The Science Of Getting Out Of Your Head | Annie Murphy Paul

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May 13, 2024

Annie Murphy Paul, an acclaimed science writer known for her insightful work in the New York Times and as the author of "The Extended Mind," discusses innovative ideas about thinking. She explores how our minds extend beyond our brains, highlighting the importance of our bodies, environments, and social interactions in enhancing cognitive ability. Paul shares practical techniques to harness these external resources, emphasizing the power of nature, movement, and collective intelligence in boosting creativity and decision-making. Get ready to rethink how you think!

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INSIGHT

Extended Mind

Thinking isn't solely a solo pursuit inside your head.
It's a process assembled from your body, environment, relationships, and tools.

ADVICE

Think With Your Body

Tune into your body's internal signals (interoception) through practices like body scans.
This improves decision-making by accessing non-conscious knowledge.

ADVICE

Think With Movement

Incorporate movement into your thinking process.
Try taking movement breaks, walking, or dancing to enhance idea flow and creativity.

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An acclaimed science writer on how to upgrade your mind by using more than your head.

When you think about thinking, most of us think of it as a supremely solo pursuit. You’re in your head, concentrating and cogitating, all by yourself. But the science shows that if you want to improve your thinking, you need to get out of your head. Today we’re going to talk about a concept called “the extended mind.” Your mind isn’t just in your skull: it’s in your body, it’s in the people around you, it’s in your surroundings. The best thinking requires that you break out of what the writer David Foster Wallace called “the skull sized kingdom” and access these other resources.

This may sound abstract, but our guest today makes it very practical. Annie Murphy Paul is an acclaimed science writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Scientific American, Slate, Time, and The Best American Science Writing, among many other publications. She is the author of Origins and The Cult of Personality, hailed by Malcolm Gladwell as a “fascinating new book.” Currently a fellow at New America, Paul has spoken to audiences around the world about learning and cognition; her TED talk has been viewed by more than 2.6 million people. A graduate of Yale University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has served as a lecturer at Yale University and as a senior advisor at their Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. Her latest book is The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

In this episode, we also talk about:

How to use your surroundings to think better
My favorite of the three areas of this book – thinking with our relationships
Why “groupthink” isn’t always a bad thing (OR you can say, the benefits of thinking in groups)
What she called “extension inequality” – that this benefit of the extended mind isn’t available to all people

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episode/anniemurphypaul

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