The World Beyond Your Head

On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction

By: Matthew B. Crawford

Narrated by: Robert Fass

In his bestselling book Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford explored the ethical and practical importance of manual competence, as expressed through mastery of our physical environment. In his brilliant follow-up, The World Beyond Your Head, Crawford investigates the challenge of mastering one's own mind.

We often complain about our fractured mental lives and feel beset by outside forces that destroy our focus and disrupt our peace of mind. Any defense against this, Crawford argues, requires that we reckon with the way attention sculpts the self.

Crawford investigates the intense focus of ice hockey players and short-order chefs, the quasi-autistic behavior of gambling addicts, the familiar hassles of daily life, and the deep, slow craft of building pipe organs. He shows that our current crisis of attention is only superficially the result of digital technology, and becomes more comprehensible when understood as the coming to fruition of certain assumptions at the root of Western culture that are profoundly at odds with human nature.

The World Beyond Your Head makes sense of an astonishing array of common experience, from the frustrations of airport security to the rise of the hipster. With implications for the way we raise our children, the design of public spaces, and democracy itself, this is a book of urgent relevance to contemporary life.

©2015 Matthew B. Crawford (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

Excellent philosophy.

More detail oriented than "shop class as soulcraft" but as usual, Crawford delivers a well perceived and articulated view of the work we live in by examining our work ethic and, in this particular book, our interactions with others and culture.

What a world view

Stick with this ... It requires your attention, and, at the same time, helps you understand how to employ your attention in the world. You've heard countless simplistic criticisms of our technology obsessions. This is is a sophisticated account of how letting technologies mediate our interactions with the world distanced us from real living.

Almost—but not quite—beyond my head!

My brain is still reeling! It's ironic because this book, about attention, made it painfully obvious to me that I need to put some attention into my listening and comprehension skills!

It's not beyond me intellectually, but there is so much information going by at a good clip that it doesn't all sink in in one listen. So I think what I need to do is buy it in print, so I can re-read certain sections more slowly.

The narrator did a fabulous job. (I have watched the author in interviews and his speaking is way less engaging than the narrator!) His and rhythm were perfect—naturalistic and expressive and inflected with humour in all the right places. So it is not his fault that my retention is poor; it is my own brain I blame, in this age of distraction.

This book is brilliant. And it's like a hybrid of Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent" and something by Oliver Sacks. I hope that Matthew Crawford gets the accolades he deserves.

Excellent and insightful

Very interesting account of the importance of being situated in life. Linking various topics and theories (and motorbikes and pipe organs) the author describes a very interesting discussion on why attention is so important

Another great book from Matthew Crawford

Lots of interesting points and thought provoking arguments. Definitely worth your time and money. Well read. Pleasure to listen to.

Will re-read

Was required to read this for my philosophy class, and I will admit I got lost quite often while listening/reading. Interesting content, but I would like to read/listen again when I’m not forced to do so for a grade lol takes the fun out of it.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Things/Aware People?

I read Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work years ago and loved it. I was enamored of his story. His last book was about excellence, work, education, and engaging in a philosophy of work and empowering the type of education that enables students to have choices beyond the Ivory Tower.

In this his newest book, this PhD in political philosophy, motorcycle repairman, looks at our attention. And how we can get beyond our own heads and the active distractions that jockey for our attention through things (tools, interactions with the world) and people (real people, not their representations). He argues that the individual can't be viewed removed from her environment. Unlike Kant or Descartes, Crawford doesn't believe man can be moral or an individual without others, without in fact interacting with things and others.

Best parts of this book are the sections on virtual reality. I recently returned from a trip to MIT's Age Lab where I saw first-hand robotic seals used to treat patients with Parkinson's and Alzheimers. I drove MIT Agelab's AwareCar which they use to measure how different things make drivers distracted (think iWatch vs. iPhone). It was weird to think of the overlap between car's being manufactured to remove our need for attention (remote controlled breaking and paternalistic cameras) and studies being done to help us to make cars that at once are less distracting and at the same time allow us to distract ourselves more. It becomes a weird circle that ends in oblivion or a car wreck.

Another chapter I loved was the chapter on Vegas and gambling. How addictions and our attention interact and how big corporation feed off of that interaction. I loved the section he focused on David Foster Wallace, especially his books This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life and The Pale King. Books that looked at how we use our attention and the bliss we can achieve through boredom. I though his take on Wallace was certainly worth the price of admission on that section.

Finally, I loved the long pre-epilogue chapter on the Organ Maker's Shop. I have an uncle, or actually my wife has an uncle, who makes and repairs organs and this chapter seemed to be a good illustration and summary of his whole thesis. The shop was interesting and it served well to summarize his thesis and his solution to how to achieve individuality in this world of multiple, hard-core distractions.

So, in general, I liked this book. Unfortunately, I wanted to like it even more. If you are going to try to write a book that engages with a critique of Kant, Descartes, and the liberalism they created, you are going to need to bring your A-game. Crawford brought his B-game in my opinion. There were, however, moments of genius (or wicked genius), like this quote:

"The basic design intention guiding Mercedes the last ten years seems to be that its cars should offer psychic blow jobs to the affluent. Just sit back, relax, and think something pleasing. The eyes take on a faraway glaze. As for the other drivers, there is a certain ...lack of mutuality."

So, despite the genius of sentences like this, I just wanted MORE from it. I wanted a bit more depth, a bit more precision, a bit more time. This pipe just seemed like it was blown too soon.

A mind-expanding exploration of a changing society

The narrator was superb, dealing with a sometimes involved and somewhat academic material. He always held my interest, and his intimation and clarity helped me understand not only the words but the concepts.

The book led my imagination and intellect to wander and soar over many matters of interest about how people of today interact with each other, society, and reality.

After listening to the book I ordered a Kindle copy to review at my own pace.

Complicated but Worth It

Would you consider the audio edition of The World Beyond Your Head to be better than the print version?

I think so. The author weaves complex (to me) narrative about how modern society can impact the way you view and process the world. Having this book narrated assisting me in understanding it.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoy philosophy books during my yearly reading list. I would not consider my self a student or a philosopher by any definition but I enjoy revisiting the philosophies I enjoyed as an undergraduate student years ago. This book bring to life the philosophies of Stoicism, Epricurianism and other ancient approaches to life. It makes them relevant and for that simple reason I thought it was terrific.

Have you listened to any of Robert Fass’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not. I thought he did a capable hob, I enjoyed his narration.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I got a bit lost during parts of his polemic. This is probably due my lack of grounding in some of the reference material. This is good in the fact that this book was an intellectual "reach" for me, and I enjoyed the overall approach the author took. It helped me view current technology, my use of it and my ability to process information in a new way. I appreciated the authors insight, and I thought he wrote in an accessible manner.

Any additional comments?

If you are a non-philosopher looking for a modern day application of philosophical thought I think you will enjoy this book.

Phenomenology for the modern era.

Best contemporary philosophy / phenomenology author I've ever read (so far). Liked "Shop Class" more but this was a great read as well.