When your gut says something’s off, pause and look for evidence. Sometimes it’s right. Sometimes it’s just tired.

Instinct is a fast pattern-matcher built out of everything you have seen, and it genuinely catches things your conscious mind has not got to yet. It is also thrown off by hunger, lack of sleep and whatever happened earlier that day. So the feeling is worth taking seriously as a prompt and not as a verdict. It tells you to look, not what you will find.

Treat the next bad feeling as a question. Name what specifically looks wrong and see whether you can point to anything real. If you can, act; if you cannot, and you are tired or hungry, check again tomorrow before doing anything you cannot undo.