begin by writing the questions down, and we keep changing them until we’re both satisfied that our questions are simple, clear, unemotional, and complete — just like a good Google search would be to produce pertinent information that we’re really looking for.

Then we quite our minds separately and ask the same written questions of our own inner voices. In this case our questions were:

Do we make an immediate investment in an XYZ Corp. solar system?

If yes, which system do we select: 60% savings on electric bills at $X, 67% savings at $X plus $1,600, 73% savings at $X plus $2,600, or other?

Do we ask for a discount on the system selected?

If yes, what discount do we ask for?

When we came back together and compared the answers, we found that our answers were nearly identical, and sometimes in the same words.

This has always been a significant sign for us: if our answers are not the same, we don’t take the action. It is as if the universe doesn’t want us to go this way. But when the answers are identical, and especially when the answers are in the same words, we go for it. And we have always been delighted with the ultimate results.

So, when we compared our answers, and found them to be the same — and, in some cases, in the same words — we determined to go for exactly what our inner voices had indicated. And, as in all past cases like this, we saw no need to second-guess the decision, but felt at ease with the decision and the process. It always seems to work for us.

Joint intuition — why not try it out for yourselves?