Walter Schnecker

Walter Schnecker has spent over twenty years studying how people actually learn, decide, and change - and why they so often don't.

A licensed hypnotherapist, certified professional coach (CPC), and certified professional photographer (CPP), Walter has taught more than 2,000 students at C1M Photography Academy in New Hampshire. But his real education came from watching smart, capable adults freeze up the moment they felt judged - and discovering that the problem was never about information. It was about the ancient part of the brain that decides whether we're safe enough to learn.

That discovery sent him down a rabbit hole of neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and decision-making research - from Kahneman to Haidt, from Damasio to the Stoics. The Dragon and the Rider is what he found there.

Walter's background includes optics training with Leica lens designers in Germany, fashion photography in Hollywood and New York, and software development for automotive testing systems. He lives in New Hampshire, where his daughters keep him honest and his granddaughters keep telling him he's doing it wrong.