A book about the brain that can profoundly change your life

The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul

Fortepan / Urbán Tamás

Whenever a blogger or newsletter writer praises printed books – as many authors on Substack do, and like I did last week – an inherent contradiction lingers: Why read the post in the first place and, well, not a book? This is why this article will be a simple, short book recommendation—not even a review. All I want to do is suggest a book that, despite its success, undeservedly stays below the radar: The Extended Mind by science writer Annie Murphy Paul, first published in 2021.

It’s not a book trying to impress with a seductive but one-sided and overblown idea. However, it succinctly organizes material from multiple fields with the help of a compelling yet nuanced framework. It’s also not a self-help book promising lots of supposedly life-changing hacks. Nonetheless, it offers more practical and specific takeaways than most similar books. It cites a large number of studies by cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists and is still vividly and beautifully written.

Rethinking thinking

The book’s main idea is based on a philosophical position by Andy Clark and David Chalmers, claiming that cognition is not limited to the brain. You can find an introduction and discussion of their „extended mind thesis“ at Dan Ackerfeld’s Essay Club. Furthermore, Murphy Paul’s book is a constructive reaction to the wildly debated evolutionary mismatch theory, which claims that previously advantageous traits of human beings can become maladaptive due to rapid historical and cultural change. Here’s how she combines both approaches and makes them useful:

„The brain evolved for survival in a very different era to the one we live in today, and the tasks our brains evolved to solve are so different from the tasks we are expected to do now. To more fully utilize our learning potential, we can extend the mind by utilizing the body, physical spaces, relationships with other people, and material objects.“

In her book, Murphy Paul unfolds the idea that we „think outside the brain“ in a way that can help readers use „extra-neural resources“ intentionally and skillfully. Deeply rooted in human nature, assisted, embedded, embodied, and connected cognition offers opportunities to pay attention, process information, recognize patterns, comprehend abstract concepts, remember, persist at challenging tasks, and create better.

Thinking with tools and technologies

The book does not dedicate a particular chapter to material objects, but Murphy Paul makes clear that things are an essential „extra-neural resource.“ For example, notebooks and computers help offload thoughts to ensure they will not be forgotten while freeing the mind to focus on a single problem or task. She elaborates on this aspect in one of her Substack articles.

Thinking with physical spaces

Situated cognition includes both the stimulating effect the natural environment can have on the brain and the design of physical surroundings in a way that is beneficial to thinking. For example, new evidence shows that arrangements and affordances that enable „a sense of ownership and control“ result in better work than settings that don’t.

Thinking with the body

The chapter on embodied cognition deals with topics like gut feelings, hand gestures, and walking. For example, the century-old idea of many philosophers that walking helps thinking now has scientific backing.

Thinking with relationships

Finally, there is „distributed cognition,“ a term that highlights interactive aspects of mental activities. Imitating, teaching, and debating, among other things, all support thinking more intelligently.

Applying extra-neural resources

Anny Murphy Paul argues that the core idea of her book „to think with“ (that is, engage entities external to our head) instead of desperately trying „to think harder“ (inside the skull) has „enormous implications for what we do in education, in the workplace, and in our daily lives.“

„We do not only need to cultivate the brain; we need to cultivate the brain’s capacity to extend itself with all the resources at hand.“

This is it. All I wanted to do was give you a taste. Now, it’s up to you to support an independent, local book dealer, buy this revelatory book, and read it. Let me know how it changed your life.