Up: [[Place]] Created: 2026-01-24 Updated: 2026-01-25 I know that all kinds of people, including many famous authors, swear by coffee shops as their invaluable writing homes. What I don’t think I’ve heard is what kinds of writing, or what stages of the writing process, work in a coffee shop environment. According to research reported in *The Extended Mind* by Annie Murphy Paul, it is the wrong place for any cognitively demanding work. The reasons make sense: - Our brains evolved to continually monitor our immediate environments for novelty and social interaction. Hearing others talking distracts us because we will quite naturally listen to see if we can make sense of what’s being said. - Music can be beneficial or a problem. It’s a problem if there are lyrics for the same reason as above, and a problem if instrumental that is high intensity, has a fast tempo, and varies frequently. Whether talk or music, the argument is that they compete for mental resources so there is less brainpower available to do cognitively demanding work. It isn’t specified just what would qualify as “cognitively demanding” so maybe writing is generally fine. Or maybe it’s dependent on your personality. I’m someone who needs silence when writing. I would not do well in a coffee shop for anything other than a journal entry. > [!user] Annie Murphy Paul in *The Extended Mind: The power of thinking outside the brain* > Chapter 5: Thinking with Built Spaces, pages 121-124