{"id":4,"date":"2010-04-09T11:22:27","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T15:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/?p=4"},"modified":"2013-04-01T18:41:56","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T22:41:56","slug":"about-steering-the-elephant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/?p=4","title":{"rendered":"About the name Steering the Elephant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>You\u2019ve heard expressions like this, \u201cThe logical thing to do is\u2026This doesn\u2019t make sense\u2026Why don\u2019t they do it this way\u2026It\u2019s really very simple \u2026Make a list and follow it\u2026 Just put the fork down\u2026I don\u2019t understand, I can do it, why can\u2019t you\u2026, You need more self control\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

You have also heard expressions like this, \u201cSomething came over me and I just did this\u2026I was so flustered that I forgot to\u2026I promised I wouldn\u2019t, but the smell of those biscuits\u2026 I know this is what I should do, but not right now, maybe later \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

I was listening to Jonah Lehrer<\/a> on Terry Gross\u2019<\/a> radio show, \u201cFresh Air\u201d, and he was discussing his book, How We Decide<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Broadly, he was talking about the interplay between our logical and emotional sides. Historically, we think that logic controls our emotions.\u00a0 As an example, Mr. Lehrer discussed Plato\u2019s view that logic is a rational charioteer controlling the steeds of emotions. \u00a0 Mr. Lehrer commented that most scientist these days would broaden Plato\u2019s view on logic, that it is more like a \u201crider trying to control the elephant\u201d of emotions.\u00a0 That image really appealed to me. If anyone has ever seen a human astride an elephant, it is quite obvious that the elephant is, at best, accommodating the rider.\u00a0 There is no illusion in my mind as to what happens if the human crosses the line of irritation for the elephant.<\/p>\n

Great thinkers try to elevate logic to a point where it is separated from emotions.\u00a0 The aspiration is that clean, unencumbered logic will make great decisions.\u00a0 Mr. Lehrer makes the point that it is just the opposite, we need the interplay of logic and emotions to make reliable judgments.\u00a0 Our ability as a species to use logic in problem solving is relatively new compared to the longer-term development of our emotions. From a system\u2019s perspective they are integrated, not separate.<\/p>\n

From my experience in working with individuals and organizations, observing the incongruity between what people say and what they do, Steering the Elephant is a great image that explains a lot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve heard expressions like this, \u201cThe logical thing to do is\u2026This doesn\u2019t make sense\u2026Why don\u2019t they do it this way\u2026It\u2019s really very simple \u2026Make a list and follow it\u2026 Just put the fork down\u2026I don\u2019t understand, I can do it, why can\u2019t you\u2026, You need more self control\u2026\u201d You have also heard expressions like this, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasons-for-the-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}