Primal Intelligence
You Are Smarter Than You Know
Will be published approx. on 28. August 2025
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-0354-1254-9 (ISBN)
Description
'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.
Reviews / Votes
Primal Intelligence delivers a fascinating exploration of human potential that will change how you think about thinking . . . This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to thrive in an uncertain world. -- Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret and Drive Groundbreaking. -- US Army Primal Intelligence confirms what I have long suspected about Angus Fletcher. He has never had an uninteresting thought -- Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Outliers and Blink Angus is one of the most original thinkers I've come across. His core idea is simple but powerful: in volatile, high-uncertainty environments, intuition and imagination outperform logic and data. AI may be fast, but humans still win at adapting, storytelling, and spotting the exceptions. And what I love most about his work is how deeply interdisciplinary it is. * Big Think * Curious, intriguing, and accessible . . . Fletcher helps us see what we are capable of-and how to sharpen our own innate human smarts. * Wall Street Journal *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Headline Publishing Group
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 163 mm
Width: 242 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
498 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0354-1254-9 (9781035412549)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2025
Headline Press
€14.99
Available for download
Person
Angus Fletcher (PhD, Yale) is Professor of Story Science at Ohio State's Project Narrative, the world's leading academic institute for narrative research. He has dual degrees in neuroscience and Shakespeare. His research has been called 'mind-blowing' by Malcolm Gladwell and 'life-changing' by Brene Brown and has been endorsed by Martin Seligman, Antonio Damasio, and many of the world's other top psychologists, doctors, and neuroscientists. In 2023, he was awarded the Commendation Medal by the US Army for his 'groundbreaking' research with Special Operations into using Story Science to train innovation, leadership, and resilience.