PDF Summary:The Extended Mind, by Annie Murphy Paul

If you imagine a genius scientist or philosopher, you may picture someone sitting alone, lost in thought, slowly formulating their world-changing ideas entirely in their head. However, truly effective thinking could look very different. In The Extended Mind, science writer Annie Murphy Paul argues that optimal cognition isn’t about withdrawing deeper into our minds—it’s about engaging more with the world outside of our heads. By engaging intentionally with our bodies, environments, and social relationships, we can access more sophisticated and productive forms of thought.

In this guide, you’ll learn several simple cognitive strategies and habits that will help you better understand complex ideas, focus more intently on your goals, unlock more creative ideas, and connect more deeply with others. In our commentary, we’ll help you understand and implement these strategies by providing additional context from psychological research as well as books like Hyperfocus and Spark.

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Other institutions, too, have begun experimenting with VR: The New York Times has created a curriculum of VR experiences for classrooms. Many of these experiences enhance learning by placing the student at the center of a setting that’s normally merely conceptual—a high-tech version of the imagination exercise Paul recommends. In this curriculum, students fly through the solar system past Pluto, go back in time to historic moments in the history of the Olympic Games, and look around inside the Large Hadron Collider.

Strategy #4: Gesture With Your Hands to Think and Communicate Better

Paul asserts that another way we can use the body to enhance our cognition is by gesturing more with our hands. This is because our gestures are more in touch with our subconscious minds than the words we say.

When we’re learning something new, or when we’re struggling to understand a particularly challenging idea, we instinctively gesture to represent ideas that we don’t consciously understand clearly enough yet to put into words. This kind of gesturing helps us clarify ideas and come to a better understanding of what we already know, both in our conversations with others and when thinking things through on our own. You can use this to your advantage: The next time you find yourself deep in thought, gesturing more expressively may help you discover valuable insights.

(Shortform note: The fact that hand gestures are so connected to the subconscious mind means that when someone is lying, their hands frequently give away that they’re not being truthful. Research has found that when a person lies, they instinctively gesture with their hands more than normal. This is perhaps because lying requires more quick, rigorous cognition than telling the truth—liars may gesture as a subconscious attempt to help themselves invent details on the fly and monitor whether others are believing their lies.)

Additionally, Paul argues that gesturing is one of the most effective ways we can enhance our communication with others. Linguists believe that communication through physical gestures developed before verbal language—consequently, the gestures we make are often just as information-rich as the words we say. By gesturing more in our conversations with others, we vastly increase the chance that they’ll understand what we’re saying.

(Shortform note: According to Vanessa Van Edwards, author of Captivate, while gesturing with your hands can improve the clarity of your communication, too much gesturing can distract your listeners or make you look untactful. To appear expressive yet in control, imagine a box extending from your shoulders down to your waist to contain your gestures. If you really want to optimize your gesturing, try filming yourself in conversation with a friend to see how you appear to others.)

Enhancing Cognition Using the Physical World

Now that we’ve discussed how to incorporate your entire body into the act of thinking, let’s expand our focus outward. The second way we can use external aids to enhance our cognition is by more intentionally engaging with the immediate physical world around us.

Let’s take a look at two strategies for using external objects and the environment around us to think more effectively.

Strategy #1: Give Your Thoughts Physical Form

If you’re trying to learn something, solve a problem, or generate new insights, Paul recommends giving your thoughts physical form—whether by writing them down, representing them in images, or modeling them in some other tactile way. Moving your thoughts from your head into the physical world means that you don’t have to actively remember as much, giving you more mental capacity to think effectively.

(Shortform note: Many experts argue that a strict system dictating how to habitually externalize your thoughts is the key to personal organization. For instance, The Bullet Journal Method, Getting Things Done, and Building a Second Brain all offer distinct, intricate systems of organizing your thoughts outside of your head. These systems have much in common: They detail how to sort the information you record, as well as how and when to review and act on that information.)

If you can give your thoughts a physical form that you’re able to physically manipulate, that’s even better, according to Paul. Biologically speaking, the brain is much better at making sense of physical objects than abstract ideas, so you’ll get better results working through your thoughts with your hands than in your mind. For example, if you’re trying to determine a seating arrangement for your wedding reception, you could write your guests’ names on slips of paper and physically move them around until you’ve found the ideal configuration.

(Shortform note: If your ideas are too big or complex for you to turn them into a physical model, you may be able to replicate the experience of thinking with your hands using 3D modeling software. Software like this allows you to design and manipulate objects in a virtual, three-dimensional space. Although you’ll lose the tactile sensations that aid cognition, the ability to free up your working memory by externalizing spatial ideas is still invaluable.)

Additionally, Paul explains that externalizing your thoughts creates distance from them, allowing you to judge them more clearly and objectively. This distance also helps you come up with creative new ideas, as inspecting your thoughts externally helps you see them in new ways.

Paul states that this understanding should completely change the way you approach the creative process. When you’re doing anything creative, many people assume that you should come up with an idea, work out all the details, then manifest it in the world as a finished product. However, Paul argues that the ideal creative process is iterative: Externalize your thoughts, assess them, and repeat. By critiquing and finding inspiration in each successive draft, you’ll end up with a much better final product.

(Shortform note: The creative process Paul outlines here closely mirrors Stephen King’s writing process as he describes it in On Writing. King almost always creates multiple drafts when writing his novels. Like Paul, King acknowledges that attaining distance from your work helps you cultivate a clearer perspective and come up with better ideas. Therefore, to create even more distance, King recommends that you write a first draft as quickly as possible and then work on other projects for a while before returning to revise. King takes at least six weeks between finishing his first draft and revising one of his pieces.)

Strategy #2: Find the Right Place to Think

Paul argues that the setting in which you work has a significant impact on the quality of your thinking and thus, the work you do. First, your ideal workspace should be private. Biologically, the human brain isn’t suited for abstract, conceptual work, so you need space to deeply focus when undertaking this challenging type of task. If, while you’re working, you see movement, hear nearby conversations, or notice other environmental changes around you, it can easily derail your train of thought.

(Shortform note: In Hyperfocus, Chris Bailey claims that our hunter-gatherer neurobiology not only explains why we’re so easily distracted in the wrong workspace but also why we’re so drawn to multitasking. Constantly noticing new stimuli in our environments helped keep our ancestors alive, so the brain rewards us with dopamine every time we start a new task. Thus, many of us like to constantly switch between multiple tasks while working. However, multitasking in this way makes each task take 50% more time than if it was our sole focus.)

Second, Paul recommends intentionally arranging and decorating your workspace according to your preferences. This improves your thinking in a few ways: Designing your workspace gives you a sense of ownership and control over it, which research shows makes you more confident, more focused, and more successful at accomplishing your goals. Additionally, decorating your workspace in ways that reflect your personality and values serves as a continuous reminder of what kind of person you are. This connection to your identity keeps you comfortable and psychologically healthy, which provides a significant boost to your productivity.

(Shortform note: Just because Paul advocates decorating your workspace with objects that reflect your identity doesn’t mean you should keep everything you enjoy on your desk. Instead, intentionally select just a few personal items so you can keep your workspace tidy and organized. Experts say that just as choosing how your desk is arranged gives you a productive sense of control, intentionally organizing your environment does, too. This is why organization guru Marie Kondo describes tidying up as “a life-changing art”—she claims that the tidying mindset of imposing your values with intention on the world can improve all areas of your life. Additionally, research shows that cluttered, disorganized environments actively drain your mental energy.)

Third, Paul states that your workspace should be as close to nature as possible. The brain interprets lush natural landscapes as safe and prosperous, so spending time in this kind of environment soothes and rejuvenates us. Aside from boosting your mood, spending time in nature will improve your focus and impulse control. Work within sight of lush greenery, if possible, whether that’s next to a window or near indoor plants. Furthermore, occasionally taking time to walk through a natural environment will give you nature’s psychological benefits for some time after you leave.

(Shortform note: In the workplace, even artificial plants have a positive effect on employee health—visually, they’re the same as real plants to the human brain, so they provide many of the benefits Paul describes. They also require much less maintenance than real plants. Outside of work, researchers claim that spending two hours a week in nature is enough to experience its health-boosting benefits. It doesn’t matter how that time is split up throughout the week, and spending more time than this in nature doesn’t seem to provide significant additional health benefits.)

Enhancing Cognition Using Other People

We’ve covered how to expand your thinking with the body and the physical world, taking advantage of the fact that our brains thrive in a tactile, physical environment. Now, let’s explore how to take advantage of the fact that our brains thrive in a social environment.

Here are three strategies for enhancing your thinking with the help of other people.

Strategy #1: Imitate Others

If you want to learn a new skill or accomplish a goal, Paul suggests closely imitating a highly skilled expert. Humans are naturally proficient imitators: As children, we learn everything about navigating the world by imitating those around us. Thus, imitating an established expert is one of the most effective ways to learn and succeed.

Strategic imitation involves more than mimicking exactly what someone else does—most of the time, imitation requires you to interpret experts’ actions and adjust them to suit your specific situation. To do this effectively, you must understand not only what the experts do but also why they’re doing it.

For example, if you want to become a sci-fi screenwriter, Paul might suggest writing a story that imitates Star Wars. If you just imitate it superficially and write a story about a farmer named Luke who befriends robots, your movie probably won’t be very good—because you don’t understand why Star Wars succeeded. However, if you dig deeper and imitate the qualities that make Luke Skywalker a compelling character, your story will be more likely to succeed.

According to Paul, once you master this kind of imitation, you can learn from a wide range of experts in fields that aren’t obviously connected to your work. For instance, if you’re elected to public office, you could study how successful investors decide which companies to bet on to learn how to make high-stakes decisions.

(Shortform note: In Range, David Epstein argues that the more superficially unrelated an analogical case study is (while still matching your situation at a deeper level), the more likely it is to spark creative, useful ideas. For example, if you’re elected to public office, you may want to study the decision-making of record label talent scouts or professional Magic: The Gathering players—something as far away from your role as possible, while still incorporating decision-making elements.)

When Imitating, Don’t Be Fooled by Randomness

It’s more difficult than it seems to learn by imitation. One reason for this is that you can never know for certain which decisions led to someone’s success. In Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues that we vastly underestimate the amount of randomness at play in the world; thus, when we see someone achieve wild success, it’s typically due more to luck than skill. When one person succeeds in a given field, we fail to consider the many more people who made the same decisions and still failed due to bad luck—this is a mental error called survivorship bias. Imitating these “experts” can lead us to copy useless behaviors and unwittingly overestimate how likely we are to succeed.

With this in mind, Taleb argues that success is more about mitigating the risks of failure than copying the skills of experts. To mitigate risks, first, recognize that anything you assume to be true might be totally incorrect. You can still try to deduce the deeper purpose behind experts’ decisions; just don’t be overconfident in your interpretations and consequently take unnecessary risks. Second, anticipate rare, random events as if they’re bound to happen. Because people underestimate the probability of improbable or “impossible” events, you can find success by being one of the few to correctly predict it.

Strategy #2: Enhance Your Thinking Through Teaching and Debate

We’ve previously established that it’s sometimes necessary to retreat into solitary thinking to work through your ideas without distraction. However, Paul explains that thinking with other people activates more complex parts of the brain than thinking alone, resulting in greater understanding, memory, and insight. Paul states that ideally, you should set an alternating schedule in which you budget time to think alone as well as think with others.

(Shortform note: In Deep Work, Cal Newport offers several schedules you can use to balance thinking in solitude and engaging with others: With the “bimodal” schedule, you set aside several days, weeks, or months at a time to do nothing but engage in deep solitary work, and then you engage with the world when you get back. With the “rhythmic” schedule, you block out several hours every day to do deep work, and you make it a daily habit. With the “journalistic” schedule, you make it a habit to engage in deep solitary work every time you get a few minutes to yourself.)

One way you can use social interaction to enhance understanding is by teaching someone else—Paul argues that you can often learn more by teaching than by receiving personal instruction. The social and emotional pressure that you feel when preparing to teach someone else powerfully motivates you to comprehend the material. Additionally, by considering how best to explain the material, you prompt yourself to synthesize a more refined understanding of the topic. Teaching someone face-to-face is ideal since you’re motivated by the satisfaction of watching your students benefit from your work. However, you get some cognitive benefits by recording yourself for others to watch later, too.

(Shortform note: This understanding of “learning through teaching” has valuable implications for management. In a workplace setting, you can accelerate skill acquisition by establishing a program for peer learning—in other words, by teaching your employees to teach each other how to improve their work. Set up opportunities for co-workers to share knowledge face-to-face. These could be one-on-one mentorship sessions or weekly meetings in which team members take turns presenting their knowledge regarding a specific, ongoing project.)

Another way you can increase the quality of your thought using others is through debate. Paul explains that we’re much better at spotting other people’s errors than our own. If there are any logical flaws in your thought process, your debate partner is more likely than you to notice and correct them. Additionally, you’re more motivated to refine your thinking and find more evidence to back up your claims when you know you’ll be defending your stance. For these reasons, constructive debate leads to more logically sound thinking on both sides.

Rules for Having the Most Constructive Debates

Framing a discussion as a debate improves both sides’ thinking; however, it also risks provoking unconstructive emotions. In a debate, both sides are tempted to achieve the satisfaction of winning, which may lead to bad-faith arguments and an unwillingness to compromise.

To hold the most constructive, productive debates possible, consider following “Rapoport’s rules”: a set of self-imposed rules for debate with roots in the psychology research of Carl Rogers. Rapoport’s rules aim to criticize an opponent’s argument while maintaining respect for them and finding mutually beneficial solutions to whatever you’re debating.

Rapoport’s rules, as articulated by philosopher Daniel Dennett, are:

• Attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”

• List any points of agreement (especially if they’re not matters of general or widespread agreement).

• Mention anything you’ve learned from your target.

• Only then can you say a word of rebuttal or criticism.

Strategy #3: Bond With a Team

Finally, Paul explains that we can enhance our thinking by bonding with a team. Our neurobiology changes drastically when we see ourselves as part of a group of people like us, in ways that often make it easier to accomplish goals. When you’re sufficiently bonded, you’ll have an easier time communicating with teammates, empathizing with them, and learning from them. When you’re in the same room as a team and working together to accomplish a task, that task feels more important, and you’ll deploy more focused attention to accomplish it.

(Shortform note: Although bonding with a team has many benefits, as Paul details, it also has a dark side. In The Lucifer Effect, Philip Zimbardo describes how humans’ morals are drastically shaped by their immediate surroundings. In particular, we instinctively sacrifice our individual morals to satisfy the expectations of those around us, especially those we see as part of the same group as us. Thus, bonding with a team can make you less likely to protest if the group wants you to do something immoral. Stay aware of this risk, and if necessary, leave your group to find one that shares your morals.)

There are many ways you can form these bonds with others—Paul asserts that just about anything that makes it feel like your team is one entity will activate your group-oriented cognitive skills. For example, you’ll naturally feel closer to your team if you all take your lunch breaks together or agree to wear casual attire on Fridays.

(Shortform note: In Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek claims that as a leader, you can promote this kind of productive, fulfilling group bonding by demonstrating to your subordinates that you’re putting their needs over your own. This is because the root of group bonding is the neurochemical oxytocin, which your brain releases when it senses that you can trust the people around you. Showing those around you that they can trust you gives them oxytocin, which encourages them to be more empathetic to their fellow team members. This creates a chain reaction of group bonding.)