Feelings drag us out of reality. Assume intellect indicates how smart you are. But does it serve you in the end? Are you the commander-in-chief who drives the entire decision-making system? Nonhuman animals act on desires and feelings: this is their survival and reproductive strategy. Natural selection efficiently corrects errors. Animals don’t need to understand strategies or goals. Instincts act like an algorithm: a stimulus triggers a response, from low-level reflexes to long-term feelings and desires. What’s missing? Reason, in every sense. The limits of this irrational system become clearer when human actions reshape the environment. For example, consider why Australia banned brown beer bottles. One species of male beetles instinctively seeks brown, shiny females, preferring larger ones. Attempting to “impregnate” bottles doesn’t aid reproduction. Over time, creatures adapt to reality, but it can take generations, and some face extinction. The smarter we are, the better we are at calculating, comparing, and making choices. Yet intellect still serves an irrational, automatic system. If the mechanism is flawed or the environment changes, feelings can lead to wrong actions, undermining their intended purpose. Instincts don’t enable understanding of reality or goals, nor do they give direct orders. They manipulate us through desires and feelings. With greater intellect, we more effectively serve irrational instincts, undermining our future. Only reason, grounded in reality, can counteract this threat. Feelings are powerful, and most believe it’s impossible to correct them. Your intellect helps you see dissonance, but only reason can liberate you from feelings by replacing the instinctive system of behavior. Only then can we perceive reality clearly.