Primal Intelligence

by Angus Fletcher, Gabriel Tudor (Translator)

Cum reușesc unii oameni să vadă mai departe decât ceilalți, să ia decizii mai înțelepte și să creeze ceea ce părea imposibil?

Răspunsul nu stă nici în intuiția nativă, nici în algoritmi rigizi, ci într-o resursă pe care fiecare dintre noi o poartă în sine: inteligența primară.

Validată de cercetătorii de la Ohio State University și testată chiar de unitățile speciale ale Armatei SUA, această descoperire a schimbat modul în care lideri, medici, sportivi, antreprenori și elevi își folosesc mintea. Rezultatele? Creativitate sporită, reziliență mai mare, vindecare mai rapidă, capacitatea de a lua decizii clare în mijlocul haosului și mai puțină anxietate în fața necunoscutului.

Primal Intelligence îți arată cum să-ți accesezi propria inteligență primară, o formă de cogniție narativă imposibil de reprodus de inteligența artificială. Vei afla cum să-ți folosești intuiția, imaginația, emoțiile și discernământul într-un mod nou, care îți deschide perspectivele și te apropie de modul în care au gândit vizionari precum Steve Jobs, William Shakespeare sau Albert Einstein.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, American, Science

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2025

Reviews

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 1 out of 5]

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...

[Vicki · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[W.L. Hawkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for work as part of our Professional Development book club. It’s listed under Cognitive Psychology on Amazon, if that helps to put it in perspective. Let’s say it’s a pitch for new ways of using the human brain peppered with rhetoric. Fletcher disparages anything in the least “magical” like vision boards or manifestation, so I had to pry open my mind to consider his hypothesis.

I didn’t get much out of Part 1: Primal Activation at all. Fletcher writes much about his work with US Special Ops. Applicable to me? Not so much.

Fletcher’s main pitch is that people think and learn in story or narrative. This is nothing new to me. Indigenous People have been storytellers since Time out of Memory. He does not mention them at all which shows where he butters his bread.

To summarize the whole first section Fletcher says:
• Intuition fuels story and sparks plans. Yes, I’m an intuitive writer. I get that.
• Imagination shapes plans. What if? is the writer’s basic question to the ethers.
• Emotion sustains plans. Hell, yeah. When I stop feeling it, I’m out.
• Commonsense selects plans in that it chooses what’s best for the situation.

Part 2 is Primal Application.

There’s plenty of name dropping here and anecdotes about famous intelligentsia like Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs, Vincent van Gogh and Steve Wozniak, Tesla and Wayne Gretsky. He talks history, again dropping fun stuff like, “Innovation is now a hackneyed buzz word, but when it entered the English language five hundred years ago, it was a synonym for sin (100). Don’t change what God made perfect.

He’s a huge fan of Shakespeare—who he credits with “creativity”— dedicating over two pages to those brilliant minds who read, memorized, adored, studied him, and shaped our (or perhaps HIS world).

Fletcher is an academic. After studying neuroscience and psychology, he goes off to Yale to get a PhD in literature, and studies Shakespeare. Eventually he comes to a conclusion: “He was a nimble innovator who changed the narrative—and kept on changing it” (247). From there he trundles off to the New York Academy of Medicine and then the Humanities Institute at Stanford to lecture on Shakespeare. From there he checks out Pixar and then becomes a screenwriter. Finally, he lands in Project Narrative at Ohio State University as a professor of story science, which is why he’s written this book. Perhaps the $40.75 hardcover price per book will help pay for some of his education.

The thing is: after reading this whole book, I learned nothing new except perhaps that Fletcher is the poster boy for Entitlement. I came to this book knowing:
• that school feeds the masses with facts expected to be regurgitated and that it breaks many kids. That’s why I appreciate working with a passion-based community of child-centred educators
• that people have always learned through story and always will. I’ve learned more from reading and writing fiction than I ever will reading text books.
• that to be a leader one must break free and take a risk
• that Shakespeare wrote novel plays for his time with wonderfully exceptional characters, conflict, and dialogue that teach us about humanity in an entertaining way
• that Intuition and Imagination equal Creativity

The thing is, reading books that you don’t resonate with isn’t a bad thing. It’s like taking a bite at the buffet table and walking on, maybe grabbing something else to change the taste in your mouth. Critical thinking is about saying yes this works or no this does not. To disagree, one must think why? And if you have an emotional reaction, all the better. What is it about this that irks me? Or gives me joy? Or makes me cry? Or makes me want to throw a $40 hardcover tome against the wall?

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Cynthia Sprout]

Horrible book. Reads like a pitch from a used car salesman.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Zhuo Zhang · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you just want to get the main ideas, flip the book towards the end, read Primal Quick Guide.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t love the way it was written, but I found the overall ideas—and especially the quiz at the end—very useful. There were some great insights on how to use your intelligence to compete in the future.

[Jung]

"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".

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

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."

[Bryan Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for the ideas, making me think, and the fact that I'm still reflecting on the concepts even though I'm done reading. Three stars for the writing.
The visuals of the arrows and time (past present future) is compelling because of its simplicity and truth. If our narrative about our past is aligned with its components, and we are open to options in the future, we can move forward. If our past narrative is fragmented, contradictory, misaligned with what we think we are, then it makes it difficult to more forward because the possibilities and 'shoulds' splinter too much. With intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense (the latter defined as recognizing when you don't know), you're able to innovate, be resilient. decisive, communicate well, coach and lead others. Using a lot of examples from Special Operative training, Fletcher explains how these concepts all work.
Or, he tries to. I found sometimes he stayed so high level that what he was actually trying to say never gets send. More practical examples would have helped. It feels like either he doesn't connect all the dots clearly, or I failed to grasp how the dots connected. Either way, I think it's a fault in the writing, not the logic. The book reads like typical self-help/psychology/business books with simplified concepts, anecdotes to illustrate, and steps of the framework. But I have the impression that it's a structure and style forced onto the author or that the author forced his content into that structure. If the author had written more organically, more in his own style and voice, with more depth, I think the book could have been so much stronger. It falls below its potential, I find. Ironic, of course, because a core principle of the book is about the exceptions to the rule as a way to innovate.
Another interesting element of the book is how it continually comes back to Shakespeare. He's the guy who was innovative and played up the exceptions, and the author points to many of the "great thinkers and inventors" in recent history who all reference or hat-tip the Bard in some way. These references, plus the recurring concept of narrative and storythinking make the book creep towards literary commentary. I know want to re-read The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better to see how the books intersect.
So, in summation, there's a lot in this book but it's not always spelled out as compelling as I'd want it to be. Still, it's worth the read if you want to think about thinking.

[Cynthia Stine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book. I see why Malcolm Gladwell was so excited. It helped me with several questions I had about AI, the future, my own resilience. Small stuff. lol.

AI has brought both wonder and concern into my life. At 58, do I have what it takes to navigate this brave new world? Can I reinvent my life on my terms? Will I be replaced by a chatbot?

Change is daunting and yet I have reinvented myself/my career many times. How did I do that? This book helped me understand my process in a new way.

It shifted my thinking back to the tools that have always helped me navigate the world when there are a lot of unknowns. I’ve had to drop what I thought I knew and start over many times when the world changed around me.

I don’t need faith in myself or positive thinking/optimism, those are side effects not the genesis of resilience.

The book is revolutionary for leaders because it teaches how to turn followers into leaders. It is not about AI. It is about why AI can’t replace humans, not even in some dystopian future.

It is about how our brains work and how we can learn to adapt to any unknown, no matter how frightening. It is practical, not theoretical.

It is NOT a self-help book. I’m going to use it to help myself, but this is nothing like “embrace your inner child,” in case you wondered. It is more than a business book, though.

The army uses primal intelligence to train its elite specialists. It is field tested as it were.

The book will be popular, but most people will not have the courage to apply its conclusions. That’s my prediction. There’s opportunity in that.

[Boris Filipovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 ;)

[Miss Meliss · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have many mixed feelings on this book. The premise attracted me — the fact that humanity is so incredibly unique primarily because our way of thinking is inextricably linked to storytelling. We problem-solve and innovate through story, and storytelling is integral to our survival and future. The author has many interesting points, some of them even a bit fascinating. However, in my opinion, the writing gets into "gimmicky" territory so often that it chips away at the ethos of the entire thing. In certain sections and even chapters, the main points are buried in false dichotomies, in which alternative ways of thinking or historical perspectives are presented so simplistically that to any critical thinker the content as a whole feels suspicious. Several times, I set the book down and didn't pick it back up for a while, and in fact, eventually had to force myself to finish the book so I could count it for my book count total for this year. Yet, once I did pick it back up, each time I'd find a nugget of fascinating information somewhere in the pages ahead, bringing a little more value to the effort overall.

Was it worth reading? Probably, and I am glad I did. Would I recommend it to others? Perhaps, but with some hesitation.

[Tony Sunderland · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a world where new books can be created by artificial (intelligent?) ways, and where past ideas can be copied, cloned and cloaked to readers unaware they are being duped into an intellectual wasteland, this work by Angus Fletcher is one of the few publications that not only shed a new perspective on human learning, but also paves the way to new realms of understanding and illuminating where we stand as a uniquely gifted, and dare I say intelligent species.
Flecher believes that we can transcend the dominance of logic-based learning methods (which AI excels at) by embracing those primal abilities that have ensured our survival for thousands of years. We have Imagination, Intuition, Emotion and Common sense – machines do not. The book is exceptionally well written and presents a new template of learning. “You are smarter than you know!”

[Cate Schick · Rating 3 out of 5]

My neighbor recommended this book to me so I wanted to give it a shot so we could talk more about it. Overall found it decently insightful, though I don't think any of it was groundbreaking for me. It was less so "rewire your brain" and more of "oh, good, I already do this".

At the very end, there is a very humanizing anecdote from the author that I almost wish was at the beginning. I understand it was put there intentionally, and it does emphasize the whole point he's trying to make, but it would have made him more relatable as I read through the other chapters about visiting secret army bases that I almost assuredly will never do.

The one net new thing I will take away is that I should consider picking up a Shakespeare play every now and then.

[Sabin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nu știu cum să cataloghez cartea asta. E prima carte pe care n-am putut-o termina pentru că nu mai suportam să aud un cuvânt citit din ea. E brainrot la superlativ. Shakespeare e soluția. Jobs a făcut iPhone-ul că l-a citit pe Shakespeare, Van Gogh a pictat noaptea înstelată din același motiv. Warren Buffet și încă un investitor sunt așa bogați nu fiindcă l-au citit pe Shakespeare. Ci pentru că l-au citit pe unul care l-a citit pe unul care l-a citit pe Shakespeare.

Eu nu scriu recenzii în română la cărțile citite în engleză, dar concluzia mea nu mai e relevantă în afara contextului din România. Din păcate simt că am făcut cunoștință cu Călin Georgescu al dezvoltării personale.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth up front: This book was a solid 4 for me. Interesting ideas with back up anecdotes; Id like to explore further and look at the nuances between logic and intuition. I felt like some of the assertions were too black/white, but the ideas still hold weight. So why rate a 4 star book a 5? I really connected on a personal level with this line of thinking and found it to be illustrative of how 18-year old me and 40-year old me look at the world differently. The problems with modern education are highlighted, and its why as a history/math teacher I prefer teaching history because of this expanded way of thinking

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me a while to get through, but I found it interesting—especially all of the factual and conceptual aspects of the brain and development. I wasn’t expecting the personal anecdotes that the author shared, which helped humanize the work. Nor was I anticipating the historical info, which was a big plus, as it helped ground the more nebulous premise of the book while making a case for it. I recommend reading this one in chunks, either by chapters or sections, as it’s thought-provoking but a lot to digest. Glad I won a paperback ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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??

[Lucinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The human brain because it contains creativity, intuition, imagination, empathy, commonsense, and life experiences it brings more to problem solving than the mathematical logic of a computer. AI is all logic and in this test run by Ohio State University by the US Army those who were allowed to use the human qualities excelled in strategy in simulated exercises of battle.

The computer is only as smart as the programmer but does not possess the qualities of a human soul.

[Sarah Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a couple of types of smart. There is the smart that wins trivia night and can regurgitate facts and names. The other type of smart wins in real life. The smart that can make decisions when only partial data is present. The smart that can come up with creative solutions on the fly. This book brilliantly tackles the latter.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look into a model of intelligence tested with the US Army Special Operations developed by an academic who distilled these principles studying Shakespeare!

The first part of the book introduces what the author calls non-logical intelligence: Intuition, Imagination, Emotion and Commonsense.

The second part suggest ways to harness these to improve Innovation, Resilience, Decision-Making, Communication, Coaching and Leadership.

The author calls his model Storythinking or Narrative Cognition, which is defined as a combination of Intuition (which detects exceptional information) + Imagination (which speculates why and what if).

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!!