The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

How often do people tell you, “Think with your head,” or “Use your head”? But what actually helps to “switch on” thinking—and even go beyond the usual ways? Based on the latest findings from neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology, Annie Murphy Paul explains how the space around us, bodily sensations, and movement, as well as the people we interact with, influence our mental processes. This book will show you how to better hold your attention, more easily understand abstract ideas, absorb and remember complex material faster, and find original solutions.

From this book you’ll learn how to:

– develop unconventional thinking during walks;

– set up your workspace properly to be less distracted and work more productively;

– “turn on” your brain with sketches and drawings.

And also how:

– Pixar director Brad Bird creates films that have become modern classics—Ratatouille and The Incredibles;

– artist Jackson Pollock changed the way people think about painting by swapping an apartment in the noisy center of Manhattan for a home on a farm;

– a walk through a 13th-century Italian monastery sparked a breakthrough idea for virologist Jonas Salk while working on a vaccine for polio.