The Science of Success Podcast

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Real Life Inception – From Bank Robbery to Neuroscience with Dr. Moran Cerf

Lace Gilger
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In this episode we discuss real life inception with a former bank robber turned neuroscientist. Is it possible to plant ideas in your head? Are your memories an accurate reflection of past reality? Can you change and mold your memories to be different? We open the door on human irrationality and explore why and how we make bad decisions, and what you can do to make small changes that will create a big impact in your life and much more with our guest Moran Cerf.

Dr. Moran Cerf is a professor of neuroscience and business at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern University. He is also a member of the institute of complex systems and was recently named one of the “40 Leading Professionals Under 40.” His research uses methods of neuroscience to understand the underlying mechanisms of our psychology, behavior changes, emotion, decision making and dreams. His work has been featured on the TED Stage, In WIRED, The Scientific American, and much more. 

  • What’s it like to Rob a Bank?

  • How Moran went from an accomplished bank robber to a prominent neuroscientist

  • Most times in life we tell our story backward to make sense of the past

  • Are people rational actors who make decisions in their own best interest?

  • Humans are not rational actors - they often make irrational choices

  • Behavioral economics opened the door to explaining human irrationality - but neuroscientists were necessary to truly explain WHY these mistakes were happening

  • Irrational behavior - why it works - and how we can change it 

  • Is losing a $10 movie ticket the same as losing $10? In case of most people’s behavior - almost certainly not. 

  •  Your memories are not a reliable reflection of reality or your past - despite the fact that you think they are 

  • “Don’t believe everything you think"

  • Real Life Inception - Planting Ideas In Your Brain, re-shaping your memories

  • How neuroscientists use magicians and slight of hand to demonstrate our ability to rationalize and explain our decisions

  • If you make a small positive step, the brain will start to build pillars of support to underpin that new behavior

  • How does neuroplasticity impact our brain's ability to change adapt and transform our beliefs and memories

  • Your memories are never fixed - they aren’t sitting in a vault, perfect, unchanged. Your memories are changed and modified every time you remember them and pull them back. 

  • Ever time you use a memory, you change it a little bit - over time we change memories greatly - we can remember things that never existed and forget what truly happened

  • This is how the brain deals with trauma and negative experience

  • Even when you’re sleeping your brain rehearses, loads, and engages with your memories.

  • Bringing up and talking through negative memories physically reshapes those memories in your brain

  • You can use a daily decision-journal to see when you make the best decisions - and try to emulate those decisions - find the commonalities in situations where you made good choices

  • Humans are a lot simpler than we think we are. 

  • You think you are very unique - in terms of your brain - but we are very similar and fall into predictable behavioral patterns and biases 

  • When it comes to human behavior and decision-making - we are a lot more similar than different 

  • We often think our decisions are our own - but in reality, they are often influenced by biases, the environment, and many things beyond our control. 

  • We are discovering that more and more of our brain is not really under our control. 

  • We use 100% of our brain, but it's not all accessible to us. 

  • Subtle shifts in your environment change how you respond to things. 

  • “Embodied cognition” shows that many things are happening to us, that we don’t have full control over 

  • If you have a name for something you can think about it, if you can think about it you can control it

  • Coding things are huge as well (what was the temperature, your mood, hunger level etc when you made decisions)

  • Just by listening to this episode you’re improving your ability to think more effectively and make better decisions! 

  • How can we take these lessons of neuroscience and apply them to make ourselves smarter and better decision makers?

  • Making decisions is a tax on your brain. Outsource low-level unimportant decisionmaking. 

  • Evolution is an incredibly slow process - it takes millions of years

  • Planting computer chips into your brain - and teaching your brain how to read and interact with them. 

  • Homework - surround yourself with people who are doing what you want to do 

  • Think about what you want

    1. Find people who have it 

    2. Spend time with them and in their proximity

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