Instinct is indeed unfortunate, and I think it is misleading to the point of hilarity too! The notion that sizing a market (as others have mentioned: a Fermi problem) is the same kind of knowledge as that which makes babies close their mouths and wave their arms when immersed in water? Venture investing truly is child's play :D
Let "sizing a marked" mean "estimating the number of products that can be sold to a given population of persons". An very precise estimate of this number is currently very hard to provide, but giving an order of magnitude estimate is clearly a Fermi problem. Note that the difficulty is providing an accurate and tight bound, not an accurate but imprecise one and that the latter might be valuable too.
Solving a Fermi problem requires estimating a series of numbers from everyday experience. One then multiplies these number together in a mechanical fashion, which could be done in a "ready-at-hand" way by use of a tool. Evidently the process invariably requires contemplating one's every-day experience, and since ordinarily that experience is simply lived this meta-action is an act filled with "presence".
By the way, the problem of capitalism is solved, and the solution shows that it will allocate capital optimally; this is one of the main arguments in favour of capitalist systems.
The problem that the social reality in which we live only partially approximates capitalism (see: non-profit organizations) is the big problem economists, and anyone else using classical economic theory in the real world, struggle with.
Let "sizing a marked" mean "estimating the number of products that can be sold to a given population of persons". An very precise estimate of this number is currently very hard to provide, but giving an order of magnitude estimate is clearly a Fermi problem. Note that the difficulty is providing an accurate and tight bound, not an accurate but imprecise one and that the latter might be valuable too.
Solving a Fermi problem requires estimating a series of numbers from everyday experience. One then multiplies these number together in a mechanical fashion, which could be done in a "ready-at-hand" way by use of a tool. Evidently the process invariably requires contemplating one's every-day experience, and since ordinarily that experience is simply lived this meta-action is an act filled with "presence".
By the way, the problem of capitalism is solved, and the solution shows that it will allocate capital optimally; this is one of the main arguments in favour of capitalist systems.
The problem that the social reality in which we live only partially approximates capitalism (see: non-profit organizations) is the big problem economists, and anyone else using classical economic theory in the real world, struggle with.