Tim Ash is a very interesting guy. He is both an authority on evolutionary psychology and digital marketing, which puts him in pretty rarified air. He is the bestselling author of Unleash Your Primal Brain and Landing Page Optimization (with over 50,000 copies sold worldwide and translated into six languages). He has been identified by Forbes as a Top-10 Online Marketing Expert, and by Entrepreneur Magazine as an Online Marketing Influencer To Watch.
Our conversation with Tim focused on his most recent book, Unleash Your Primal Brain, and addressed a question very central to behavioral science today: What is rational? This led to addressing how biases and heuristics are grounded in important evolutionary foundations. Tim likens the way we talk about biases today as glitches in the matrix when we should be acknowledging them for what they are: important evolutionary tools to help us survive our environments and thrive in our tribes.
We also discussed the importance of culture and its central focus on the way humans learn to be human. A paradox we discussed is that culture is dependent on tribe members passing down the cultural (social) norms to the next generation without interruption, and yet cross-tribal collaboration is what has given us an evolutionary edge. Tim notes, that what we need to do today is to “stretch beyond our current tribes needs to go and make the effort to contact other people that are very different from us.” And the consequences of not doing that, according to Tim, “ …are going to be the ones that are going to bring down the larger society.” Fascinating stuff.
We hope you’ll find this conversation with this insightful researcher and speaker as exciting as we did. And if you do like it, please give us a quick 5-star rating or a two-sentence review. And thank you for listening to Behavioral Grooves.
© 2021 Behavioral Grooves
 
Links
Tim Ash: https://timash.com/
“Primal Brain”: https://timash.com/books-and-media-mentions/
Latin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin
Robert Sapolsky: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sapolsky
Aristotle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
Hopper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopper_(particulate_collection_container)
Carl Sagan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan
Neil deGrasse Tyson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson
Robert Cialdini: https://www.influenceatwork.com/
Robert Heinlein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein
Antonio Damasio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Damasio
Carlos Castaneda “Journey to Ixtlan”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_Ixtlan
“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance
Sabre fencing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre_(fencing)
Tai Chi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi
Kung Fu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_martial_arts
Don Miguel Ruiz “The Four Agreements”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Agreements
Bhagavad Gita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita
Coleman’s Boat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGaz0xKG060
 
Musical Links
Pat Metheny Group “Last Train Home”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXJTv_U-PM
Chet Baker “Almost Blue”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4IridL_2XU
Elvis Costello “Almost Blue”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt8f1Sda8_4
Miles Davis “So What”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqNTltOGh5c
Salsa “Al Monte”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2JnyCuAQMg