The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

Kaufman turns from the workings of businesses to the workings of the human mind, the true engine behind all economic and entrepreneurial activity. The chapter’s central argument is that understanding human cognition and behavior is essential to working efficiently, influencing others, and making sound business decisions. Kaufman combines neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology to demonstrate that modern behavior and business performance are deeply shaped by ancient instincts.

Through the metaphor of “Caveman Syndrome,” Kaufman argues that human biological hardware remains optimized for survival in prehistoric environments rather than for managing emails or running companies. The story of a hunter-gatherer encountering a cobra illustrates the immediacy and efficiency of primal reactions—responses that, in modern life, often misfire as anxiety, fatigue, and stress. He reinforces this point with evidence from contemporary health crises such as obesity and burnout, linking them to evolutionary mismatches. Kaufman’s prescription—nutrition, rest, exercise, and exposure to sunlight—echoes principles from neuroscience-based productivity works like John Medina’s Brain Rules, situating his advice within the larger self-optimization movement of the 2000s.

The chapter’s second major thread examines mental architecture through the “Onion Brain” model, a simplified depiction of how the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain interact. Kaufman uses this to explain impulsive versus deliberate decision-making, borrowing from behavioral and cognitive psychology traditions while simplifying them for business readers.