The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters talks about some of the same concepts, as well as giving advice on how to try and work effectively with your chimp (his word for the base layer, emotive, intuitive brain). The book gets across the same concepts—the fact that we have what feels like a seperate entity living inside our heads, that it runs on emotions and instinct, and is more powerful than us, or its decisions take priority over ours.
Peters likens trying to force our decisions against the chimp’s desires to “Arm wrestling the chimp”. The chimp is stronger than you, the chimp will almost always win. Peters goes on to suggest other strategies for handling the chimp, actions which might seem strange to you (the mask, the computer, the system 2 part of the brain) but make sense to chimp-logic, and allow you to both get what you want.
I find the language of the book a bit too childish and metaphorical, but the advice is generally useful in my experience. I should probably revisit it.
The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters talks about some of the same concepts, as well as giving advice on how to try and work effectively with your chimp (his word for the base layer, emotive, intuitive brain). The book gets across the same concepts—the fact that we have what feels like a seperate entity living inside our heads, that it runs on emotions and instinct, and is more powerful than us, or its decisions take priority over ours.
Peters likens trying to force our decisions against the chimp’s desires to “Arm wrestling the chimp”. The chimp is stronger than you, the chimp will almost always win. Peters goes on to suggest other strategies for handling the chimp, actions which might seem strange to you (the mask, the computer, the system 2 part of the brain) but make sense to chimp-logic, and allow you to both get what you want.
I find the language of the book a bit too childish and metaphorical, but the advice is generally useful in my experience. I should probably revisit it.