Book Review: The Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters published by Vermilion 2012.
This was Fabulous Networking Book Club’s choice in April 2023 and received mixed reviews. The book is seen in as something of a classic in the personal development field and the author is credited with helping many high achievers reach the pinnacle of success.
Whilst we agreed there was much to be taken from the book we also found that there were too many metaphors to cope with. The three core descriptors… human, chimp and computer made perfect sense but then we got into goblins and gremlins, planets and moons and it all became a little too much.
The book covered some quite complex topics. It was well structured, written in accessible language and some of the metaphors helped with understanding. However at 346 pages we felt it was a bit too long and tried to do a bit too much. We felt that some of the later chapters would have been better split out into other, shorter books e.g. The Chimp Paradox and self-confidence
We did like the summaries at the end of each chapter and some of the exercises to apply the chapter lessons were valuable.
Whilst it wasn’t the easiest read I did enjoy it and took a lot of lessons from it.
My key takeaways…
- We have three brains, the human, the chimp and the computer.
- The Chimp wants to survive, the Human wants self-fulfilment.
- Develop a ‘stone of life’… principles to underpin our thoughts and reactions e.g. Life is not fair. There will always be challenges. We can’t always be in control.
- ‘The person that you want to be is the person you really are’. If we’re not living this then we have been hi-jacked by our Chimp!
- The human will focus on the solution not on the problem.
- The stop our Chimp we need to slow down our thinking and apply AMP. Time to accept an unwanted situation, to decide how to move on (or stay put) and to make a plan that is both emotional and practical.
- Start where you are, not where you want to be.
- Use time travel to get things into perspective (i.e. look back on the situation from 10 years into the future… how will I feel now?)
- When you can’t make a decision the Chimp has taken over.
- Don’t own other people’s problems, they get in the way of solving our own.
- Ask ‘how’ questions not ‘why’. How is future oriented, solution based whereas why is backward looking.
- Worrying is an option and we can choose not to do it! (This is very much a work in progress for me!)
Would I recommend this book?
Yes, with caveats. It’s not the easiest read so we suggest you need to be fairly committed to personal development to take it on. Not everyone will love the concepts but it will make you think.
