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Angus Fletcher is a professor of story science at Ohio States Project Narrative. His research has been endorsed by renowned psychologists, neuroscientists, and doctors, as well as having received support from major institutions such as the National Science Foundation. In 2023, he was awarded the Commendation Medal by the U.S. Army for his work. Whats the big idea? Examining the minds of visionary thinkers and U.S. Army Special Operators has solved many puzzles about how our brains work and how we can help our brains work better. From compiling these case studies, it is clear that there is a path for training your mind to act smart with limited information and outperform computer AI in terms of volatility and uncertainty. Below, Angus shares five key insights from his new book, Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know. Listen to the audio versionread by Angus himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. [Photo: Next Big Idea Club] 1. To activate your intuition, look for exceptions. For decades, Nobel-prize-winning cognitive scientists and psychologists such as Herbert Simon and Daniel Kahneman have told us that intuition is simply pattern matching. But young children score lower at pattern matching than they do at intuition. How is that possible? To answer this puzzle, I looked into the minds of Special Operators who possessed unusually high levels of intuition, allowing them to anticipate the future faster than other soldiers on the battlefield. These Operators had trained their brains to spot what the Army calls exceptional information. Exceptional information is an exception to a previously established rule. Its a warm-blooded reptile or a rainbow at night. Its the first person to split from the pack and do the unprecedented. Exceptional information is the opposite of a pattern. Its the breaking of a pattern. This is why children score high on intuition. Their brains are focused more on unusual details than on familiar patterns. A four-year-old child can spot up to ten times more exceptional information than the average adult. If you happen to be one of those average adults, dont worry. You can train your brain to get better at spotting exceptions. One way to improve your intuition is to travel. Travel immerses your brain in places that break the pattern of your regular life, activating your brains power to spot exceptions by putting you in situations where everything is exceptional. If you dont have the time or the budget to take a trip, you can get a quick dose of mind-travel from authors like Shakespeare. Shakespeare fills his plays with characters who are exceptions to conventional narrative formulas: Hamlet is an action hero who thinks deeply; Cleopatra is a cold-blooded schemer with a loving heart; Falstaff is an old man who behaves like an adolescent. By giving us characters who break archetypal patterns, Shakespeare opens our minds to the exceptional. In the words of Hamlet: As a stranger, give it welcome. Embrace things because they are different. Because characters like Hamlet activate intuition, Shakespeares readers have a history of anticipating the future. Shakespeare reader Nikola Tesla spotted the exception known as the AC motor and used it to usher in modern technology. Shakespeare reader Marie Curie spotted the exception known as radioactivity and used it to usher in modern physics. Shakespeare reader Vincent van Gogh spotted the exception known as aquamarine and used it to usher in our modern color palette. To boost your intuition, dont think in patterns. Instead, think in exceptions. 2. Optimism comes from the past. Were often told by psychologists and business gurus that optimism is more effective than pessimism. But if optimism works better, then why do we keep needing to be reminded? Why hasnt optimism naturally replaced pessimism, like steel tools naturally replaced stone ones? Optimism isnt more effective than pessimism. But, in fact, the psychologists are right. Optimism prompts our brain to take chances that lead to growth, so over time, it does win out over pessimism. But if optimism is biologically stronger than pessimism, why does it seem so fragile? Why do so many of us keep falling back into pessimism? If optimism works better, then why do we keep needing to be reminded? The answer is: Were taught optimism wrong. Were taught that optimism is the belief: This will succeed. But thats not optimism. Its magical thinking. Magical thinking preaches the power of a technique known as visualizing success. Visualizing success has been promoted by bestsellers such as Rhonda Burns The Secret and Tony Robbins Awaken the Giant Within. It was first popularized almost a century ago by Napoleon Hills 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich. In that book, Hill tells us: When visualizing the money you intend to accumulate, (with closed eyes), see yourself rendering the service, or delivering the merchandise you intend to give in return for this money. This is important! But no, in fact, this is nonsense. Real optimism isnt convincing ourselves that this will succeed. Real optimism is much, much stronger. Real optimism is this can succeed. Why is can stronger than will? If you tell yourself that you will succeed and you dont, your confidence cracks. But if you tell yourself that you can succeed, then youll retain the faith, no matter how many times you fail, as long as you succeed once. That one success is all you need to keep possibility alive, which is why can lives on long after will has shattered. The way to build optimism isnt by visualizing all the success you will have in the future. Its to remember one time you were successful in the past. Unlike magical thinking, which cant survive reality, this method is so resilient that Special Operators call it antifraile, because no amount of defeat or death can dim it. Next time you are drifting toward pessimism, remember a time when you succeeded. That memory is stronger than any magic, and with it, you wont ever need to be reminded to be optimistic again. 3. Your brain is smarter in volatility than AI will ever be. Computers are more logical than humans. And they can crunch more data, faster. So why is it taking AI so long to replace us? To answer this puzzle, I studied Special Operators who acted smart in situations where AI malfunctioned. Those situations were all different, except for one factor: they were new situations, so there was little to no reliable data about them. If there was no data about these situations, how were Operators able to outperform random luck? The answer dates back to the Cambrian Explosion, also known as the Big Bang of life, which occurred approximately 500 million years ago. In that prehistoric age, the visual circuits of the archaic brain were evolving the capacity to think in data and symbolic logic. Which is to say, the brain was evolving the ability to think like a computer. But at that time, the archaic brain was also evolving another complementary mechanism of intelligence. That other intelligence is technically known as narrative cognition. But we can more simply call it: thinking in story. Although thinking in story can be a liability in high-data environments, it enables us to act smarter than computers in volatility and uncertainty. Story imbued the brain with imagination, wisdom, and other capacities that helped it act intelligently in hazy and fast-changing ecosystems, where relentless competition for resources generated continual innovation, producing new life forms and environments about which there was little or no reliable information. Although thinking in story can be a liability in high-data environments, it enables us to act smarter than computers in volatility and uncertainty. Which is why, when we studied the brains of those Special Operators who performed well in volatility, we discovered that they were exceptionally good at thinking in story. 4. Art and theater make you smarter at real life. The more time that children spend in school, the more anxious and angry they get. Whats the problem? Is it too much technology use? Or are we being too niceand overcoddling our kids? No. Neither technology nor overcoddling is the root cause of student anger and anxiety. To find the real culprit, lets start with the anger and anxiety. These emotions are physiological indicators of a threat response. The logical way to eliminate this threat response is to remove the threat. Schools have tried this by focusing on creating safe spaces and excluding things from classrooms that might cause children to feel anxious or angry. This solution is logical, but its not biological. In the real world, what stops the brains threat response isnt an outside force that removes the threat. Its an inside force, within the brain, that comes up with a plan for dealing with the threat. You can see this in Special Operators. Special Operators dont spend their lives trying to avoid threats. They spend their lives running toward threats. Yet those threats dont make Operators anxious or angry. Why? Because as rapidly as the world can create a threat, the Operators brains are able to imagine a plan for dealing with it. They dont feel anxiety or anger because they have trained their imaginations to evolve at the speed of life. To do that training, Operators go through special classes at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School, where they exercise their imagination by engaging in role-playing exercises. Outside of Special Operations, in kindergarten through college classrooms, role-playing can be taught by doing theater, literature, history, and other arts and humanities activities that encourage students to imagine themselves as other people in other parts of the world. They dont feel anxiety or anger because they have trained their imaginations to evolve at the speed of life. In schools, these role-playing activities are increasingly being replaced by technology, which delivers art and history to students on computers and digital screens. But technology is less effective at growing childrens imagination than books and stages, because by having screens automate the physical work of staging the action, it doesnt exercise the imagination muscles of the brain. Although technology and too much coddling can worsen student anger and anxiety, neither is the root cause of the problem. The root cause is that were not giving students enough of the history books and theater roles that strengthen their brains ability to imagine plans, empowering them to live like Special Operators and deal with threats themselves. 5. Leaders dont think in probabilities. Businesses spend approximately $16 billion annually on leadership training. While that training gets good marks for producing managers, it gets poor marks for producing leaders. Whats the training missing? The training is missing the brains premotor cortex. Its focused instead on the inferior parietal lobe. To translate that out of neuroscience, current business training is focused on teaching executives to think in probability. So, it isnt expanding their ability to think in possibility. Possibility is often misunderstood as a low-end probability, say, for example, ten percent. But possibility is not a kind of probability. It involves a fundamentally different mental process. Probability is calculated from events that have happened before. Meanwhile, possibility is an event that has never happenedbut could happen, because it doesnt contradict the rules of life. Probability is the method used in statistics and computer AI. Possibility is the method of story and imagination. As an example of the difference between probability and possibility, theres the airplane. In 1902, the British statistician Lord Kelvin declared that there would never be an airplane. But a year later, the Wright Brothers built one and it flew. Was Lord Kelvin a fool? No. He was one of the best mathematicians of his time. But he was thinking in probability. And the probability of an airplane in 1902 was zero, because it had never happened before. Possibility is the method of story and imagination. The Wright Brothers saw, however, that the airplane didnt violate the laws of physicsmaking it possible. As a result, they were able to engage in original thinking, enterprise, and initiative. These are the key mental qualities of entrepreneurs, and of leaders in general. If you want to train leadersor become a leader yourselfdont invest in training that emphasizes probability. Steer clear of scientific management and other fields heavy in math, statistics, and quantitative approaches. Instead, do like the Wright Brothers and boost your practical imagination by feeding your brain with realistic tales of make-believe. The Wright brothers often skipped school to stay home reading the creative novels of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Washington Irving. If those literary classics dont match your taste, do like Special Operators and read ovels set in the near future or in a culture thats different from yours. These stories will stimulate your brains premotor cortex, expanding your sense of possibility and helping your leadership abilities take flight. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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E-Commerce
Swiss watchmaker Swatch apologized Monday for an ad campaign that upset consumers in China and elsewhere and said it had “immediately removed all related materials worldwide.”In an image for the Swatch Essentials collection, an Asian male model is shown pulling the edges of his eyelids upward and backward with his fingers a gesture seen as derogatory and racist, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported.The image triggered criticism on social media in China, with major influencers weighing in.Swatch wrote on Instagram that “we sincerely apologize for any distress or misunderstanding this may have caused.” It said it would “treat this matter with the utmost importance.”SRF reported that the apology was also posted on the Chinese social network Weibo in Chinese and English.China is a major market for luxury brands and watchmakers. The founders of Dolce&Gabbana apologized on video in 2018 after Chinese boycotted its products over what were seen as culturally insensitive videos promoting a runway show in Shanghai.Swiss watch exporters are facing new tariffs in the U.S. and a prolonged slowdown, with significant declines in the United States, Japan and Hong Kong, according to industry association figures. Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Tourism in Las Vegas is slumping this summer, with resorts and convention centers reporting fewer visitors compared to last year, especially from abroad, and some officials are blaming the Trump administration’s tariffs and immigration policies for the decline.The city known for lavish shows, endless buffets and around-the-clock gambling welcomed just under 3.1 million tourists in June, an 11% drop compared to the same time in 2024. There were 13% fewer international travelers, and hotel occupancy fell by about 15%, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.Mayor Shelley Berkley said tourism from Canada Nevada’s largest international market has dried up from a torrent “to a drip.” Same with Mexico.“We have a number of very high rollers that come in from Mexico that aren’t so keen on coming in right now. And that seems to be the prevailing attitude internationally,” Berkley told reporters earlier this month.Ted Pappageorge, head of the powerful Culinary Workers Union, called it the “Trump slump.” He said visits from Southern California, home to a large Latino population, were also drying up because people are afraid of the administration’s immigration crackdown.“If you if you tell the rest of the world they’re not welcome, then they won’t come,” Pappageorge said.Canadian airline data shows fewer passengers from north of the border are arriving at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Air Canada saw its passenger numbers fall by 33% in June compared to the same time a year ago, while WestJet had a 31% drop. The low-cost carrier Flair reported a whopping 62% decline.Travel agents in Canada said there’s been a significant downturn in clients wanting to visit the U.S. overall, and Las Vegas in particular. Wendy Hart, who books trips from Windsor, Ontario, said the reason was “politics, for sure.” She speculated that it was a point of “national pride” that people were staying away from the U.S. after President Donald Trump said he wanted to make Canada the 51st state.“The tariffs are a big thing too. They seem to be contributing to the rising cost of everything,” Hart said.At downtown’s Circa Resort and Casino, international visits have dipped, especially from Canada and Japan, according to owner and CEO Derek Stevens. But the downturn comes after a post-COVID spike, Stevens said. And while hotel room bookings are slack, gaming numbers, especially for sports betting, are still strong, he said.“It’s not as if the sky is falling,” he said. Wealthier visitors are still coming, he said, and Circa has introduced cheaper package deals to lure those with less money to spend.“There have been many stories written about how the ‘end is near’ in Vegas,” he said. “But Vegas continues to reinvent itself as a destination worth visiting.”On AAA’s annual top ten list of top Labor Day destinations, Las Vegas slipped this year to the last spot, from number six in 2024. Seattle and Orlando, Florida home to Disneyworld hold steady in the top two spots, with New York City moving up to third for 2025.Reports of declining tourism were news to Alison Ferry, who arrived from Donegal, Ireland, to find big crowds at casinos and the Vegas Strip.“It’s very busy. It has been busy everywhere that we’ve gone. And really, really hot,” Ferry said. She added that she doesn’t pay much attention to U.S. politics.Just off the strip, there’s been no slowdown at the Pinball Museum, which showcases games from the 1930s through today. Manager Jim Arnold said the two-decade-old attraction is recession-proof because it’s one of the few places to offer free parking and free admission.“We’ve decided that our plan is just to ignore inflation and pretend it doesn’t exist,” Arnold said. “So you still take a quarter out of your pocket and put it in a game, and you don’t pay a resort fee or a cancelation fee or any of that jazz.”But Arnold said he’s not surprised that overall tourism might be slowing because of skyrocketing prices at high-end restaurants and resorts, which “squeezes out the low end tourist.”The mayor said the rising cost of food, hotel rooms and attractions also keeps visitors away.“People are feeling that they’re getting nickeled and dimed, and they’re not getting value for their dollar,” Berkley said. She called on business owners to “see if we can’t make it more affordable” for tourists.“And that’s all we want. We want them to come and have good time, spend their money, go home,” the mayor said. “Then come back in six months.” Weber reported from Los Angeles. Ty Oneil and Christopher Weber, Associated Press
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