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Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know
'A fascinating exploration of human potential that will change how you think about thinking . . . Essential reading for anyone who wants to thrive in an uncertain world' DANIEL H PINK
Tap into your hidden intelligence and transform your life
How are some people so much smarter than the rest of us? In 2021, researchers at Ohio State's Project Narrative, renowned for collaborations with NASA, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, announced they had the answer. They named it Primal Intelligence.
Intrigued, U.S. Army Special Operations developed Primal training for its most classified units. The training succeeded. The Operators saw the future faster. They healed quicker from trauma. In life-and-death situations, they chose wiser.
The Army then authorized trials on civilian entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, managers, salesforces, coaches, teachers, investors and NFL players. Their leadership and innovation improved significantly. They coped better with change and uncertainty. They experienced less anger and anxiety. Finally, the Army provided Primal training to college and K-12 classrooms. It produced substantial effects in students as young as eight.
That revolutionary training is now available for the first time in this book. It is not an optimization hack or a cheat code. Primal Intelligence is a different way of using your brain. It offers a new neuroscientific approach to intuition, imagination, emotion and commonsense.
It is your edge over AI. Your human genius. Your Primal Intelligence.
Tap into your hidden intelligence and transform your life
How are some people so much smarter than the rest of us? In 2021, researchers at Ohio State's Project Narrative, renowned for collaborations with NASA, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, announced they had the answer. They named it Primal Intelligence.
Intrigued, U.S. Army Special Operations developed Primal training for its most classified units. The training succeeded. The Operators saw the future faster. They healed quicker from trauma. In life-and-death situations, they chose wiser.
The Army then authorized trials on civilian entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, managers, salesforces, coaches, teachers, investors and NFL players. Their leadership and innovation improved significantly. They coped better with change and uncertainty. They experienced less anger and anxiety. Finally, the Army provided Primal training to college and K-12 classrooms. It produced substantial effects in students as young as eight.
That revolutionary training is now available for the first time in this book. It is not an optimization hack or a cheat code. Primal Intelligence is a different way of using your brain. It offers a new neuroscientific approach to intuition, imagination, emotion and commonsense.
It is your edge over AI. Your human genius. Your Primal Intelligence.
309 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2025
150 people are currently reading
2697 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 27, 2025
Primal Intelligence begins with a promising idea: that modern education has over-trained us in logic and computation while neglecting intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense. It’s a thesis worth exploring.
But the deeper I read, the more the book collapsed into myth-making. Shakespeare is inflated into a universal blueprint, Jobs and Darwin are turned into lone geniuses, neuroscience is reduced to cartoons, and evidence is replaced with military anecdotes. The result is not science, not philosophy, not history of ideas, but academic snake oil.
I wrote a detailed critique here: https://mirrorsofthought.substack.com...
But the deeper I read, the more the book collapsed into myth-making. Shakespeare is inflated into a universal blueprint, Jobs and Darwin are turned into lone geniuses, neuroscience is reduced to cartoons, and evidence is replaced with military anecdotes. The result is not science, not philosophy, not history of ideas, but academic snake oil.
I wrote a detailed critique here: https://mirrorsofthought.substack.com...
September 14, 2025
Primal Intelligence is a reminder to trust the planner, not just the plan. Fletcher shows how intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense create the unique mix that defines each of us—and it’s this combination that helps us adapt and evolve, especially when uncertainty reigns. It’s a powerful read about embracing what makes you you, and a reminder that AI will never outpace these distinctly human skills.
September 5, 2025
This is a really great book for a bunch of reasons, only one of which is that it makes it really clear why so-called "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) is not really intelligent, at least not in the ways that matter to humans. As much as I appreciate the take-down of AI hype, the book is valuable for its explanation and appreciation of the elements of what the author calls Primal Intelligence: Intuition, Imagination, Emotions, and Commonsense. And of course it all connects to what the author calls Storythinking, which is what makes us human (and what AI simply cannot do, because it's not intelligent in any meaningful way). The book is a lot of fun, and much of it proceeds at a very brisk pace, but I didn't mind, because the author is good at getting the information across and something about the pace gives you the sense that you are learning along with the author (even though he's spent many years putting all this together, yet the book is a relatively quick read). I also really appreciated the ways in which the author shares his own story, often with self-deprecating humor (he reports that he was advised by senior faculty to leave his PhD program in literature on two separate occasions. He didn't, and he has the PhD). He does all this while frequently referring to Shakespeare as a common thread of inspiration across many examples of innovative thinkers across the centuries (e.g., Maya Angelou and Steve Jobs - how often do you think of those two together?). Another reason to like the book, for me, is that it tells us to use shame and grief to free ourselves from the burdens of shame and grief when they are unexamined and unresolved. Sure, maybe you already had to work that out, but you know there are tons of people who need to hear it, right? No doubt there are all sorts of things in this book that could be nitpicked, and I say, go for it, if that's what you need to do. But read it anyway, and maybe some of the good stuff will sneak up on you while you are scoffing. And for those of you who are carried along without the need to nitpick, ENJOY!
August 31, 2025
One of the better books I have read about how to think. Recommended to me by someone in the military, the authors draws on much of his work with army special operations.
September 4, 2025
LOGIC vs Creativity +. Intuition
This is a novel worth keeping on your bookshelf if you are interested in this topic. It is Well presented and informative with numerous examples to support his thesis on primal intelligence.
Logic was considered the key to intelligence.
This book discusses this idea and several others that have been overlooked. Yet, many well known scientists and scholars have followed poetry and, realistic nonfiction in their Logic development.
I enjoyed the topic and his theises.
This is a novel worth keeping on your bookshelf if you are interested in this topic. It is Well presented and informative with numerous examples to support his thesis on primal intelligence.
Logic was considered the key to intelligence.
This book discusses this idea and several others that have been overlooked. Yet, many well known scientists and scholars have followed poetry and, realistic nonfiction in their Logic development.
I enjoyed the topic and his theises.
Read
October 17, 2025"Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know" by Angus Fletcher is a thought-provoking exploration of what truly makes human beings intelligent. While modern culture often equates intelligence with logic, analysis, and data-driven reasoning, Fletcher argues that this is only part of the story. For thousands of years before artificial intelligence and algorithms, humans relied on older, deeper mental capacities - intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense. These four pillars of what he calls 'Primal Intelligence' explain why we still outperform machines when facing uncertainty, change, and the chaos of real life. The book blends neuroscience, history, military training, and storytelling to show that human intelligence is rooted in narrative thinking, not computation, and that rediscovering these ancient strengths can help us adapt, create, and lead more effectively in the modern world.
The first pillar, intuition, is the primal spark that sets human intelligence in motion. It is our brain’s built-in radar for the unexpected - a sensitivity to the odd details and outliers that don’t fit the pattern. Computers, designed to detect regularity, often fail when confronted with exceptions. Humans, however, excel in spotting the anomaly that hints at a deeper truth. Fletcher illustrates this through figures like Vincent van Gogh, who noticed a strange clash between red and cyan that broke traditional color theory, and Marie Curie, whose curiosity about a peculiar radiation led to the discovery of radium. Intuition works by noticing when something doesn’t make sense and asking why. It’s not about gathering more information but about seeing what others overlook and daring to investigate it. Children exhibit this power naturally, noticing incongruities without explanation, but adults often lose it under layers of logic and convention. Fletcher reminds us that intuition, properly trusted, is not mystical - it’s the starting point of discovery and the first step toward deeper understanding.
Once intuition notices an exception, imagination steps in to expand it. Imagination, the second pillar, is the brain’s branching engine - our ability to project 'what ifs' into the future. Where computers follow one line of probability, human imagination generates countless scenarios, each forming a possible narrative path. Fletcher likens this to the creative genius of Beethoven, who could transform a single motif into a sprawling symphony, or to Robert Goddard, who read science fiction and envisioned real rockets that could one day travel to Mars. Imagination makes innovation possible because it allows us to go beyond the known data and build entirely new realities. But imagination also plays a role in everyday life: it’s what helps us plan, adapt, and recover from setbacks. When we imagine outcomes and alternatives, we make ourselves flexible. In high-stakes settings like the US Army Special Operations, recruits are trained to use imagination tactically by focusing on 'Now + 1' - the next step and the one after that. This keeps their imagination active without overwhelming them with distant hypotheticals. The key, Fletcher notes, is that imagination thrives best when anchored to a clear purpose. Too much unmoored imagination leads to anxiety or paralysis, but guided by vision, it becomes the ultimate engine for progress.
The third pillar, emotion, serves as the compass that guides us through uncertainty. Modern society often treats emotion as a weakness or distraction from rational thought, but Fletcher reframes it as an essential feedback system. Emotions signal how well our inner story is aligning with the world around us. Fear, anger, grief, and optimism all carry messages about the state of our plans and sense of direction. Fear tells us we lack a plan, anger warns that we’re trapped in one, and grief signals a broken connection between our past and present selves. Ignoring these emotions dulls our self-awareness, while understanding them allows us to recalibrate. For soldiers, emotion provides the momentum that logic alone cannot. Resilience isn’t about suppressing fear or grief - it’s about using those feelings as navigation cues. Optimism, too, is reframed: it’s not blind faith that things will work out but confidence that things 'can' work out. Emotional intelligence, then, becomes the art of reading our internal signals accurately and using them to propel us forward rather than hold us back. Emotions connect us to our purpose and to one another, giving our decisions meaning and our actions heart.
The fourth pillar, commonsense, ties everything together by keeping us grounded in reality. Fletcher describes it as the brain’s 'doubt switch' - the ability to sense when we don’t know something. This humility before the unknown is what distinguishes humans from machines. While artificial intelligence fills every gap with confident but potentially false outputs, human commonsense hesitates in the face of uncertainty, prompting us to adapt and learn. Commonsense constantly monitors the environment for volatility. When the world feels stable, it allows us to follow routines; when it senses change, it triggers caution and creativity. Benjamin Franklin captured this duality in his seemingly contradictory advice: be cautious when tradition works, but act quickly when change demands it. In practice, commonsense guides adaptability. The Army teaches recruits to tune their anxiety, separating lessons from past failures from worries about future ones, and to focus instead on immediate, actionable steps. That’s commonsense in action - grounded, alert, and ready to pivot. It ensures that intuition, imagination, and emotion operate in balance rather than chaos.
Together, the four pillars of Primal Intelligence - intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense - create a mental ecosystem that thrives on uncertainty. But Fletcher doesn’t stop at theory; he explores how these powers can transform how we teach, coach, and lead. In leadership, the old model of control gives way to a new model of empowerment. True coaching means letting others take the wheel, even if they make mistakes. In military training, seasoned pilots hand over control mid-mission to rookies, not out of recklessness but to trigger growth in both teacher and student. Similarly, in creative industries like Hollywood, showrunners let junior writers run an episode to the edge of collapse. This practice forces veterans to adapt, keeping their own expertise flexible and alive. Fletcher calls this the antidote to the 'paradox of expertise' - the tendency to become so skilled that one stops learning. By allowing new minds to make messes, leaders keep their own intelligence primal - always branching, never static. Leadership, in this sense, is less about managing and more about modeling vision, courage, and creative problem-solving.
Underneath all of this lies what Fletcher identifies as the human superpower: storythinking. Our brains, he argues, evolved not to compute equations but to sequence events - to think in cause and effect, in plots and actions. This ability, rooted in what he calls 'moto' or motor intelligence, allows us to anticipate outcomes, invent strategies, and find meaning in time. Machines can process data, but they cannot construct or understand true narratives. Storythinking is why we can imagine a future that hasn’t happened and still act as if it’s real. It’s also what binds the four pillars together: intuition notices the irregularity in a story, imagination explores alternative endings, emotion gives the story motive force, and commonsense ensures it stays coherent. From Shakespeare to Einstein, innovators have relied on this storytelling mind. Shakespeare, Fletcher notes, didn’t just write plays - he taught humanity how to think in stories, how to imagine possibilities, and how to adapt through conflict. His influence on scientists and inventors, from Tesla to Jobs, shows how narrative thinking fuels innovation.
Ultimately, "Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know" is a call to reclaim the full spectrum of human intellect. In an age obsessed with optimization and data, Fletcher reminds us that real intelligence is not linear but living - it grows, adapts, and learns through experience and story. The book argues that our ancient mental faculties, far from being obsolete, are what keep us ahead of our own technologies. By cultivating intuition to spot what’s different, imagination to explore what’s possible, emotion to stay connected, and commonsense to steer through doubt, we can thrive in the uncertain world that logic alone cannot conquer. Fletcher leaves readers with a powerful challenge: to stop chasing artificial forms of intelligence and start trusting the one evolution built into us. Storythinking, he concludes, is our deepest cognitive advantage - it’s how we make sense of chaos, craft meaning, and build futures worth living. And that is the enduring message of "Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know".
The first pillar, intuition, is the primal spark that sets human intelligence in motion. It is our brain’s built-in radar for the unexpected - a sensitivity to the odd details and outliers that don’t fit the pattern. Computers, designed to detect regularity, often fail when confronted with exceptions. Humans, however, excel in spotting the anomaly that hints at a deeper truth. Fletcher illustrates this through figures like Vincent van Gogh, who noticed a strange clash between red and cyan that broke traditional color theory, and Marie Curie, whose curiosity about a peculiar radiation led to the discovery of radium. Intuition works by noticing when something doesn’t make sense and asking why. It’s not about gathering more information but about seeing what others overlook and daring to investigate it. Children exhibit this power naturally, noticing incongruities without explanation, but adults often lose it under layers of logic and convention. Fletcher reminds us that intuition, properly trusted, is not mystical - it’s the starting point of discovery and the first step toward deeper understanding.
Once intuition notices an exception, imagination steps in to expand it. Imagination, the second pillar, is the brain’s branching engine - our ability to project 'what ifs' into the future. Where computers follow one line of probability, human imagination generates countless scenarios, each forming a possible narrative path. Fletcher likens this to the creative genius of Beethoven, who could transform a single motif into a sprawling symphony, or to Robert Goddard, who read science fiction and envisioned real rockets that could one day travel to Mars. Imagination makes innovation possible because it allows us to go beyond the known data and build entirely new realities. But imagination also plays a role in everyday life: it’s what helps us plan, adapt, and recover from setbacks. When we imagine outcomes and alternatives, we make ourselves flexible. In high-stakes settings like the US Army Special Operations, recruits are trained to use imagination tactically by focusing on 'Now + 1' - the next step and the one after that. This keeps their imagination active without overwhelming them with distant hypotheticals. The key, Fletcher notes, is that imagination thrives best when anchored to a clear purpose. Too much unmoored imagination leads to anxiety or paralysis, but guided by vision, it becomes the ultimate engine for progress.
The third pillar, emotion, serves as the compass that guides us through uncertainty. Modern society often treats emotion as a weakness or distraction from rational thought, but Fletcher reframes it as an essential feedback system. Emotions signal how well our inner story is aligning with the world around us. Fear, anger, grief, and optimism all carry messages about the state of our plans and sense of direction. Fear tells us we lack a plan, anger warns that we’re trapped in one, and grief signals a broken connection between our past and present selves. Ignoring these emotions dulls our self-awareness, while understanding them allows us to recalibrate. For soldiers, emotion provides the momentum that logic alone cannot. Resilience isn’t about suppressing fear or grief - it’s about using those feelings as navigation cues. Optimism, too, is reframed: it’s not blind faith that things will work out but confidence that things 'can' work out. Emotional intelligence, then, becomes the art of reading our internal signals accurately and using them to propel us forward rather than hold us back. Emotions connect us to our purpose and to one another, giving our decisions meaning and our actions heart.
The fourth pillar, commonsense, ties everything together by keeping us grounded in reality. Fletcher describes it as the brain’s 'doubt switch' - the ability to sense when we don’t know something. This humility before the unknown is what distinguishes humans from machines. While artificial intelligence fills every gap with confident but potentially false outputs, human commonsense hesitates in the face of uncertainty, prompting us to adapt and learn. Commonsense constantly monitors the environment for volatility. When the world feels stable, it allows us to follow routines; when it senses change, it triggers caution and creativity. Benjamin Franklin captured this duality in his seemingly contradictory advice: be cautious when tradition works, but act quickly when change demands it. In practice, commonsense guides adaptability. The Army teaches recruits to tune their anxiety, separating lessons from past failures from worries about future ones, and to focus instead on immediate, actionable steps. That’s commonsense in action - grounded, alert, and ready to pivot. It ensures that intuition, imagination, and emotion operate in balance rather than chaos.
Together, the four pillars of Primal Intelligence - intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense - create a mental ecosystem that thrives on uncertainty. But Fletcher doesn’t stop at theory; he explores how these powers can transform how we teach, coach, and lead. In leadership, the old model of control gives way to a new model of empowerment. True coaching means letting others take the wheel, even if they make mistakes. In military training, seasoned pilots hand over control mid-mission to rookies, not out of recklessness but to trigger growth in both teacher and student. Similarly, in creative industries like Hollywood, showrunners let junior writers run an episode to the edge of collapse. This practice forces veterans to adapt, keeping their own expertise flexible and alive. Fletcher calls this the antidote to the 'paradox of expertise' - the tendency to become so skilled that one stops learning. By allowing new minds to make messes, leaders keep their own intelligence primal - always branching, never static. Leadership, in this sense, is less about managing and more about modeling vision, courage, and creative problem-solving.
Underneath all of this lies what Fletcher identifies as the human superpower: storythinking. Our brains, he argues, evolved not to compute equations but to sequence events - to think in cause and effect, in plots and actions. This ability, rooted in what he calls 'moto' or motor intelligence, allows us to anticipate outcomes, invent strategies, and find meaning in time. Machines can process data, but they cannot construct or understand true narratives. Storythinking is why we can imagine a future that hasn’t happened and still act as if it’s real. It’s also what binds the four pillars together: intuition notices the irregularity in a story, imagination explores alternative endings, emotion gives the story motive force, and commonsense ensures it stays coherent. From Shakespeare to Einstein, innovators have relied on this storytelling mind. Shakespeare, Fletcher notes, didn’t just write plays - he taught humanity how to think in stories, how to imagine possibilities, and how to adapt through conflict. His influence on scientists and inventors, from Tesla to Jobs, shows how narrative thinking fuels innovation.
Ultimately, "Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know" is a call to reclaim the full spectrum of human intellect. In an age obsessed with optimization and data, Fletcher reminds us that real intelligence is not linear but living - it grows, adapts, and learns through experience and story. The book argues that our ancient mental faculties, far from being obsolete, are what keep us ahead of our own technologies. By cultivating intuition to spot what’s different, imagination to explore what’s possible, emotion to stay connected, and commonsense to steer through doubt, we can thrive in the uncertain world that logic alone cannot conquer. Fletcher leaves readers with a powerful challenge: to stop chasing artificial forms of intelligence and start trusting the one evolution built into us. Storythinking, he concludes, is our deepest cognitive advantage - it’s how we make sense of chaos, craft meaning, and build futures worth living. And that is the enduring message of "Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know".
September 6, 2025
If you just want to get the main ideas, flip the book towards the end, read Primal Quick Guide.
Read
August 31, 2025Horrible book. Reads like a pitch from a used car salesman.
October 18, 2025
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)
Angus Fletcher reframes intelligence as something primal — built from intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense — and shows how these ancient faculties drive creativity, leadership, and resilience where logic alone fails.
Executive Summary
Fletcher challenges the modern bias that equates intelligence with logic or data. He argues that our deepest human strengths come from four “primal” capacities that evolved long before formal reasoning:
1. Intuition — sensing anomalies and patterns that data can’t explain
2. Imagination — envisioning unseen possibilities and futures
3. Emotion — guiding decisions through felt meaning and empathy
4. Commonsense — recognizing uncertainty and adapting with humility
Together, these form primal intelligence — the mental agility that helps us act wisely under pressure and ambiguity. Fletcher draws on examples from creative arts, science, and high-stakes leadership to show how anyone can train these abilities through story-based thinking, reflective practice, and open-ended experimentation.
Review
In a world drowning in data, this read encouraged me not to discount my inherent human ingenuity in pattern recognition and decision making. It stands in stark contrast to what is taught in Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, which argues that the Dunning-Kruger effect is alive and well, meaning most people overestimate the validity of their "gut instinct". Fletcher writes with the conviction of a scientist-philosopher and the accessibility of a storyteller. Lacking the experimental evidence Kahneman boasted, Fletcher's central claim — that narrative and emotion are valid forms of reasoning, not distractions from it — still feels timely in an era obsessed with AI and analytics. The prose is fast-paced, full of analogies and historical vignettes that make abstract concepts tangible.
The book’s strength lies in its practicality: it reminds readers that creativity is not mystical but trainable, rooted in habits of perception and storytelling. At times, I wish Fletcher had made his points with more scientific grounding and less rhetorical power, but the ideas land. The message resonates with the Wayne Gretzky metaphor — success comes from skating to where the puck will be, not where it is. Fletcher’s “primal intelligence” is essentially that forward-sensing faculty.
TL;DR
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
An engaging, thought-provoking read that restores confidence in our oldest mental tools — intuition, imagination, emotion, and common sense. Ideal for leaders, creatives, educators, and anyone navigating unpredictable worlds. It argues persuasively that human cognition is not about data crunching but story shaping — a reminder that our strength lies in anticipating and adapting, not just analyzing.
Similar Reads If you enjoyed this, consider:
- Range by David Epstein — on how breadth of experience fuels adaptability.
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell — on the hidden power of intuition.
- The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin — on the psychology of mastery.
- Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb — on thriving amid uncertainty.
- The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey — on intuition and focus under pressure.
- The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul — on thinking beyond the brain.
Angus Fletcher reframes intelligence as something primal — built from intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense — and shows how these ancient faculties drive creativity, leadership, and resilience where logic alone fails.
Executive Summary
Fletcher challenges the modern bias that equates intelligence with logic or data. He argues that our deepest human strengths come from four “primal” capacities that evolved long before formal reasoning:
1. Intuition — sensing anomalies and patterns that data can’t explain
2. Imagination — envisioning unseen possibilities and futures
3. Emotion — guiding decisions through felt meaning and empathy
4. Commonsense — recognizing uncertainty and adapting with humility
Together, these form primal intelligence — the mental agility that helps us act wisely under pressure and ambiguity. Fletcher draws on examples from creative arts, science, and high-stakes leadership to show how anyone can train these abilities through story-based thinking, reflective practice, and open-ended experimentation.
Review
In a world drowning in data, this read encouraged me not to discount my inherent human ingenuity in pattern recognition and decision making. It stands in stark contrast to what is taught in Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, which argues that the Dunning-Kruger effect is alive and well, meaning most people overestimate the validity of their "gut instinct". Fletcher writes with the conviction of a scientist-philosopher and the accessibility of a storyteller. Lacking the experimental evidence Kahneman boasted, Fletcher's central claim — that narrative and emotion are valid forms of reasoning, not distractions from it — still feels timely in an era obsessed with AI and analytics. The prose is fast-paced, full of analogies and historical vignettes that make abstract concepts tangible.
The book’s strength lies in its practicality: it reminds readers that creativity is not mystical but trainable, rooted in habits of perception and storytelling. At times, I wish Fletcher had made his points with more scientific grounding and less rhetorical power, but the ideas land. The message resonates with the Wayne Gretzky metaphor — success comes from skating to where the puck will be, not where it is. Fletcher’s “primal intelligence” is essentially that forward-sensing faculty.
TL;DR
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
An engaging, thought-provoking read that restores confidence in our oldest mental tools — intuition, imagination, emotion, and common sense. Ideal for leaders, creatives, educators, and anyone navigating unpredictable worlds. It argues persuasively that human cognition is not about data crunching but story shaping — a reminder that our strength lies in anticipating and adapting, not just analyzing.
Similar Reads If you enjoyed this, consider:
- Range by David Epstein — on how breadth of experience fuels adaptability.
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell — on the hidden power of intuition.
- The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin — on the psychology of mastery.
- Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb — on thriving amid uncertainty.
- The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey — on intuition and focus under pressure.
- The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul — on thinking beyond the brain.
October 15, 2025
Whether intentional or not, Primal Intelligence is a parody of pop science and science-y motivational speaking. Use my handy checklist to decide for yourself!
- Branded!: Give your product a trendy new name. Call “story,” “narrative cognition” and brand your mix of imagination, emotion and common sense, “Primal Intelligence.”
- Give yourself a test!: Find your untapped strengths and identify your quadrant!
- The other brand is c**p!: Fletcher uses a lot of false dichotomies to emphasize his points. He frequently emphasizes that schools, society and The Enlightenment only teach and value logic, while his brand can free you with story. He uses one quote to prove Kahneman is backwards.
- Read more . . . by only this author!: The entire “Further Reading” section references works by Fletcher. No one else can teach you creativity! This is a shocking contrast with his praise of, for example, reading Shakespeare and Goethe.
- Testimonials from Important People!: Van Gogh! Curie! Warren Buffet! Einstein!They all did creative stuff, so you can too! Fletcher doesn’t cite his sources though. The lack of sources, notes or any direct acknowledgement of debt is troubling, even suspicious. There is a page of people he thanks for contributions like “dojo” and “integrated life.”
- Overly Dramatic Opening!: A US Army Special Forces operative infiltrates Enormous State University to make contact with a neglected scientist in a shabby office. This brand is a hidden secret to success!
- Everything Sounds Better with a British Accent: Imagine David Attenborough reading this book to you. Sounds good, right! The author has a British accent!
- The secret is on the next page!: I have to give credit to Fletcher on this. I did keep reading.
Finally, Fletcher shares many thoughts; some are probably his and most are clearly not. For example, he retells stories of van Gogh, Tesla and von Clausewitz that seem unwisely incomplete. None are referenced to sources. It is as if Fletcher threw choice prompts at ChatGPT and integrated the internet stories with stories he heard first hand (usually from Special Forces operatives).
It’s too bad Fletcher packaged his observations in this parody, or possibly a hoax, of a pop sci, motivational talk book. Stories are powerful human ways of understanding and choosing action. Adults can use a mental kick to help them out of the trap of the same lazy stories. I actually appreciated some of the “Practical Exercises” for creating new “stories” on pages 142, 143, 274 - 280. Read a book (Fletcher recommends Shakespeare) - probably not this one.
- Branded!: Give your product a trendy new name. Call “story,” “narrative cognition” and brand your mix of imagination, emotion and common sense, “Primal Intelligence.”
- Give yourself a test!: Find your untapped strengths and identify your quadrant!
- The other brand is c**p!: Fletcher uses a lot of false dichotomies to emphasize his points. He frequently emphasizes that schools, society and The Enlightenment only teach and value logic, while his brand can free you with story. He uses one quote to prove Kahneman is backwards.
- Read more . . . by only this author!: The entire “Further Reading” section references works by Fletcher. No one else can teach you creativity! This is a shocking contrast with his praise of, for example, reading Shakespeare and Goethe.
- Testimonials from Important People!: Van Gogh! Curie! Warren Buffet! Einstein!They all did creative stuff, so you can too! Fletcher doesn’t cite his sources though. The lack of sources, notes or any direct acknowledgement of debt is troubling, even suspicious. There is a page of people he thanks for contributions like “dojo” and “integrated life.”
- Overly Dramatic Opening!: A US Army Special Forces operative infiltrates Enormous State University to make contact with a neglected scientist in a shabby office. This brand is a hidden secret to success!
- Everything Sounds Better with a British Accent: Imagine David Attenborough reading this book to you. Sounds good, right! The author has a British accent!
- The secret is on the next page!: I have to give credit to Fletcher on this. I did keep reading.
Finally, Fletcher shares many thoughts; some are probably his and most are clearly not. For example, he retells stories of van Gogh, Tesla and von Clausewitz that seem unwisely incomplete. None are referenced to sources. It is as if Fletcher threw choice prompts at ChatGPT and integrated the internet stories with stories he heard first hand (usually from Special Forces operatives).
It’s too bad Fletcher packaged his observations in this parody, or possibly a hoax, of a pop sci, motivational talk book. Stories are powerful human ways of understanding and choosing action. Adults can use a mental kick to help them out of the trap of the same lazy stories. I actually appreciated some of the “Practical Exercises” for creating new “stories” on pages 142, 143, 274 - 280. Read a book (Fletcher recommends Shakespeare) - probably not this one.
September 15, 2025
I did read quite psychology books and I can tell that Primal Intelligence, my first book from Angus truly surprised me and I paused reading Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and also Perfect Spy by LeCarre knowing his quite long plot building and dull beginings, and I just finished what Angus had to say.
So my common sense or as he proclaims it, our forth primal power or intelligence among intuition, imagination and emotion is telling me it holds water and is truly revealing.
The part where he collaborates with worlds top intelligence operators is very thrilling. It's logical that they as a military will always get the best and most innovative education and training. So anyway I believe that no matter how advance the AI technology will become it will never outscore the human intelligence and the human brain.
Also very much interesting was his elaboration on Sir William Shakespeare influencenand his magnificent legacy in literature. The fact that Einstein himself clasified him as the Top inspiring story teller and author (cognitive narration the one thing AI will never have an upper hand on, story and plot were the sole human legacy before, as was all the education before renaissance, industrial and technological revolutions took control and his influence on minds like Tesla, Franklin, Clausevitz, Jobs, Churchill and many many more brilliant people who truly changed the world or influenced it potently speaks volumes.
Will read his other books too but after Shakespeare of course ;)
So my common sense or as he proclaims it, our forth primal power or intelligence among intuition, imagination and emotion is telling me it holds water and is truly revealing.
The part where he collaborates with worlds top intelligence operators is very thrilling. It's logical that they as a military will always get the best and most innovative education and training. So anyway I believe that no matter how advance the AI technology will become it will never outscore the human intelligence and the human brain.
Also very much interesting was his elaboration on Sir William Shakespeare influencenand his magnificent legacy in literature. The fact that Einstein himself clasified him as the Top inspiring story teller and author (cognitive narration the one thing AI will never have an upper hand on, story and plot were the sole human legacy before, as was all the education before renaissance, industrial and technological revolutions took control and his influence on minds like Tesla, Franklin, Clausevitz, Jobs, Churchill and many many more brilliant people who truly changed the world or influenced it potently speaks volumes.
Will read his other books too but after Shakespeare of course ;)
October 15, 2025
WHOA. This is definitely a book I’m buying, marking up, and will be returning to over and over. How to sum up Fletcher’s research and studies and training?? It’s kindof impossible—you just need to read it. Basically: Stories, intuition, and imagination can’t be replicated by computers and AI, and we NEED those things to keep innovating and creating solutions! We have based so much of our lives and “genius” on logic, but what if we’ve gotten it all wrong and logic is NOT the answer??
September 8, 2025
This guy is on to something!!!! I was telling my husband so much about what so was learning. I did the audible but think I may go order the book to go over it again and again. If you are worried about AI outcompeting us, read this to figure out it what special intelligence humans have that AI never will.
October 1, 2025
Somewhat buzzwordy in a way that made me kind of nervous. It's like a self-help or cult-ish book, but I found there was a lot of interesting information that helped me change how I communicate with others and my overall mindset around how to learn in a way that I think is going to be very useful my future.
September 29, 2025
Fletcher has some very interesting ideas, but I gotta say that correlation is not necessarily causation with the whole Shakespeare connection. What I appreciated was the insight that AI will never have human intuition and the ability to make plans with very little available data.
September 30, 2025
Definitely top ten read for me this year!! Very applicable with some defined practical application. I loved the idea of learning and leaning into your common sense, imagination, creativity, and intuition!!
August 28, 2025
Superb book with extremely helpful insights. Engagingly written.
September 12, 2025
Deserves 6 stars. Brilliant! Must read.
October 13, 2025
Something something Shakespeare!
October 21, 2025
Not a huge fan. Nothing too insightful or groundbreaking. Not empirical and didn't make me rethink anything about "how I think." No need for flowery prose about "the operators eyes."
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