I prefer to think of it as mostly insightful -- observing and picking up on things -- although sometimes it is basically intuitive -- a gut feeling or vibe that I trust. Neither are totally reliable but tend to be right more often than wrong.
For a good number of years my office overlooked the company parking lot. Whenever someone asked how I concluded some grand strategy or activity was going on, I would say "I was reading the parking lot" in the same way fortune tellers read tea-leaves. They would walk away scratching their heads either not believe me or not understanding the allusion/significance. But seeing which execs were going to lunch or on site visits or whatever together were like smoke signals as to where the action was.
