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The Chimp Paradox, by Dr. Steve Peters (Review & Discussion)

MJ DeMarco

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This month's new book discussion. We didn't vote on it, but this book is consistently rated highly in the vote counts and has been mentioned many times.

The Chimp Paradox, by Dr. Steve Peters

I started reading it last week and have been enjoying it, will post a full review when finished.

To review, please use the following format.

:star::star: :star::star: :star:
(The STAR/X emojis are under the emoji icon, under "commenting icons.")

Format: Audible

My thoughts/review:
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Favorite (or least favorite) chapter:
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Key takeaways:
  1. Key takeaway #1
  2. Key takeaway #2
  3. Key takeaway #3
  4. Key takeaway #4

27972
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Runum

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Reading it myself. I tried Audible and my mind was having no part of it. I got the print and doing both at the same time has been helpful for my focus and understanding.

I deal with hundreds of people each day and can see a lot of what is in this book. Halfway through so far.
 

KAA

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This month's new book discussion. We didn't vote on it, but this book is consistently rated highly in the vote counts and has been mentioned many times.

The Chimp Paradox, by Dr. Steve Peters

I started reading it last week and have been enjoying it, will post a full review when finished.

To review, please use the following format.

:star::star: :star::star: :star:
(The STAR/X emojis are under the emoji icon, under "commenting icons.")

Format: Audible

My thoughts/review:
Lorem Ipsum
is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Favorite (or least favorite) chapter:
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Key takeaways:
  1. Key takeaway #1
  2. Key takeaway #2
  3. Key takeaway #3
  4. Key takeaway #4

View attachment 27972
I just purchased the book based on your mention of it. I've read the first couple of chapters and it's already given me some "Ah hah" moments. I look forward to reading your review.
 

Runum

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:star::star::star:

Format: Audible/print

My thoughts/review:
This was a tough Audible book for me. I couldn't get the visualizations and connections the author was making. The reader did not help with the pacing and emphasis on the paragraphs. I bought the print and listened as I read. Much better for me. There are some pictures and sketches in the book you cannot see with Audible.

Favorite (or least favorite) chapter:
I really didn't look at the book that way. Overall, liked the book, not the Audible. Author could have dug in deeper in preemptive strategies for handling your chimp.

Key takeaways:
  1. Brain has 3 main parts, human, chimp, computer
  2. Emotional chimp is the strongest. He gets all inputs first and reacts emotionally. Can be beneficial or hurtful to human.
  3. Computer is next strongest of the 3. This is automated responses and tasks.
  4. Human is the real you, how you would really like to act and handle life. Intellectual. Programs the computer for the automated responses.
  5. Human must nourish and care for the chimp before crises occur so that chimp does not overreact.
 
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luniac

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This book is outdated in some very important ways.
Will post evidence in my review
 

luniac

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halfway through but figured id post why this book is very questionable.
The book says:
A)The human mind logic,reason and is the real you
B)The chimp mind is emotional and creates thoughts and feelings that you don't want, and that's how u know it's the chimp mind doing it.

That's not how it works.
Your "human" mind is creating the thoughts and feeling you don't want as well, there may not be any such thing as a chimp mind at all, at least not in the sense that it's creating your thoughts and feelings of "anxiety" or "fear", "anger", etc...

So how much of the book can really be useful? ill finish reading because it's entertaining, but the framework suggested in the book is a no go for me.

Here's the proof.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQGZPVMsZ28

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tHb_GoSFeM


Also,
the book says its the logical "Human" mind that is responsible for creating life purpose, but i beg to differ.
In my personal experience, life purpose is not thought, its FELT. its an emotional thing.
If you start thinking about it logically, you arrive at the inevitable conclusion that there's no known meaning or purpose to anything.
Emotionally though, you can FEEL purpose very strongly, and i think depression and apathy is when you lose touch with that feeling maybe.
But that's just my thoughts on the subject based on personal experience.


EDIT:
Recommending to add this book to the list:
41E9CzoFCZL.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OYXWLBU/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20
 
Last edited:

FMJJ

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5/5 Stars
:star::star::star::star::star:

Format: Paperback

My thoughts/review:
This book was recommended to me by @MJ DeMarco in the thread I made: Yesterday Was The Lowest I Ever Reached Mentally. When I made that post, I was determined to never reach such a low mental state again. I finished the book yesterday. I marked it up and read it very thoroughly. I wanted to get the most out of reading it the first time. With this said, I have to say that I'm really impressed with this book. I'll definitely be referring back to it often. I discovered that I was unnecessarily beating myself up. I was facing enormous mental suffering from traumatizing events. I was not dealing with my emotional state properly (my Chimp). I was inadvertently dragging myself deeper and deeper into the depths of darkness and despair. My mind was abundant with negativity and hopelessness. I had consistent anxiety attacks everyday. I was not getting any quality sleep. I felt overwhelming sadness. I was stressing out real bad. Without getting into the details, I had quite the rough night before I made that thread. After reading this book, I now know that there is no way I'm going to reach such a low again. I'm utilizing the skill of managing my emotions constructively. I know that I can reach my full potential as long as I preserve my mental health going forward. I could keep improving in my ability to manage my emotional state (my Chimp). I will maintain this skill because this book demonstrated to me how important it is to do so. I resonate so much with this book that I feel confident in applying the knowledge I gained from it throughout the rest of my life. So far, I am benefitting significantly from this read. I've been more productive, assertive, and clear thinking. I've been able to manage my emotions quite well, especially when it comes to dealing with other people in my life. The Chimp Paradox is a beautiful read. I'm so glad to have taken the opportunity to dive into it.

Favorite chapter:
My favorite chapter is Chapter 3. It's where Dr. Peters goes over the "how to" of managing my Chimp (my emotional state of mind). There is a tendency for negative emotions to hijack behavior, so it is important to combat that with skillful management of such emotions. I find that the methods described are VERY effective when applied in managing my negative emotions. Among anxiety, some negative emotional states to manage are anger, sadness, laziness, and impatience.

Key takeaways:
  1. "You can't change the nature of your Chimp, BUT you are responsible for managing it."
  2. "If your Chimp is agitated or upset about something, the first thing it has to do is to release this emotion" This is a key because I find this to be surprisingly effective. As of right now, I've exercised my "Chimp" by rambling a bunch of nonsense onto either a voice memo, piece of paper, or typed document. This makes it incredibly easier to think logically and truthfully. It makes it much easier to take action consciously and responsibly. I take action on the basis of facts after recognizing the absurdity of my negative emotional thinking.
  3. Gremlins (unnecessary negative beliefs) are to be replaced with Autopilots (necessary and constructive beliefs).
  4. Using the word "could" in thought and writing is more encouraging to myself than using the words "should" or "must."
  5. It's important to CONSTRUCTIVELY deal with people who are being hijacked by their Chimp.
  6. Looking at the top of the mountain is exhausting if I overdo it. I know where I'm headed. My focus needs to be in the now and the near future. I could move forward as fast as appropriate. I could go step by step. I could maintain my mental health and get a lot done in terms of achieving goals.
  7. I could be confident in giving my very best effort while also being vigilant of complacency.
  8. Life is not fair. I could make the most of my situation and do well for myself.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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This book was recommended to me by @MJ DeMarco in the thread I made: Yesterday Was The Lowest I Ever Reached Mentally. When I made that post, I was determined to never reach such a low mental state again. I finished the book yesterday. I marked it up and read it very thoroughly. I wanted to get the most out of reading it the first time. With this said, I have to say that I'm really impressed with this book. I'll definitely be referring back to it often. I discovered that I was unnecessarily beating myself up.

Awesome, glad to hear the book has helped you. When you described your state, I knew that you were getting hijacked and killed by your chimp. :thumbsup:
 

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:star::star: :star:


My thoughts/review:
Didn't realize its a self help book, not really interested in those.
That being said, the first third is reasonably entertaining with the whole human chimp computer model explanation.
The next two thirds however are seriously just a whole bunch of common sense.

But you know what, sometimes we need to hear the obvious to refresh it in our minds so im not gonna hate too much.

Thing is though im not sure if this whole model hold water.
As i've posted earlier in this thread, the human/chimp distinctions posited by the author may not be that clear cut and dry.
The book says that if you are having thoughts/emotions that you don't want, that's definitely the chimp.
However scientific evidence has shown that the "Human" creates the consciously perceived anxiety and fears that we feel.

The real life experiment that provides this evidence is when test subjects were shown a fear inducing image subliminally, as in the image flashed so fast that the conscious mind didn't notice it. However biological sensors detected things like sweat, adrenaline, and other physiological factors of threat response.

These physiological threat response didn't result in any conscious feeling of fear or anxiety because the subject didn't consciously experience the fear inducing image. The test subject was completely unaware of the physiological reaction.

This really makes me question the validity of the Chimp/Human model.

If we look at it in a VERY loose way however, it does seem pretty useful to make sense of why we think/feel certain ways in daily life.
But in a nutshell it all really boils down to staying calm and collected. This seems to be the trend in all the psychological books we've had so far.
If you get agitated you lose control, which is common sense. If you can stay calm, relaxed, cool, etc than you can be the "real" you.

Favorite (or least favorite) chapter:
The confidence chapter is good cause its true.
If you base your confidence on doing your best, then you can be 100% confident all the time, because it's not based on your skills.
Easier said than done though of course.

Key takeaways:
  1. do you best is the best advice.
  2. understand yourself to figure out how to be in control
  3. i dont know... nothing comes to mind even though the book has so many little tidbits. oh well...
 

GB81

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I enjoyed this book. The piece that always stuck with me was that if somethings gone wrong look at what you could have done differently rather than blame others. The example in the book is getting stuck in traffic. Is it the other drivers fault or should you have set off earlier.
 

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The book says:
A)The human mind logic,reason and is the real you
B)The chimp mind is emotional and creates thoughts and feelings that you don't want, and that's how u know it's the chimp mind doing it.

That's not how it works.
Your "human" mind is creating the thoughts and feeling you don't want as well, there may not be any such thing as a chimp mind at all, at least not in the sense that it's creating your thoughts and feelings of "anxiety" or "fear", "anger", etc...
I think you're reading things quite literally, because of course you're right, we only have one mind, that creates everything, good or bad.
I take the "chimp mind" more as a metaphor, because there's no sound reason as to how someone can go from being completely logical and rational to the opposite in a matter of seconds or instantly sometimes.

Analyzing why that change occurs in oneself is certainly very hard and difficult thing to do, it could take years of self reflection and whatever else, and it would most often be impossible to do on the spot, when this "chimp mind" take over happens.

Without this analysis, if/when we recognize in ourselves the "chimp" behavior, we can instantly do something about it, so we get the immediate benefit of steering back on the right track.

Which I think it's a good thing, even if the "chimp" label is not technically or medically correct, it's just a way to enable us to act upon something that happens, without searching first for the deeper explanation of why it does.

I got drawn to this book several years ago, the author was mentioned in relation to someone else's significant achievement. For those who don't follow snooker, there's this genius player, Ronnie O'Sullivan, most likely the best snooker player of all times. A while ago...I'd say less than 10 years ago, he was going though a complicated period, you could see him in tournaments being moody, impatient, irascible, losing focus easily, not his "regular" self, contemplating retirement at 30 something - which he actually temporarily did at a certain moment. Then at some point he started working with this dr. Peters, don't know more details, just remember reading an interview where he was giving dr. Peters credit for his return to play and to winning form.

I certainly don't play snooker and don't have his genius issues, but when a quick search showed there's a book written by the guy who helped him, well, it was an instant buy :) and I actually liked it
 

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I want to start by saying that I LOVE this book. It has helped me tremendously as I've discovered a new method of managing my irrational behaviors.

There is lots of valuable content in the book - but it's mostly known self-help stuff you've probably read elsewhere. It is just modified and framed under this Human/Chimp/Computer model.

What I found to be infinitely more valuable to me, and my key takeaway, is the model itself. I've read dozens of self-help books, and they all repeat the same fundamentals, but how this one differs, is by proposing a method of distancing yourself from the emotional behavior you dislike by associating them to that of the inner Chimp, and not yourself, the human.

It's a very subtle but incredibly powerful method of thinking - it's not YOU that's to blame for the behavior you dislike, it's the CHIMP. Manage your relationship with the Chimp. This offers you an ultimate out - despite how anxious or depressed you might feel, you can blame the CHIMP, and remove the human in yourself from the equation. This plays out in a multitude of ways, but most notably, it immediately removes feelings of guilt, and positions you to be more self-aware and to manage your emotions instead of becoming affected by them. It helps you remain grounded to who you are, and recognize the irrational as something to manage, and not something that's descriptive of who you are.

Over the past several weeks, I've been monitoring when I feel triggered, how my emotions are playing out, how paranoia forms in my brain, how I'm seeing in black and white, why I'm becoming offended, etc. While I become cognizant of this behavior, I learn to associate them to the Chimp - I know who I am, and I know that it's not the real ME that's feeling poorly, but my Chimp that's acting out. So now I can manage him better, and remain self-compassionate throughout the process.

I would recommend this one.
 

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chimp paradox such a great book!
the author points out that the human brain is much more complicated and complex, however we need to recognize that we were chimps and the animal side will be in us forever.
MJ highlights the urgency to address human problems and create value out of them. Through this book, we now know that most of the "problems" people have are not problems at all.
Marketers know this VERY well, creating fears and sense of inadequacy in order to foster sales (chimp brain is easily fooled by this).
Here in this forum, we know we need to be lead by our neocortex only, taking advantage of the hoards of "chimps" that surround us.
 

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