The wandering mind : what the brain does when you're not looking

Summary: "The point of this piece of writing is to get you to pick up this book. But what if it takes us a few sentences to explain? What if we need to go into some detail? Are you even going to be paying attention by that point, or will your mind already have wandered off somewhere, not caring a whit about the book you're holding in your hand? It's pretty likely. In fact, some studies suggest that we spend as much as fifty percent of our waking life failing to focus on the task at hand. But does that represent a problem? Michael C. Corballis doesn't think so, and with The Wandering Mind, he shows us why, rehabilitating woolgathering and revealing its incredibly useful effects. Drawing on the latest research from cognitive science and evolutionary biology, Corballis shows us how mind-wandering not only frees us from moment-to-moment drudgery, but also from the limitations of our immediate selves. Mind-wandering strengthens our imagination, fueling the flights of invention, storytelling, and empathy that underlie our shared humanity; furthermore, he explains, our tendency to wander back and forth throught the timeline of our lives is fundamental to our very sense of ourselves as coherent, continuing personalities. Full of unusual examples and surprising discoveries, [this book] mounts a vigorous defense of inattention--even as it never fails to hold the reader's"--