Escaping a killer shark with a rushed decision — Intuition: The logical paradox
I always lived my life balancing between both the engineering data-driven side of myself, and the artistic and business guy side. I did that in every aspect: work, sports, and even my love life, till I met that shark and realised that Intuition does not seek the ultimate truth or sense, it is very well comfortable around non-sense
But first, let’s go back in time to that first and last time I met the killer.
Hint: Not interested in diving stories or in rush, skip to Some reflections section
Chasing thrill
Someone saw a shark!
That is what I heard while chilling by the oxygen bar. Ok, what is an oxygen bar? Irrelevant but let me tell you, basically it is a bar where divers sit, not necessary for liquor shots but for oxygen shots ‘as well’. After a long diving day the body is hungry for some oxygen, so trust me nothing feels better than an oxygen shot then!
Ok now back to the story! So we were sitting by the bar when someone came and said that some safari boat saw a shark near the Elphinstone dive site. Everyone was hyped and before you know it, a zodiac-zodiac dive was planned. What is a zodiac-zodiac dive? again irrelevant but ok, it is a dive where we go to the diving site with a zodiac then come back with one. Actually now thinking about it, it is kind of relevant to the story!
Let’s go first thing in the morning
A sunny & beautiful day it was, but actually, the underwater tide was tough that day. I was still excited, I never took a photo underwater of a shark before! Most of the time I am hovering the bottom of the sea looking for a nudibranch or a stingray to non-disturbingly take a photo of them.
Curious about my kit, you can find my full underwater photography setup here
On that zodiac, the waves were quite high, I was now so looking forward to just jump from that bouncy zodiac. The worst part of a zodiac-zodiac dive is basically the zodiac itself, sitting with 40+ kg of equipment for 30 min in a bouncy zodiac, you don’t want to experience that. One guy on the boat suddenly mentioned that he doesn't feel comfortable diving and that he feels something is going wrong. Away from the fact that his gut feeling was damn accurate, it is a rule in diving that if you feel slightly hesitant, DO NOT DIVE. which is exactly what happened, he stayed on the zodiac.
To add salt to the injury we decided to take a route that makes it even tougher, as we need to swim against the tide at some part. Why? Basically, as there is a higher chance of meeting the gentleshark on that path.
After 45 min of frankly a difficult yet brilliant dive, we gave up finding that shark, and our air tanks were getting empty. So we started to ascend gradually from 38 meters to 10 meters for our safety stop and to inflate our Surface marker buoy (SMB), what is an SMB? I love your curiosity, well it’s an air balloon that we inflate to signal our location to the surface. And believe it or not, that is when that shark suddenly appeared out of nowhere! We got excited & hyped, it kept swimming showing off its elegance and beauty around us, and we took some nice shots! That funny sound in the video is just signaling to other divers that we found the shark!
But then suddenly the shark started to get irritated! Swimming faster, going deeper, which we have to follow as you should ALWAYS stay below a shark. The spine started to curve, yes, cartoons are quite accurate in that, in fact, when a shark is angry they do curve their spine like in cartoons. We had to inflate the SMB anyways! So we decided to keep pulling the balloon string and move to somewhere else and signal again the zodiac, which we did, but after more than 100 meters we gave up, the further we go the shark would just follow us. Ok, now it is quite stressful!
That is when Maradona the most experienced diver out of us (an experienced divemaster) hand signaled a trick we know to attract sharks, using a plastic bottle and twisting it in a certain way, the frequency of the sound made by that does actually attract sharks. So, he started descending and we kept searching for a bottle, yeah we didn’t have one! But sadly (maybe luckily in that case!) the sea is full of plastic. After few minutes he found one! We get a little relieved. He took it down and started spinning it, and it worked, but temporary. The shark would dive towards the sound but then go to the surface again. Ok, now as you probably realize our tanks are near done! So no anymore luxury of waiting, we must ascend.
So we decided to emergency ascend 1-by-1 while others distract the shark. And that is when the title of that article came to place, I volunteered to come out first and inform the zodiac of the situation and that we will come out 1-by-1, and that they must go far and turn off the engine, as the engine sound was attracting the shark back to the surface. I ascended, took off quickly my equipment to allow myself a quick exit to the zodiac, and told them the story which unfortunately they first thought I am joking! I communicated more earnestly so they took me seriously. And that is when they moved. Everyone managed to ascend and we all luckily went back to the dive center and to the oxygen bar sound & healthy.
Back on surface
Now here is what others told me on the bar. I was told that the shark came after me as I was ascending and that he was literally less than a meter from my fins and attempted to bite my leg!
The shark almost bit you and we were stunned
said one of my buddies
I took it as a joke, and the next day in the morning while sitting inside my tent little I knew then that my camera was actually turned on during my ascend!
I found the proof that they were actually telling the truth to me last night! Thing is, I have this silly habit of dipping my camera into the water right after a dive, why? Well, that is too irrelevant and actually irrational so I will skip it this time, turned out though that the shark was literally indeed right below the zodiac as I ascend. Check out the video below and wait for it at the end.
Some reflections
I realized how that I took three simple decisions very fast and fluidly that day:
- Ascend and alert the zodiac before our air runs out.
- Not looking back behind me as I ascend and paying no attention to the shark.
- Only focusing on one thing, getting back on the zodiac as fast as possible.
It was like I did it before, no pauses! I realized that if I did pause, even for 10 sec, that shark could have bitten my leg, that simple! I was shocked and really changed my view on rushed decisions since then! Guesstimates can very well save you sometimes. It can be the right decision, if not the only one. I always lived my life balancing between both, the engineering data-driven side of myself, and the artistic and business guy side. This time, that art and business side simply saved me. I grasped that the art and business side is just, excuse my neuroscience, your subcortex processing all kinds of information deep inside your hippocampus or even shorter within the prefrontal cortex in the neocortex. I realized as well how that fear can be very beneficial when the amygdala is very active it can certainly cause stress, but it as well helps to process that fear-causing information fast! The fear here was running out of air or getting eaten by a shark!
Operating a business under chaos
In business, once chaos exists in any situation many organizations & leaders simply freeze! Instead of leaping for a chance and change, they shelter in a fragile cocoon and try to just keep things flowing by totally ignoring the turbulent flow caused by chaos. That is when you should allow your intuition to kick-in and that is what makes a great leader one. A great leader knows how to utilize both chaotic thinking & linear thinking. In a similar fashion as in physics where we describe reality by Newtonian and quantum physics, one needs to approach chaotic situations with instinct and feelings as well as reason. An intuition fed with reason, an intelligent one.
It is indeed non-sense to think of chasing an aggressive shark to the surface, but well that is the situation you are put in. Intuition does not seek the ultimate truth or sense, it is very well comfortable around non-sense, it fuels its tank with that reason and instinct mix, find those hidden connections and accept contradictions, then delivers this information in the form of an unexpected feeling, a rare sensation, or an odd sign to your consciousness for your rational and logical mind to feel comfortable functioning under a paradox.
As a business leader one needs to appreciate and nurture intuition. It doesn’t only help us survive under the uncertain future and sudden changes, it as well empowers us to operate in the zone of ambiguity and change, the exact place where imagination and genius occur; two key factors for innovation and business growth.
One doesn’t need to highlight as well that operating only under intuition is suicidal! It is a matter of balancing and realizing when to rely on it.
That was it, the story, my reflections, and lessons learned. Now back to the surface, safely :)
