How to make the most of your 'cave man' mind. A Happy Hour Conversation with Jules Lalonde

This week's show is with Jules A. Lalonde. A super-smart guy who we had to get on to share him with you.

By day, he's a financial wizard, and by night, he's a super-hero of science and philosopher. He has an MBA in Behavioral Finance, a degree in biochemistry and has completed graduate research in Non-linear dynamics (ie chaos theory). Are you getting a sense of what I meant by 'super-smart' yet?

Jules has studied many subjects and his curiosity and interest continues to be drawn to many topics including cognitive biases, fundamental neuroscience, the science of emotion, unconscious communication, social behaviour and the nature of human consciousness. Jules is currently working on course on Science and Critical Thinking for change workers entitled “Keep Science in Mind” which'll be available in the new year.

In this week's show, we explored current neuroscience and evolutionary biology, in particular the aspect of our primary affective (feeling) networks in the lower brain that govern much of our subjective experience (what Jules likes to call our personal holodeck).

In simple terms, we talked about how our minds have evolved to work and why. In fact, in many ways our modern minds aren't too different to the average cave man's - what is radically different is the environments we each inhabit. Understanding this allows us to set up our modern lives in a way that makes them a lot more enjoyable.

I’d love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Jules talks about our personal 'holodeck' which is our internal system which allows us to create and interact with our subjective experience. Our personal holodeck is created through usage, especially when we're young so it is vitally important that we're able to use and develop our senses through interaction and play.

• The seeking part of our mind drives so much of our feelings and behaviour. That means that the treasure IS the search!

• Humans have a tilt towards negativity - it's a trait that's been selected for because it's what keeps us alive. Many of us in this modern world are being bombarded with triggers which create a lot of negative thoughts and feelings - most of that fear is not useful and makes our experience of life pretty crappy. However, when we're in a more 'primal state' it is worth recognising fear can contain message that can be worth taking notice of and adjusting course as a result.