This is an ongoing collection of essays and inquiries into subjects which interest me. It is not open to comments yet, but I welcome your feedback at gcfrank@live.com.
Notable essays:
- The Emotional Level of Conversation runs our lives (red brain and blue brain)
- A Short History of the Emotional Brain
- A Primer of Economics
This collection is divided into three sections
This section explores how we make decisions and how we influence each another. It turns out that these topics, self-empowerment and connection, are mostly about our emotional brains, roughly what Daniel Kahneman and others call System 2. Jonathan Haidt and others compare our divided minds to a rider (our conscious, thinking Self) on an elephant (our unconscious, emotional Self).
Ultimately the fundamental question is always, “How do we choose to live each day?” which comes down to, “What we choose in each moment.” And, “What influences these choices?”
The exploration into these questions, although as old as human thought, embarked upon a new phase in the late years of the 20th century, and continues today as I write. It is one of the great adventures of human history, and, whether or not we realize it, a deeply personal adventure for each of us.
This section explores economics, and markets, and management.
These topics are fundamentally connected to the previous section about decisions and influence. Although this wasn’t widely understood a few decades ago, today it is becoming more and more clear. The study of these subjects has converged, with the development of behavioral economics (including behavioral finance), of the psychology of choice, the psychology of values and morals, and the psychology of happiness itself.
Much of this terrain was pioneered centuries ago by spiritual, philosophical, and intellectual traditions in both the East and the West. Once again (to paraphrase T.S. Eliot) our explorations are returning us home to know it anew.
3. Other posts and Bibliography
- There is also a collection of Posts on other related topics, including works in progress.
- And A bibliography of work that has influenced and inspired me.
Copyright G.C. Frank 2014
Elephants and Economics 