The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

by Annie Murphy Paul

Overview

A New York Times Editors' Choice
A Washington Post Best Nonfiction Book of 2021
A New York Times Notable Book

A bold new book reveals how we can tap the intelligence that exists beyond our brains—in our bodies, our surroundings, and our relationships

Use your head.
 
That’s what we tell ourselves when facing a tricky problem or a difficult project. But a growing body of research indicates that we’ve got it exactly backwards. What we need to do, says acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul, is think outside the brain. A host of “extra-neural” resources—the feelings and movements of our bodies, the physical spaces in which we learn and work, and the minds of those around us— can help us focus more intently, comprehend more deeply, and create more imaginatively.
 
The Extended Mind outlines the research behind this exciting new vision of human ability, exploring the findings of neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, psychologists, and examining the practices of educators, managers, and leaders who are already reaping the benefits of thinking outside the brain. She excavates the untold history of how artists, scientists, and authors—from Jackson Pollock to Jonas Salk to Robert Caro—have used mental extensions to solve problems, make discoveries, and create new works. In the tradition of Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind or Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, The Extended Mind offers a dramatic new view of how our minds work, full of practical advice on how we can all think better.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544947665
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/08/2021
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	471,223
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

ANNIE MURPHY PAUL is an acclaimed science journalist and book author who contributes to Scientific American,the New York Times,Time, and Slate, among many other publications. A former senior editor at Psychology Today, Paul is currently a Future Tense fellow at New America, as well as a senior adviser at the Yale University Center for Teaching and Learning. She is the author of The Cult of Personality Testing—a cultural history and scientific critique of personality testing hailed by Malcolm Gladwell as a “fascinating new book”—and Origins, a personal and scientific exploration of how the nine months before birth shape the rest of our lives, selected for The Best American Science Writing. A graduate of Yale College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Paul lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with her husband and two sons.

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

Introduction: Thinking Outside the Brain 1

Part I Thinking with Our Bodies

1 Thinking with Sensations 21

2 Thinking with Movement 44

3 Thinking with Gesture 68

Part II Thinking with Our Surroundings

4 Thinking with Natural Spaces 91

5 Thinking with Built Spaces 114

6 Thinking with the Space of Ideas 139

Part III Thinking with Our Relationships

7 Thinking with Experts 163

8 Thinking with Peers 187

9 Thinking with Groups 211

Conclusion 241

Acknowledgments 253

Notes 256

Index 330

Editorial Reviews

03/22/2021

Science journalist Paul (Brilliant: The New Science of Smart) pushes back against the idea that brains are “a cordoned-off space where cognition happens” in this thoroughly reported look at myriad types of thinking. She posits that bodies, physical spaces, and the minds of other people expand one’s ability to decide, analyze, focus, and solve problems. As such, being aware of one’s bodily signals (such as an increased heart rate) allows people to make better decisions beyond using solely intelligence, and she offers as an example successful Wall Street traders who hit it big by trusting their gut. As for physical spaces, Paul makes a case that nature allows for better focus, and tells of a medical researcher who found architecture so inspiring that it led to intellectual breakthroughs. And people tend to think better alongside others, Paul explains: physics students, for example, become more nimble problem solvers when they socialize with other physics students. Paul’s knack for finding real-world scenarios to illustrate scientific ideas makes this pop and lends much credence to the theory that an isolated mind isn’t the sole source of intelligence and creativity. Her fresh approach hits the mark. Agent: Tina Bennett, William Morris Endeavor. (June)

Publishers Weekly

​"An acclaimed science journalist demystifies how our most important thinking often happens outside our heads."—Adam Grant, author of Think Again and Originals, on LinkedIn as "The 12 New Leadership Books to Read This Summer"   “In The Extended Mind, author Annie Murphy Paul explains why the key to thinking better sometimes lies in using our brains less. By extending our minds through our bodies, physical surroundings, and relationships, we can work more productively and solve problems more creatively. The Extended Mind uses stories and science to show us how it’s done.”—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better   "Fascinating, sure-footed and wide-ranging"—The Wall Street Journal "In The Extended Mind, science writer Annie Murphy Paul shows us how we can 'think outside the brain'—that is, draw the stuff of the world into our trains of thought. We limit ourselves when we think only with our heads. Extending our minds opens up a host of new possibilities, allowing us to become more focused, more productive, more creative—in a word, smarter."—Susan Cain, author of Quiet   "The Extended Mind argues that our creativity, our intelligence, and even our memories are embodied not just in the wet matter of our brains, but in the world all around us. This is a profoundly interesting book that invites us to radically change how we think about thinking."—Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein   “Packed with cutting-edge research, compelling real-world examples, and deep insight, The Extended Mind provides a revolutionary framework to help us understand how our brains work. It’s one of those rare books that I found so interesting that I couldn’t put it down, and the minute I finished, I started making changes in my life.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project   "Just when I thought I was stuck with the brain I have, Annie Murphy Paul reveals that I can do better! Much better! This fascinating tour of the latest science reveals all the ways we can get smarter by changing our physical spaces, moving our hands and bodies and thinking together, with other humans. An inspiring guide to living fuller lives by getting outside our own heads."—Amanda Ripley, author of High Conflict and The Smartest Kids in the World   "Powerful, actionable, and whip-smart, this book is proof that when you rethink how thinking works, you open the door to a world of new possibilities. I guarantee that Annie Murphy Paul's concepts, case studies, and research-based tips will help you and your group connect, create, and perform in new ways."—Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code and The Culture Code   "When it comes to your identity, there is no clear line where your brain ends and your body, your environment, and your culture begin. In this tour de force, Annie Murphy Paul unmasks the larger story of who we are."—David Eagleman, Stanford University neuroscientist and author of Incognito and Livewired   "The very smartest people know how to draw upon the wisdom of their entire world, including their environment and also their whole body, not just their brain. The Extended Mind i —

From the Publisher

06/01/2021

What are the benefits of "thinking outside the brain," and what are some useful techniques for doing so? As a journalist and advisor at the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning, Paul has explored how thinkers, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Jonas Salk to Jackson Pollock, have extended their brain power. She surveys research done by neuroscientists and cognitive scientists that shows the value of pursuing various and multiple kinds of thinking; her book makes the case that this research has sharpened our interoceptive senses (our awareness of what's going on inside our bodies, of sensations like hunger, thirst, and pain), useful for guiding decision-making and managing mental processes. Paul also carefully considers using particular modes of physical activity to restore focus and increase creativity; using social interaction to allow other people's cognition to augment our own; designing workspaces for greater productivity and performance; and, in general, "how to offload, externalize, and dynamically interact with our thoughts." In each chapter, she writes accessibly, allowing readers new to these scientific concepts to easily follow along. VERDICT A practical and mind-expanding guide for writers, artists, teachers, and anyone who wants to increase their brain power and help others do the same.—Marcia G. Welsh, formerly with Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH

Library Journal

2021-04-21
A look at the science behind the parts of our consciousness and ideation that lie outside the body.

Marshall McLuhan famously called media “the extensions of man.” Science writer Paul updates this notion to battle what researchers have called neurocentric bias “and our corresponding blind spot for all the ways cognition extends beyond the skull.” We acquire much information via the processing of the senses into mental furrows and synapses, but we also have other avenues of thinking: for instance, what Paul describes as a well-developed “interoceptive sense.” This involves teaching ourselves how to become more aware of what’s happening in our bodies through an exercise called the “body scan,” imagining that breath occurs elsewhere in the body than in the pulmonary tract. Mindfulness meditation also extends awareness of the parasympathetic nervous system, itself a source of information. Paul examines the well-known effects of walking on mind improvement and the use of gesture to both build memory and to pull words out of the air (or mental databanks, more properly) as we speak. The author uses recently deceased Zappos founder Tony Hsieh as a model for someone who strived to forge “a sense of unity and cohesion among the firm’s employees,” re-creating the as-oneness he experienced at drug-fueled raves. The mind can be expanded, and not necessarily by drugs, by compartmentalizing it so that others store information for us. Intriguingly, Paul explores an experimental learning technique in which students are divided into groups and then assigned to learn a segment of a topic, later combining the information they’ve mastered in an example of “a transactive memory system.” Though less fluent than other popular-science writers such as Malcolm Gladwell and Elizabeth Kolbert, Paul does a good job of drawing together the many extensions of mind that surround us, exhorting readers to “re-spatialize the information we think about.”

It helps to have a brain to think with, but Paul capably shows that there’s much more to the process than all that.

Kirkus Reviews