Gremlins, Goblins and Autopilots (Computer Reprogramming)
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- —
A method for auditing and rewriting the beliefs and behaviours stored in the Computer. Gremlins are unhelpful but removable beliefs formed through experience — the false conclusion that all partners betray you, or the awkward social pause you have programmed in. Goblins are damage: circuits altered by early trauma or by the fridge-door pattern, so ingrained they cannot be removed and must instead be contained and managed. Autopilots are the constructive replacements — truthful, evidence-based beliefs and behaviours you install and reinforce until they run automatically. The critical distinction is diagnostic: attempting to remove a Goblin sets you up to fail, so you must classify before you act.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Surface the unhelpful belief or behaviour
Identify the repeating pattern that drives you crazy because you do not want it. Peters uses a social example: someone says hello, there is a pause, and you feel awkward and do not know what to do. The pause itself is the programmed behaviour.
Pro tip Look for the specific behaviour, not the vague feeling. 'I find it difficult to get on with people' becomes 'I pause after hello'.
- 2
Classify it as Gremlin or Goblin
A Gremlin is a false belief formed later in life from experience, and it can be turned over. A Goblin reflects genuine developmental damage — where a brain window closed without the circuit forming, as with abused or neglected children who cannot dampen emotion. Goblins get contained, not removed.
Watch out Peters warns of therapists trying to change something already damaged. Attempting to make a person independent when their machine defaults to needing others 'won't happen'.
- 3
Find the whole gang of supporting beliefs
Peters: 'these beliefs don't dance alone they're a gang'. A single belief is usually underpinned by five, six or seven others. Map all of them before you start dismantling anything, then knock them over one by one.
Pro tip Ask what else you would have to believe for the main belief to be true — those are the supports.
Watch out Removing the headline belief while its supports stand means it grows straight back.
- 4
Replace with a truthful autopilot
You cannot leave a vacuum. Install a new belief or behaviour based on facts and logic — for the social pause, simply program the automatic line 'where have you come from today?'. Peters stresses this is not brainwashing but 'reality bringing you to reality'.
Pro tip For elite performers this is the same mechanism as a golfer's swing: program it, then let the Computer run it while Chimp and Human stay out of the way.
Watch out The autopilot must genuinely resonate with you. Peters refuses to hand people a list because 'an autopilot for you might be really strong and it works whereas for me it won't resonate'.
- 5
Reinforce until the pathway holds
Keep using the autopilot until the Gremlins go. Peters notes it can be instant or take weeks. He treats it like learning a language — his own book is structured as 27 units, one every couple of weeks, so the practice absorbs rather than being read and forgotten.
Pro tip Aim for about five 'grade A hits' — autopilots that genuinely stabilise you — rather than collecting dozens.
Watch out Reading the material and agreeing with it is not the same as building the pathway.
- 6
Contain what cannot be removed
Where you have identified a Goblin, program management rather than elimination. Peters: 'you're always going to have that bit of overreaction so we're going to have to program it to manage it but it may never go so don't beat yourself up if it happens'.
Watch out Treating a Goblin as a Gremlin produces repeated failure and self-blame, which is worse than the original pattern.
In the wild
A child brings home a painting from school. The parent praises it, calls the child clever, says I love you and I want the world to see, and puts it on the fridge door. Peters calls this damage — a Goblin. What the child, still mainly in Chimp mode, actually hears is: if you bring me something I approve of, then I love you and the world knows. Peters' alternative is to put the picture down, sit the child on your knee, say I love you as you are and I want the world to know you're great, and only then look at the painting together — including gently noting the sun isn't green. The child learns it is valued as a person and can self-criticise without threat.
→ Research shows children given the power of balanced self-criticism build resilience against peer pressure ten years later.
Someone's first intimate relationship ends in dishonesty and betrayal. From that single severe emotional experience they form the belief that all relationships will be like this and that people are not trustworthy. Peters classifies this as a Gremlin, not a Goblin — it is a false belief built on one data point rather than a damaged circuit, and it can be turned around. He points to the folk phrase 'you kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince' as evidence the culture already encodes the corrective: false starts are common and painful, but they do not prove the general claim.
→ The false belief is replaced with a truthful one — you picked the wrong person — restoring the capacity to form relationships.
A man who heard Peters explain fridge door syndrome told him he and his partner were about to have their first child and that the child would not be a fridge door child. Six years later he returned after his first parents' evening, elated because the teacher had said 'why can't they all be like him'. But he reported the boy himself was not bothered whether he had got anything right, because he is self-contained, his value sits within himself, and he is a happy child. The father was adamant this was the deliberate absence of fridge door conditioning rather than coincidence.
→ A child whose self-worth is uncoupled from approval and achievement.
Common mistakes
Asking for someone else's list of autopilots
Peters repeatedly refuses requests for 'five tips' because an autopilot only works if the person genuinely believes it. He offers the example 'if you don't get criticised you're probably not saying anything powerful' or 'the only person who doesn't have enemies is a jellyfish' — beliefs that would not resonate with him personally but land powerfully for others. Borrowed beliefs collapse under pressure precisely when you need them.
Praising the output instead of the person
The fridge door mistake is subtle and well-intentioned. Pointing at the achievement while saying I love you teaches a pre-rational child that love is contingent on approved output. The adult version is the medical student who fixates on 98% not being 100%, or the Olympian who wins a non-gold medal and cannot be consoled. Peters notes the pattern is self-perpetuating: the Chimp compares today against yesterday and 'it's never favourable'.
Chasing peace of mind through achievement
Producing a good picture — or a degree, a consultancy, a gold medal — gives temporary relief only. Peters watched medical students spend five years desperate to qualify, then return saying 'everyone's a doctor, it's nothing', dismissing what they had worked for. The trap is that staying in that system means peace of mind is always temporary; only shifting systems and working from values makes it durable.
From the transcript
“these are the Gremlins these beliefs don't dance alone they're a gang and you got to pin all of them”
“to remove a gremlin you must replace it with a new p pathway you can't say I'm not going to do that pathway”
“it's more I called a goblin where you think we can't remove this it's a bit of damage but can contain it and work with…”
From the episode
Join The Top 1%: The Mindset Behind The World's Top Performers - Professor Steve Peters
Professor Steve Peters