Essay

Are You Smarter Than a Dog?

We like to think we’re smarter than the dog. But most of us are just better trained. This is not a post about mindfulness. It’s about what happens when you mistake reactivity for reality—and call it growth.

The Unscripted Mind

17 Nov 2025 • 3 min read

Are you reacting—or choosing?

Audio format: https://youtu.be/budhN9Y7x9E

There’s a TV show—or at least there used to be called:
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

The premise is simple.
Adults try to prove they haven’t forgotten how to think like children.
Some succeed. Most don’t.
It’s harmless. Humiliating.
And exactly the kind of distraction we’ve been trained to enjoy.

But here’s a better question:
Are you smarter than a dog?

A dog—at least in Pavlov’s lab—was honest.
Bell rings.
Mouth waters.
Body obeys.

Not out of stupidity.
Not out of weakness.
But because that’s what conditioning does.
No shame.
No confusion.
No TED talk required.

But we?
We hear the bell and call it a lifestyle.
We believe everything we hear—
on TV, on podcasts, from influencers who smile while selling clarity.
We quote headlines like scripture.
We treat opinion like truth if it comes with a ring light and a mic.
We confuse exposure with awareness.
We scroll until we’re numb, then call it research.
We answer emails in the middle of the night.
We panic when the room goes quiet.
We chase every trend with the urgency of survival.
And then we meditate for five minutes and call it balance.

We call it mindfulness but practice obedience.

Because dogs don’t pretend to be free.
They don’t host shows about awareness.
They don’t sell healing.
They don’t perform peace.
They just react.
No illusion.
No branding.

But us?
We’ve built entire industries around pretending we aren’t trained.
We post about nervous system regulation while checking notifications every six minutes.
We teach presence but refuse to feel discomfort.
We spiritualize our patterns and call them purpose.

And here’s the deeper truth.
We live in a culture that talks about “mindfulness”
but rarely practices it.
Not the real kind.
Not the kind that confronts, disrupts, reveals.

Most of what we call mindfulness is just nervous system management with better branding.
A way to soothe ourselves back into the loop.
A ritual of control.
A curated pause.

But actual awareness—the kind that notices the bell and doesn’t move—
that’s rare.
That’s quiet.
That’s unsellable.

We have the capacity dogs don’t.
To pause.
To reflect.
To choose.

But do we?

Do we ever stop to ask:
What do you do when you hear the bell?

Do you notice it?
Question it?
Refuse it?

Or do you salivate on cue and call it self-development?

There’s a quote.
Viktor Frankl.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose.”

It’s beautiful.
It’s true.
And most of us never enter it.

Because the bell is louder.
The urge is faster.
The loop is safer.

The Unscripted Mind doesn’t claim enlightenment.
It doesn’t transcend.
It doesn’t rise above the bell.

It hears it.
It feels the pull.
It stays still just long enough to notice:
This isn’t presence.
This is programming.