

519 - Access Imagination and Intuition that Ai Can’t Touch with Angus Fletcher PhD
15 snips Aug 27, 2025
Angus Fletcher, an expert in story and neuroscience with a PhD from Yale, discusses accessing deeper levels of creativity through his concept of 'Primal Intelligence.' He emphasizes how human intuition and narrative thought can outshine AI’s capabilities. The conversation covers the challenges of storytelling, the importance of personal narratives, and critiques traditional education for stifling curiosity. Listeners are encouraged to engage in real-time exercises to enhance their creativity and embrace the complexities of art in an AI-driven world.
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Brain Thinks In Narrative
- The brain thinks in narrative: chains of actions form stories and drive behavior.
- Studying story reveals core brain processes without invasive neuroscience methods.
Why Generative AI Isn't Human Creativity
- Generative AI runs divergent (random) plus convergent (pattern-match) processes, which is not how human creativity primarily operates.
- Human creativity seeks exceptions and invents new actions; computers mix and match patterns instead.
Spot Exceptions To Invent The Future
- Breakthroughs come from spotting exceptions to prevailing rules, not from better pattern-matching.
- Exceptional information (an exception) lets you imagine new realities and drive innovation.