BOOK NOTES

Intelligence is brittle in dynamic environments, according to researcher and writer Angus Fletcher. People can solve math problems but not life problems. Fletcher testifies to watching college students do better over the last twenty years on standardized tests but having greater difficulty with real world tasks.

He believes the modern world has incorrectly identified intelligence as logic. Logic refers to methods of thinking that make sense to a reasonable person. But logic couldn’t be automated by computers if it didn’t involve a set of mechanical operations. Logic pervades classrooms because it’s seen as the essence of intelligence. Artificial intelligence is being driven by math, stats, economics, data, pattern finding, psychology, etc.—about everything taught and assessed today.

How would our brains think without studying these subjects increasing our logic? What is our brainpower that allows us to be smart in ways AI never will? Fletcher redefines human intelligence, arguing our most powerful cognitive capacities are not computational or logical but primal. This is what makes humans superior to artificial intelligence and especially when adaptation, innovation, or wisdom is required.

That’s a lot to get your head around! Fletcher identifies four pillars of primal intelligence as intuition, imagination, emotion, and common sense.

INTUITION

This is the ability to spot exceptional information—exceptions to the rules and subtle details. It’s to know without consciously thinking. Sometimes it arrives as “a flash of insight.” It can lead to initiative—running ahead of data, something AI wouldn’t do. It’s what he claims Steve Wozniak did after spotting an Altair 8800 microcomputer. The rule of computing in the 1960’s was that more data equals more money. Making a microcomputer was a step backwards. Wozniak went home and engineered Apple I. He saw a new story for the future.

Logic doesn’t think in exceptional. It thinks in labels. As we age, we organize our lives by thinking in patterns and principles. What if you treated everything you saw as exceptional? Focus on surprises that catch your eye in tech, culture, or nature. You are most likely to then spot the exception.

IMAGINATION

Imagination is story thinking—our capacity to think in narrative (cause, effect, time) and imagine future possibilities. It can take us from thinking what is likely (probability) to what is possible—a true driver of vision and innovation. As special forces operations often note in training: a good plan has two features. First, a long-term goal and second…many paths. Put another way our goal might be to secure a mountaintop, but you can take different routes up.

Strategy is your long tern narrative and tactics are the short-term plots you create along the way. Fletcher argues that the brain’s most important narrative is our own life story. This is the story we think to ourselves about ourselves. Your past may describe why you live but you branch your future when you expand “what ifs.”

EMOTION

Emotion is not just a tool for empathy but serves as an internal compass and warns us when our plans are in danger. Anger and anxiety can be signals that something is off track. Anger can be a signal to pause and develop organizational flexibility. This is hard and Fletcher advises you to think about a time when you made hasty plans successfully. Prepare for it now.

Emotion drives primal intelligence with intuition and imagination. Emotion reveals what has worked and what’s not working now. Emotion uncovers your “whys” and signals you need more “what ifs.” Intuition and imagination fuel those.

COMMONSENSE

Commonsense is famously the ability that distinguishes humans from artificial intelligence. It’s our non-logical capacity to match the newness of our actions to the newness of the situation, allowing for wise decision making in real time with limited information. It’s knowing when to stop analyzing and start acting. AI can run the show in routine situations, but humans take over in changing times. You need to be anxious to act sensibly. It helps you change course.

INTUITION sparks plans, IMAGINATION shapes plans, EMOTION sustains plans, and COMMONSENSE selects plans. These four powers are our Primal Intelligence. It’s primal because they require biological hardware that computers lack. It helps us thrive and our brain to act smart in uncertain and changing times especially when data thins and logic breaks.

PRIMAL APPLICATIONS

Innovation is driven by imagination and intuition. Resilience is driven by emotions. Coaching and communication are driven by imagination and leadership is driven by commonsense. Fletcher offers numerous examples and ideas of primal intelligence in action. Here are a few:

(A) In combat, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Intuition enables us to leverage conflict and turn an exception into a new rule. Other examples include Joseph Lister who innovated medicine with new laws on sterilization or Louis Pasteur who innovated biology with new laws of immunology.

(B) Consider that Fletcher’s work with military special operators reveals that human teams always beat AI in war gaming. Military artificial intelligence takes all the strategies of the world’s greatest general and spits out countless decisions. But the computer can only recycle old plans even though it creates the illusion of newness by blending past tactics. How do special ops teams beat the computer? They take the initiative and rewrite the rules.

(C) Don’t plan to make plans. Plan in order to make plans. Plan in order to get better at planning so that when something new happens, you can create the plan the situation requires. Practice being proactive about situational change. Consider astronaut Neil Armstrong. As an engineer and test pilot, he respected the standard operating procedures. But while piloting Gemini 8 things got rough as the module began rolling in a supersonic spin. He exited standard plans and engaged reentry thrusters. These aren’t intended for maneuvering in space but stopped the roll and saved his life.

(D) Fletcher suggests the formula for love whether it’s romantic, familial, or collegial. All it takes is a willingness to share your entire life’s story. Start by telling your story to yourself, honestly and completely. Then share it.

(E) Unleash rookies. You make them better and it’s the way experts get better. Rookies may get you in messes you couldn’t imagine but the experts run with the mistakes learning new things too. Dr. William Osler became history’s most effective trainer of physicians. Medical education prior to him was cautious control. Students memorized old cures. Osler did two things…he had students see patients and advised them to listen to their patients. Stop relying on textbooks. He unleashed them. It’s the best coaching method.

LEADERSHIP

Fletcher argues that too many would be leaders react too slowly, get angry trying to impose their will, or get easily distracted or disorganized. Their failures aren’t catastrophes. The catastrophe is that there aren’t enough leaders who succeed! Leadership is about taking the first step into tomorrow, and too many managers spend time guiding processes. Managers seek orchestrated harmony while leaders seek spontaneous self-direction.

Cautious isn’t leading—it’s following. The algorithmic way of life does impressive things. Optimization can improve existing products and processes but not create original ones. Logic works by crunching data into trends / averages—using the past as a guide. In rational decision making you pick the best option after you’ve defined the problem and ideated a solution through progressive iterations. Using imagination and story, you create a new option.

Leaders unite intuition, imagination, emotion, and common sense…going FULL PRIMAL.

Publisher: Avery, New York City, NY, 2025