Leaders need to get out of their heads. That’s the central message of this interview with acclaimed science writer and author of the Extended Mind Annie Murphy Paul. In this though provoking episode, Annie informs Jodah and Dan about the importance of feelings to thinking, how our bodies are important to our thinking process, how the physical spaces we work in impact our cognition, and how groups of people can effectively think better together. A fascinating episode perfect for executives and managers looking for new leadership tools and frameworks that involve the body, re-think physical workspaces, and build better teams able to engage in effective collective cognition.
ABOUT ANNIE MURPHY PAUL
Annie Murphy Paul is an acclaimed science writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American, and The Best American Science Writing, among many other publications. She is the author of Origins, The Cult of Personality, and now The Extended Mind. Senior writer at the Hidden Brain Podcast on NPR.
Annie Murphy Paul’s Contact:
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Jodah is late for the podcast because je’s taking a walk
01:32 – Why feelings are so important to thinking (Hint - Descartes was wrong)
04:30 – Expanding our understanding of thinking beyond the isolated brain
07:16 – Physical activity and thinking – movement a gesture augmenting or thinking
09:00 – Should leaders be taking more walks with their teams?
10:00 – The restorative power of nature
12:00 – Why you shouldn’t feel guilty for talking walks to stimulate thinking
13:00 – Negative impacts of mid-20th Century Cognitive Revolution – Brain is like a computer metaphor
15:00 – What is the source of consciousness and is consciousness too limiting a factor to our concept of mind?
18:00 – David Chalmers, Any Clarke, the extended mind, artificial intelligence, and human loppiness
19:20 – AI is another tool to help human thinking
20:00 – Non-conscious processing
22:05 – Stanislavski, arts, gesture, kinesthetic response, memory and thinking
34:30 – Social Introception – attuning your body to others
26:00 – What chimps can teach us about ourselves and leadership – especially non-verbal communication
28:57 – Workspaces and Zoom
30:00 – The loss of apprenticeship by osmosis due to remote work
31:00 – How do we balance the cognitive needs of workers – nature, remote work, om-person collaboration, urban congestion as companies like Amazon return to the offices
35:30 – Fatal flaw of the open office
37:30 – Effective open space team environments that use the physical space
41:35 – Transactive memory systems to find information
43:02 – Impact of cognitive offloading
46:00 – Cognitive apprenticeships, ChatBots, and Tutoring
48:00 – AI, decision making, empathy, and ruthlessness
51:50 – How to use cognitive apprenticeship to train staff
54:00 – Asymmetrical deals and meditation
57:22 – How to contact Annie Murphy Paul
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