The Extended Mind

Our brain is not a fixed mass that we have to live with. It can be transformed. Annie Murphy Paul's new book The Extended Mind filled me with ideas about how I could transform my brain.

To make my newsletter more accessible, I have created an audio version of this post. Listen to me reading it out or skip it and read it for yourself.

The brain is not what you think it is

As a kid, I once climbed a tree to take a close look at the abandoned nest of a bird. The nest was built out of dry leaves, twigs, pieces of cloth, cotton and two pieces of electric wires. The bird's nest is a great way to understand the human brain.

It is not like the hard disk of your laptop that determines the capability of the laptop. Our brain's powers can be extended like the external drives and USB drives we use to improve our laptop.

Annie Murphy Paul has been writing about what makes us who we are. Her previous book, The Cult of Personality Testing showed how popular personality tests like MBTI, MMPI etc are being wrongly used in custody battles and hiring people. <read a review>

In The Extended Mind she explores how we can leverage our body, the spaces in which we work and our relationships to our advantage.

Many ways to extend your mind

In The Extended Mind, Annie talks about three big ways in which we can transform our thinking. She uses tonnes of scientific research to show that "we think best when we think with our bodies, our spaces, and our relationships."

... the gestures of the hands, the space of a sketchbook, the act of listening to someone tell a story, or the task of teaching someone else. 

Using the body, space and people

She uses three fields of study to support her case.

1. Embodied cognition, which explores the role of the body in our thinking 
2. Situated cognition, which examines the influence of place on our thinking 
3. Distributed cognition, which probes the effects of thinking with others

Making hand gestures increases the fluency of our speech and deepens our understanding of abstract concepts. Using hand gestures to clarify, specify, and elaborate on our speech can improve the audience’s comprehension. Exercise works wonders for improving the understanding of abstract concepts.

Pro Tip:

When on Zoom, make sure your hand gestures are visible. 

When we speak or teach a class on Zoom, only the speaker's face is usually visible. If the audience can also follow the speaker's gestures, they would feel more engaged. The speakers who use hand gestures, speak more fluently. Try it.

The space where we work

Activity-based-working is a term that different tasks need to be performed in different kind of work-spaces. Connecting with other teams, rooms to take virtual meetings or phone booths, and using quiet spaces to focus can dramatically impact productivity. Here are eight kinds of activity-based spaces suggested. Contrary to popular belief, open offices do not increase collaboration.

Research has found that employees have fewer and more superficial work-related conversations in open-offices, because they are wary of discussing delicate matters in the open. As employers cautiously reopen offices, they may want to explore how the same space can be remodelled to reflect different activity patterns.

We think with our relationships

The most powerful segment of The Extended Mind lies in the last segment where Annie explores how experts, peers and groups can shape our thinking. Here are a few ideas I loved and connected with:

Idea: Copy the expert

I learnt to draw by copying the cartoons of the late RK Laxman (see my version of Laxman's mascot).

I taught myself how to draw by imitating cartoonists like Mario Miranda and Ajit Ninan. I used to spend hours trying to replicate the drawings of Satyajit Ray. While my drawings are not great, it certainly was enough to get me started.

Idea: Copy what other industries do to solve similar problems

Airlines and hospitals have routinely taught each other how to make aeroplanes and hospitals safer. The “sterile cockpit rule” forbids pilots from engaging in conversation unrelated to the immediate business of flying when the plane is below ten thousand feet. Hospitals have learnt from this and created “no-interruptions zone” around medication preparation areas. Nurses who are administering medication, wear special vests or sashes signalling that they are not to be disturbed. 

The book has just been released and I strongly recommend that you get hold of a copy for yourself. The book is packed with ideas that have been proven with research.

Don't forget to check out her website <click this> and follow her on Twitter @AnnieMurphyPaul.

I will be discussing "Is Copying an Expert An Effective Learning Strategy" on the Mentza app at 7pm IST on Tuesday 15th June 2021. Just download the Mentza app for your phone and here is the joining link

https://on.mentza.com/circles/1420

THE BIG NEWS...

Annie Murphy Paul will be doing a LinkedIn Live with me on Wednesday 16 June 2021 at 7pm IST ie Wednesday 9:30am Eastern Time. Leave a comment and tell me what questions you would ask Annie. Follow me on LinkedIn; Twitter & Mentza

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