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A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age
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Sales rank 33,589
Customers rating (based on 296 reviews)
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Lawyers. Accountants. Radiologists. Software engineers. That's what our parents encouraged us to become when we grew up. But Mom and Dad were wrong. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind. The era of "left brain" dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which "right brain" qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate. That's the argument at the center of this provocative and original book, which uses the two sides of our brains as a metaphor for understanding the contours of our times. In the tradition of Emotional Intelligence and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Daniel H. Pink offers a fresh look at what it takes to excel. A Whole New Mind reveals the six essential aptitudes on which professional success and personal fulfillment now depend, and includes a series of hands-on exercises culled from experts around the world to help readers sharpen the necessary abilities. This book will change not only how we see the world but how we experience it as well.
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| Publisher | Riverhead Hardcover | | Release date | 03/2005 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
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 Strong case for change
Frankly, this book has become one of the most popular and most cited works to make a case that the world of business in the global economy of the 21st Century has changed dramatically. Pink makes a lucid case for the fact that routine activities taught through mass production forms of education, even advanced tasks such as reading X-rays, will increasingly be either automated or shipped to a low cost labor force in some emerging country. The level of technology and interconnection today makes this inevitable. If you don't believe that, or you are one of the many people who just don't have enough contact with day-to-day business dynamics to see this in action, Pink's book is a good way to stimulate your perspective.
While the book makes a case for the need to change, it suffers from the same limitation of all the books I have seen on this topic: it provides little or no direction for what to do about the changes--except in a very broad conceptual sense. Please don't interpret that as a slam on the book -- it does what it does well. Just don't expect to find too many answers here once the book peaks your interest to do something different. Of course, there are not many good places to go today for such answers, so this book has a place. There is an associated video of Pink giving a talk that is also very good in terms of making the case in an entertaining fashion.
 A Insightful Look to How Valuable Will Be Created
I have always been a big fan of Emotional Quotient. This book deals with the shift in the world from a left side of the brain to a right side of the brain. The author does this with creating a new reality through more of an emotional and intuitive approach. As some of the simple, yet complex skills are being outsourced to other places in the world, the employee must adapt with creativity. The people who have the ability to sense and see that which is not yet will be the most valuable workers in the coming generations. The book deals with the theory but one of the best aspects is the practical section at the end of each skill. The author provides some helpful resources to follow up with on implementing the talent. One of the most interesting sections is on how to see empty space. He will give books to read that will help with reading people and emotions and how to create and craft a story. The book is well written and a good read.
Fantastic
This is a brilliant book that makes left-brain oriented thinkers rethink. The world is changing rapidly and Pink explains how the 3 A's (abundance, automation and Asia) will continue to change how people live and work. He then explores more complex right-brained "senses" and provides meaningful steps that one can take to help refine them. A must-read.
A Quick and Engaging Read
In his book, A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink shines a light on the bleak reality facing knowledge workers in the 21st century. Pink opens by explaining the forces causing knowledge workers in the West to compete, and loose, with workers in emerging economies as repetitive tasks are automated or exported to low-cost centers. Throughout the rest of the book, Pink presents six skills (senses he calls them) which he claims will enable the knowledge workers in the developed world to maintain a home-field advantage based on creativity and innovation.
The key senses Pink identifies are Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. Pink explains by developing one's brain to build strength in these areas, more value can be discovered in traditional right-brain focused endeavors. Pink presents how he was able to gain and self-discover in these areas and provides references to outside sources. He has chosen to do this is in a rather unique way. First, he presents an argument for the particular sense. This is usually backed-up with research and an interview with an expert in the field. Pink relays his own personal experiences were applicable. Pink's own stories range from taking a drawing class to walking labyrinths to joining a laughter group. After justifying the key senses, Pink presents a section called Portfolio where resources and concrete, take-away advice are provided for the reader.
While some people might be put off by the subtitle Why Right-Brainers will Rule the Future, potential readers must understand that Pink is not excluding left-directed, logical/linear thinkers from leading prosperous lives in the future. In fact, Pink spends most of the book's pages presenting techniques to unlock a whole-brained thought method. This ties back into main title of the book. Pink is really presenting ideas to move the user away from the left-directed thinking taught in most schools towards using both hemispheres equally.
Where the book does fall short is that it fails to adequately address that whole-brained thinking is not proprietary to a Western Culture attempting to keep jobs on-shore. I feel strongly that design-thinking and good designs must come within the culture its creations are to serve. Indian car designers will not be successful selling one of their designs in North America or Europe. Likewise, car designers sitting in Detroit will miss the nuances of the Indian automobile market and also fail to deliver a compelling product. I use this as an example because it shows that whole-brained, design thinking is regional and not proprietary to the West. If someone was going to read this book and believe that whole-brained thinking would save them in the world economy, I am afraid they would be disappointed. What reading this book is will accomplish is making that knowledge worker more relevant within their own market. This might not seem like a lot, but there are always positions which must remain close to the market and close to the customer. Those positions are difficult to replicate in a low-cost center.
This book should be on the short list of must-reads for aspiring engineers and product developers. If anything, it adds to the knowledge worker's toolkit and gives a junior engineer something to aspire towards in how they approach innovation and creativity. In a time of relatively bleak job security outlooks in a Friedman-esque flat world, Pink's book allows the reader to realize that what goes on between their ears is within their control. Creative skills can be learned and enhanced, even in the most right-directed brain. A Whole New Mind is not a perfect solution, but it gives the reader a jumping-off point for further self-discovery in support of a career focused on innovation.
Just might make you look at the rest of your life differently !
Brilliant! The sort of book that just might make you sit up and look at the rest of your life differently!
Daniel Pink writes about the right brain faculties which will be critical in order to thrive in the future; a future where your product and service offerings need to appeal to the aesthetic sensibilities of the buyers who dismiss features and quality as merely the price of entry to the market; a future where globalization implies that if it can be done overseas, so it will be; a future where automation is law and medicine.
Several years ago, Betty Edwards' "Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain" brought to our awareness the distinction of the nonlinear, intuitive right brain vs the sequential, logical left brain through her best selling book that spoke to artists. Daniel Pink's book brings it closer to businesses.
The book makes the case that the future belongs to pattern recognizers, meaning maker, empathizers. I say it always did. Arguably the seismic shifts of globalization, automation and emphasis on aesthetics in current times have made the need for right brain qualities more pronounced than ever.
Left brained capabilities are necessary but no longer sufficient; those that possess a `whole new mind' will reap the richest rewards says Pink. The book is in itself an excellent demonstration of a wholesome combination of right brained and left brained faculties ; it is excellent story telling never losing sight of the big picture, chapter after chapter analytically and sequentially building the case.
Pink spells out six essential `aptitudes' to master in order to achieve the `whole new mind' - design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. And goes onto spend a chapter on each. Here below is my fast forward through the six chapters.
Design as in going beyond function and utility. Ability to tell stories that include context and delivered with emotional impact will become important in the conceptual age to distinguish your products and services. Being able to put the pieces by recognizing patterns is Symphony. Understanding what makes others tick, to create relationships is empathy. Play refers to the laughter and lightheartedness that leads to creativity. Meaning is our quest for a purpose in what we do.
I can relate the trends in the software services industry that I come from to each of the six aptitudes Pink talks about. Increased emphasis on the end-user experience, empathy for the user's needs to address their needs, big picture thinking around system architecture, need for leaders to grasp what makes the software engineers tick are all trends we see unfolding as we speak. The need for humor to enhance creativity and man's eternal quest for meaning from work are applicable to any industry.
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