Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

Chapter 2Monkey Mind, Gator Brain, and the Elephant’s Tether

It’s not what you don’t know that hurts you.It’s what you do know that ain’t so.Will Rogers

This book is about thinking. So I’m going to ask you to do some thinking with me as you work through it. I use the word work deliberately. Because thinking is hard work. Henry Ford once said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.”

There’s an interesting biological yardstick called the RMR, which stands for resting metabolic rate. Your RMR is the amount of energy your body needs just to stay alive. Your brain, that mysterious cluster of ganglia, ...