This morning I talk to Towv about a topic, and then we stuck at the word “assume”.

To her, “assume” probably means something negative. Like giving a conclusion/ opinion without having enough data or evidence.

I used to think like that. But now I change my perspective, how?

Ok , the story begin:

I heard Towv told me about a mistake that most university students had which is: assuming their customer needs and insights based on what they “assume” the customer behave and think.

Katelyn Bourgoin ( a buyer psychologist ) once stated this in one of her post on LinkedIn:

“Selling people what they *actually* want

(Not what you think they *should* want)”

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo, it should based on true data, evidence that you collected to know what EXACTLY the customer is thinking and who they actually are.

Yesh, that’s true but then, if assumption was so bad and should be avoid after all. Why do people still have it? I mean you still assuming things daily in your work, study, family life.

My definition of assumption is “A conclusion based on unefficient data or evidence.”. So a person who assume something is they conclude what they think is true based on these factor:

• Data available to them at the moment?
• What is their personal truth? What do they know? What have they experience
• What emotion they are suffering? As it can blurred out shit that place right in front of their eyes.

So as my point of view, assumption is actually essential, especially when they have limited time and data but still have to make a decision. I believe that is really difficult to have all the information you have to make a certain argument/ judgement about something.

For example, when you first meet somebody, you gonna have some assumption about them. And I can confidently say that. Joke aside, that’s how all racial stereotypes be: Asians good at math, 👨🏿‍🦱 people good at basketball, etc.

And funny enough, I met some people I didn’t even know what their gender actually is. So I gotta assume for easier to communicate with them or whatsoever.

Professionally, when people do a market research and they ask like 100 people for opinions and they all said they like option B. And that company take that data and “generalize” it to the mass audience and create a product/services that can fit to the market. So, to my understanding, it is a form of having an assumption with quality back-up data and statistics so it is way more accurate compare to the “normal assumption.”

No one has no prejudice on something. It is simply a survival mechanism to assess the threat that can cause harm in the olden times. And now it evolved into various forms where it can help people identify threat/ opportunities asap to claim or deter it.

In case of a heated argument, they also need to gather all the information they have as quick as possible to rebut/ argue/ persuade the other side to overpower them. (I am guilty of this 😥)

So in conclusion, this is my take on assumption, its good and bad. And I know I have the tendency to use it when I shouldn’t. But yeah, it is a neutral phenomenon but if utilize it the wrong way, you can pretty much hurt someone or mistake a thing that would not happen => Waste of mind space.