After exploring some of the contemporary and historical manifestations of the idea that highly accomplished skills are automatic and effortless, the author develops a theory of expertise that emphasizes the role of the conscious mind in expert action. Along the way, she dispels various mythical accounts of experts who proceed without any understanding of what guides their action and analyzes research in both philosophy and psychology that is taken to show that conscious control impedes well practiced skills. She also explores real-life examples of optimal performance - culled from sports, the performing arts, chess, nursing, medicine, the military and elsewhere - and draws from psychology, neuroscience, and literature to create a picture of expertise according to which expert action generally is and ought to be thoughtful, effortful, and reflective.

Introduction : What can a philosopher tell you about expertise? -- 1. "Don't think, dear; just do" and other manifestations of the just-do-it principle -- 2. Just-do-it versus cognition-in-action -- 3. What is an expert? -- 4. Does thinking interfere with doing? -- 5. Thinking fast -- 6. Continuous improvement -- 7. You can't try too hard -- 8. Effortlessness with effort -- 9. The pleasure of movement and the awareness of the self -- 10. The aesthetic experience of expert movement -- 11. Intuition, rationality, and chess expertise -- 12. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, and the meaning of life.