How to Think Together in Groups

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

i'm really interested in those industries where the kind of work that people do is so complex and so demanding that had to develop structured ways of interacting, like computer programmes. And i think the rest of society may eventually have to follow their lead - because the way we engage in group thinking right now in the rest of societies is so loose and so unstructured and so ineffective. If only just a few republicans would stand up and say, this rigged election stuff is bolshet, and i'm not going to stand for it. Liz chaney did that, right? I never thought i'd hear myself say, liz chaney's my hero. But look what happened to her

In this conversation about her new book, the acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul explodes the myth that the brain is an all-powerful, all-purpose thinking machine that works best in silence and isolation. We are often told that the human brain is an awe-inspiring wonder, but its capacities are remarkably limited and specific. Humanity has achieved its most impressive feats only by thinking outside the brain: by “extending” the brain’s power with resources borrowed from the body, other people, and the material world. The Extended Mind tells the stories of scientists and artists, authors and inventors, leaders and entrepreneurs — Jackson Pollock, Charles Darwin, Jonas Salk, Friedrich Nietzsche, Watson and Crick, among others — who have mastered the art of thinking outside the brain. It also explains how every one of us can do the same, tapping the intelligence that exists beyond our heads — in our bodies, our surroundings, and our relationships.