Based on the "Thinking Outside the Brain" subtitle alone this could've easily been some schlocky corporate fad book. Thankfully, I heard about The Extended Mind via a recommendation so I was prepared for its thesis to be so much more. And it was.

To my delight, I learned that I naturally developed some of these "thinking" habits over the course of my adult life. One of my preferred methods, also outlined here and much to the annoyance of my wife, is that when I disagree with someone I don't try to win the argument but instead try to understand the logic of their argument. I do this by asking question after question after question. If this hypothetical person does not enjoy debate, then my method may not be ideal. But it's a remarkable way to see the argument from a different point of view.

The book also employs a subtle push towards embracing the realities of our interconnected digital world. We no longer live in small communities isolated by distance. Our ability to connect with one another around the world, instantly, has contributed to all manner of good and bad outcomes that wouldn't have been possible in our pre-connected world. Given this reality, and given the rise of smarter machines invading our lives, it's become more imperative than ever to supplement how we think using methods outside of our minds. ( )

There’s good material here, but I didn’t care for the writing; I found it awkward and even misleading at times. Her point is that the mind relies on the local environment, tools, social connections, etc — things outside of the brain. Fine. But in the first section, where she’s discussing what most people would call gut instinct, she rightly says that it’s wise to pay attention to it - and then writes as if people get “the chills” or whatever purely from their body. But of course, you get bodily reactions because of the brain itself (maybe a part disconnected from your self-awareness, but still…). So really, paying attention to your gut reactions isn’t a matter of a brain “listening” to the body, as the author writes, but is more in truth a part of the brain listening to another part of the brain, via paying attention to bodily reactions. A small thing, but acting as if the body “is aware” of things like a threatening sight is absurd, and she goes upon that track for quite a while. Who knows, maybe there’s an optic nerve that goes straight to sweat glands, but I’m doubting it. Anyway, there is a lot of interesting stuff in the book, but in my opinion the writing is a little more “fast and loose” than I expect from good science writing. ( )

Fine book about the connections between our mind and the spaces around us. The author expains the research behind new visions of the brain discussing research into how the brain connects with the world outside of the body. I found it to be an interesting and engrossing read. ( )

Please follow the link to my blog for the review.

https://polymathtobe.blogspot.com/2022/02/book-review-extended-mind-by-annie.htm... ( )

Much of this book reads like chapters which hoard together the results of various scientific papers Paul has read in order to construct an argument. In other words it is heavily second order and derivative.

However it is very worth reading the Conclusion. Here she summarises the ways in which we are well served by thinking of the mind as functioning not like a machine or a computer, but rather as an organ which is made smarter by its extensions in the physical and social contexts in which it is embedded. You are smarter in beautiful natural settings, you will think more clearly in your lovely wooden panelled office, you will be aided by writing a journal as a way of making your thinking an artifact in the outside world, teach face to face in a social setting as a way of learning...

This way of understanding the mind has an interesting corollary for me. Which is that the spaces we live in will motivate us more if they are beautiful and personally meaningful. Architecture and design are not just frills, as the ancient Romans and the English aristocracy knew. Louis Kahn the American architect said, "If you look at the Baths of Caracalla … we all know that we can bathe just as well under an eight-foot ceiling as we can under a 150-foot ceiling … [but] there's something about a 150-foot ceiling that makes a different kind of man." Its strange as recently I had been looking at images of the original Penn station in New York as it was modelled the bathes of Caracalla. Its an enobling space with its vast pillars and 50 metre tall coffered ceiling and it was a tragedy that they knocked it down in the sixties. I was having a shower at my gym in my little shower cubicle and closed my eyes and imagined being in a cauldarium (hot tub) in the Roman thermae instead, perhaps regarding a marble statue of Hercules as I soaked in the warm water and chatted with someone. When I read the above quote by Kahn I thought: that's it exactly - that 'makes a different kind of man'. Taking the concept of the extended mind seriously will make us take the spaces we think and work and relax in more seriously and not just as interchangeable units and backdrops.