In all honesty, in Prof Steven Peter’s book, the Chip Paradox, I found its content to be basic, commonplace and a huge disappointment from what I expected. The overall perception and expectation of a detailed scientific book explaining the science of the mind and how it functions to propel men towards greatness was such a letdown, that I feel almost not worthy of writing this review. Nonetheless, here I am. I found the book to be simple with a basic language structure full of silly illustrations and commonplace names i.e, the Human, the Chimp and the Computer to refer to the fundamental areas of the brain namely; the frontal, limbic and parietal that in his own words ‘combine to form the psychological mind.’ This in my view has lowered the intellectual weight of an otherwise promising work.
I wonder how Steven Peter came to be referred to as an international best-selling author if this is among the kind of books he writes. The narration he uses to describe the struggle between the frontal and the limbic, what he refers to as the Chimp and the Human, is pretty dull and dry citing examples that I could barely find relevance to. It could be I am biased as I was expecting a psychological book detailing the complex functioning of the human brain, but I suppose he had a layman’s approach in the overall execution of the concepts of the work.
The Basic Concept Of Pro Steve Peter The Chip Paradox
In spite of myself, there are some fundamental things that Steve has highlighted that do make sense, especially the struggle between Chimp and the Human, ie. the objective and the emotional mind. He has clearly shown how we are constantly fighting with our Chimp and cites some examples to that effect. He advocates ways of dealing with the Chimp, among them to understand ourselves and have defined objectives of what we want in our lives and not waiver driven by illogical emotions. At all times, we should be objective even when the situation at hand overwhelms us, especially when we are cross with a person who means the world to us or a total stranger.
The book is divided into 3 parts, ie. Your inner mind explored; day-to-day functioning and your health, success and happiness. According to him, these three parts can help us cope with our Chimp and therefore improve how we relate with others. The last part can be helpful, especially in the area of attaining happiness. He cites that happiness is self-driven and that we must accept the reality of how things are instead of fighting them. The more we deny what is, the more we suffer.
We must distinguish between our dreams and goals in our bid to find happiness. We must know what is realistic and what is merely a fantasy that can never come to pass even in a million years. Prof Steven has defined both of these terms and requests us to differentiate between the two. He urges us to know who we are as a being by working on our self-image, self–worth, self-esteem and self-confidence. These four corner key areas are the underlining factors that promote happiness in our lives. We should work toward them relentlessly.