I Think, Therefore I Am…Right?

David Kohls

We all have our passions, those quotidian things that bring us personal joy in the midst of has been that fun gift of the day or often, hour. A favored source has been The Economist, my preferred news magazine. Each week they attempt to touch on the major news issues around the world and in the realms of business and science. Sometimes they even go in depth.

I think I first learned about The Economist at the GSB.

Recently The Economist emailed a request to complete their reader survey. I almost never do surveys (low ROI) but decided this could be worthwhile. I might steer them to my favorite content and away from the portions I find less interesting. Democracy in commercial form perhaps. As a reward for completing the survey I was offered a choice of online courses. I chose the course claiming to improve the mind, the reason for that choice deserves some explanation.

I like learning and hopefully retaining information. It is not just fun; knowledge is useful in assessing business opportunities and deepens the joy of discovery when traveling by providing context and a sort of “back story” for places and the people who live there. It is also easier to connect with people you meet when you have a bit of knowledge about their culture, history, or challenges. Like swimming laps in the pool, acquiring knowledge is never finished but usually satisfying. But what if you can’t? How do you keep your ability to learn and retain as you age? I’ve seen my clever aunt succumb to Alzheimer’s. My father and stepmother both suffer what is called early stage dementia. We just have to accept that part of what they were might not be there on the next call or visit. As for family, the Beatles said it all: “All you need is Love, Love is all you need.” But as for myself, how do I maintain the ability to continue learning?

So I chose the course on improving the mind. I was hoping for a scientific explanation of the aging process coupled with a prescription for exercises and maybe a dietary supplement or two that would sustain or improve my cognitive condition. Alas, that was not to be. The course was from French research and therefore esoteric and, of course, subject to change.

With apologies to our classmates who are domain experts I will share what I learned from the course. I will avoid detail and esoterica but provide a more personal perspective. The core idea is that we make decisions in four different brain regions essentially ranked from lowest to highest and they developed over eons as we evolved towards the humanity we share today. If you assess your daily reactions to events and stimuli you can determine which part of your brain is guiding your actions. Let’s begin…

When I received David’s email, I now know that I reacted with the lowest so-called reptilian part of the brain. You’ve all heard of the flight or fight response in popular media I’m sure. Well, there is a third option being “freeze and hope to be invisible.” How could I write something to be immortalized among the works of my brilliant classmates, many of whom are widely published? I froze, too ashamed to even reply. After a few weeks I unfroze, responded and he graciously encouraged me…so you get this. Using the lowest order brain is rarely the best option.

Just above the reptilian brain is the Paleo Limbic Brain. If Paleo makes you think of people triumphantly holding up dusty three million year old bones in a desert somewhere, you are on the right track. The Paleo Limbic Brain developed when our ancestors were parts of herds and enabled the herd to perform better (I guess) by establishing ranking and hierarchy. Your desire to be dominant or submissive, social or anti-social is thought to be established early in childhood and affects your social relationships throughout your life. I admit that I had some real trouble with the quiz portions of this lesson. I always straddled Myers Briggs and this is worse. The answer to every question was sometimes this and sometimes that. Dominating people doesn’t feel ethical; being dominated is unacceptable. Can’t we all just get along?

After being exhausted by the Paleo Limbic, things just got worse 252 when I delved into the Neo Limbic. This part of the brain is where your personality is imprinted and where your memory resides…if I recall correctly. There are eight distinct personality profiles and each person has two to four of them at most. So why was I recognizing myself in attributes of all eight? It turns out that some people were traumatized or mistreated as a youth and developed secondary learned behaviors to cope. These behaviors are never satisfying and become the reason for restless lack of satisfaction and addictive behaviors to compensate. Oh no. What did my parents, teachers, coaches, classmates, not to mention TV shows or bad art in comic books do to me? Worse, what have we done to our teenage twins?

So apparently stress in any manifestation is a reaction to Neo Limbic misalignment in dealing with a challenge and worse, it is very hard to change the bad habits created by these secondary learned behaviors. Retreating to the fetal position is apparently ineffective, but yoga breathing exercises are considered useful palliatives while you slowly address the deeper issues. It seems that if COVID-19 or a market crash slams some of your investments, it’s all in your head.

The mid-life crisis is thought to be a healthy manifestation of people rediscovering their real personalities. It is odd that only people who have accumulated adequate wealth get to realign themselves in this way. Maybe it relates to Maslow’s Hierarchy (welcome back to first quarter). However, such contrary thinking may reduce my ability to share the material so we need to avoid diving down that Neo Limbic rabbit hole.

The course was starting to really challenge my self-image, but with wrinkling skin, graying hair and shape that…well let’s not go there…I’m not much for looking in the mirror now anyway. I leave the Neo Limbic with little idea who I really am but remain determined to like myself. My dog’s tail wags when she sees me (mostly) so that must mean something despite what my kids say.

For rescue we turn to the Pre-Frontal portion of the brain where abstract reasoning and logic reside. It seems the whole trick to evading automated responses from the Reptilian or Paleo Limbic, or discomfort and stress from the Neo Limbic, is to send the problem of any moment to the Pre-Frontal. There you can change a problem into an interesting case study. Use the numbers to deduce root causes and probable outcomes the GSB way. Or use anecdotal information and forecasting techniques to rank probable results through inductive reasoning like Sherlock Holmes. (Do Arthur Conan Doyle fans see what just happened?) The joy of thinking through the problem calms the body reducing stress responses and allows you to rationally decide what to do. It turns out that communication techniques such as using open-ended questions and PowerPoint slides that evoke surprise or curiosity can help you get other people out of their lower brain funk and into their wonderful Pre-Frontal state. Hopefully the properly attuned VC, banker, or customer will clearly see the advantages of your proposal and agree with whatever you are pitching or proposing.

In the end, apparently Descartes, was right. “Je pense, donc je suis”…“I think, therefore I am” was right. From the French point of view anyway. This little brain adventure was interesting but did nothing to help me keep or increase mental sharpness. In fact I am now more confused; “Who am I anyway,” and wasn’t some of our training about changing hierarchies and organizations to make them better? Are natural states of being always preferable in a rapidly changing world? I’m probably mixing apples and oranges but fruit punch is often a delicious medley.

The course is titled the “Neurocognitive and Behavioral Approach” if you are interested. And as for me: if you see an odd looking fellow balancing on one leg while walking his dog, that would be me. It turns out that balance practice refreshes neurons in the cerebellum which is the largest part of the brain. If I can’t get quality I’ll go for quantity, and maybe I’ll improve my soccer skills if nothing else.