People are not that smart.

I don’t mean this in a condescending way. I just mean that as humans, despite our ability to build civilizations, when it comes down to it, we are still very simple-brained creatures.

We are irrational, we act against better judgement all the time. We spend YEARS in self-destructive thought loops and feeling like we need to start doing life better.

Yet. Our brains seem to be preoccupied with overriding all rational thought.

And there is good reason for this. We are programmed to survive in a primitive world where the threat of being eaten by tigers, or speared by a Neanderthal was a real possibility.

Back then, high-level thinking would get you killed. So our brains are hardcoded to be hyper-reactive for the sake of survival over deep and intellectual thought.

But the world has changed a lot since then.

We no longer need to survive in the way that our prehistoric ancestors did. We now need to navigate a world where the survival stakes are much lower, but the complexity of life is extraordinarily high.

And unfortunately, we’ve never received a system update. Our brains are still operating on outdated software.

In the world of biology, this is known as an “evolutionary mismatch."

And evolutionary mismatches lead to a host of problems. Just go to ChatGPT and tell it to run you a list of problems caused by evolutionary mismatches in humans, and you’ll soon realize that it is the single most significant cause of suffering in affluent societies:

These are all products of evolutionary mismatches. If you notice, these problems are almost exclusively unique to humans and rarely occur naturally in the wild.

Since we now live in complex society, the optimal survival strategy has changed.

Being able to defend against tigers and Neanderthals has been replaced by a need to navigate through office politics, dopamine overload, and a generally fast paced society that doesn’t allow time to rest or reset.

This requires the brain to override it’s default programming, and to move into a new paradigm of thinking multi-dimensionally, drawing connections between disparate information, and seamlessly integrating conscious awareness with subconscious intuition.

This is Tier 3 thinking, and very few people will ever reach this level of human thought.

It requires an uncomfortably intense degree of focus and intentionality.

I want to be clear, this is not about being smart, or having high IQ, or whatever other bulls**t metric society tries to measure people with.

Anybody who is capable of conscious thought, can access Tier 3 thinking, but most will not, because they are too distracted.

But YOU on the other hand… you are here, reading a long-form article when you could be doing literally anything else, which means that you’re already several astronomical units ahead of most people.

This fact alone places you in Tier 2 at the least.

And on that note, let’s break down each Tier so you can see where you stand.

80% of people are here.

This is survival mode. The default mode of human existence.

Unless you are a monk, you are almost always going to be in this state.

When we are awake and simply going through the motions of life, we are in Tier 1 thinking. Interacting with co-workers, crossing the street, checking emails, scrolling on social media, all of these represent being in a state of reactive cognition.

We are fully conscious and alert, and highly reactionary, yet we are also completely unaware of our deeper fears, motivations, or subconscious thoughts.

Thus we are highly susceptible to distractions, impulsive decisions, and lacking clarity about most things in life.

External Event → Internal Thought → Reaction

This isn’t necessarily bad, this tier of thinking is actually very important for immediate survival. It is important to pick up on external cues and adjust our behaviors accordingly.

The problem comes when people stay in this realm of thinking in perpetuity and let their lives be guided by it.

This is where most self-induced crises stem from.

Signs of Tier 1 thinking:

There are obviously many more examples, but I think you get the idea here.

If I could sum it up into one sentence, I’d describe Tier 1 thinking as letting external factors (other people’s opinions, societal norms, circumstances beyond your control) dictate your path in life.

Only about 20% of people are here.

If you regularly take time to slow down, step away from your daily existence, and observe your life, then you’re a Tier 2 thinker.

This means that you’re life is not in a constant state of survival. You reserve some of your mental energy for self-actualization.

When we are in deep learning or searching for ways to improve ourselves, we are in Tier 2 thinking. Reading books, creating a 5-year goal, deciding to do something that you really don’t want to do because you know it’ll pay off later.. all of these represent being in a state of proactive cognition.

Not only are we fully conscious and alert, but we are also aware of a subconscious existence that influences our life experience. And from subconscious awareness emerges some sort of purpose or broader meaning in life

Purpose → Plan → Action

In this Tier we’re able to draw direct connections between our purpose and our actions.

We take time out of our lives to structure our thinking with logic, and reason with the intent of proactively taking actions that’ll put us on a favorable trajectory.

The shortfall here is that the thinking is linear, so it’s easily disrupted, and often misses the bigger picture.

And this is why we stay stuck with habits and thought loops that we cannot seem to break.

Signs of Tier 2 thinking:

To sum up Tier 2 thinking, it entails living with purpose, intention, and a clear sense of direction, but struggling to truly actualize thinking into reality. If you’re reading this, you’re most certainly in this Tier

<1% of people will ever make it here.

I call this God-Tier thinking because it represents a level of presence, understanding, and deep connectedness to a higher-order that transcends the individual. If this is you, then you are a Tier 3 thinker.

This means that you’re far beyond self-actualization, in fact, your concept of self becomes lost, because you understand that concept of “self” belongs to those still in the Tier 1&2 thought models.

When we are in a prolonged state of flow, when time suspends, when we’re fully present, and in deep exploration of the subconscious mind, we are in Tier 3 thinking. Dedicating years of focus to a rare skill irrespective of outcome, willingly enduring extreme discomfort for a greater cause, and sticking with your moral convictions in spite of the consequences… all of these represent being in a state of Integrated Intelligence.

Not only are you fully conscious and alert, but you are also aware of a dance between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind which influences your life experience. And from that awareness emerges some sort of purpose or broader meaning in life that becomes bigger much than you or anyone else.

Conscious/Subconscious Awareness → Selfless Purpose → Lifestyle Flow

In this Tier you are in total alignment.

Your growth is not limited to the moments that you slow down for introspection and logical thought. Instead, you’ve explored your subconscious mind deeply enough to have extreme clarity on your purpose in life.

And you are able to bring subconscious awareness into the conscious mind by intuitively connecting seemingly random events or unrelated things to your purpose.

You’re not just driven by a logical process that hopefully leads to desired outcomes. You see life as an exploration, and you interpret anything that happens, good and bad, as necessary for living your life in total enlightenment.

Thinking here is multi-dimensional, because you’ve made connections between all elements of your life. They’re interwoven like a web.

So when life throws disruptions in your direction, you mindset is so redundant that you remain unphased. You press forward nonetheless.

Signs of Tier 3 thinking:

In short, Tier 3 thinking means you’ve successfully integrated conscious awareness with subconscious existence to guide you through life.

I wouldn’t consider myself to be a Tier 3 thinker… yet.

Although, I do believe I’ve had moments of Tier 3 thinking, particularly in my fitness/calisthenics practice. I’ve had it to a lesser extent in my decision to leave corporate America, and the U.S. altogether, and embark on this new path that I’m currently on.

My biggest breakthrough moments and periods of enlightenment have all happened when I’ve entered the fringes of Tier 3 thinking.

I don’t know about you, but when I unlock a newfound elevated state of being (in a healthy way of course), then I’m going to try to find a way to make it my default state of existence.

This is how I overcame terrible anxiety, and depression, and poor health. Now I’m doing the same when it comes to unlocking the highest order of thought, and I’m doing it using artificial intelligence

I spent the past few weeks totally gutting CerebriX which is the AI tool I’ve been using for self-development work, and completely rebuilding it from the ground up with the specific intent of helping me unlock Tier 3 thinking.

If you’d like to see what I did then you can click the image below to watch a short video. (I sped it up to 1.5x for convenience, but you can alter the speed as you wish.)

I suspect that you reading this also exist in Tier 2 thinking but may have dabbled into Tier 3 once or twice in your life. If so then you’re also welcome to try CerebriX 2.0 as well if you’re also keen on unlocking higher level thinking.

I’ve been seeing the direction the world is going.

Tier 2 thinking may have been good enough in the past.

With the internet completely changing how we process the world around us, technology and social media causing rampant dopamine toxicity, and a world that is certainly going to get ever more complex, Tier 3 thinking (integrated intelligence) is becoming increasingly necessary for survival.

If you do it successfully, you can get ahead of 99% of people who will continue to succumb to evolutionary mismatches that continue to grow as society evolves.

By adopting new mental models for higher order thinking, you can:

This is what I’m doing, and I’m using AI to help me get there before most people even know what hit them.