Summary of Matthew B. Crawford's The World Beyond Your Head

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 The concept of a jig can be extended beyond its original context of manual fabrication. It can be applied to any environment where a repeated action is required, and it helps reduce the degrees of freedom that are afforded by the environment.

#2 The expert constantly rearranges items to make it easy for them to track the task, figure out what to do next, and predict the effects of their actions. They do this by seeding the environment with attention-getting objects or arranging the environment to keep attention away from something.

#3 High-level performance is a matter of being well situated. When we watch a cook who is hitting his flow, we see someone inhabiting the kitchen – a space for action that has become an extension of himself.

#4 Our capacity for advanced cognition depends on environmental props, such as a pencil and paper. Our moral capacities are also highly scaffolded by environmental props, such as laws and cultural practices.