A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

This sounds like a presentation in front of a live audience, with some Q&A or maybe even a staged interview after. Pink is an engaging, entertaining, and even enlightening speaker. His basic message, well supported, is that all activity capable of being routinized will eventually be outsourced to the burgeoning Asian populace. Therefore, creative right brain stuff is a better career choice: sculptors triumph over assemblers. I like to think it less extreme than that: the blend is best. Best to design the cellphone than assemble it. After all, how many sculptors can even a new mind economy support?

I'm guessing right-brainers won't "rule the future", "whole"-brainers (left and right sides used) will. This book reminds me of "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci" by Gelb. The "symphony" concept resonates with me - not analysis but synthesis - and reminds me of some aspects of systems thinking. The "meaning" concept I agree with, but it doesn't seem to fit as well with the rest of the concepts. For this transition to be successful (toward more right-brain thinking), it will require an increased respect for this kind of thinking - but historically left-brain skills have been better recognized and rewarded

I read this book because it was referred to in a book about the missional church I read (Hirsch and Ferguson's On the Verge). This book was better than that book.

The front cover bears the subtitle: " Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future." This is actually not Pink's contention at all and is likely something the publisher thought would help sell books. What Pink does say is that the left brain dominant activities like analysis, data crunching, etc., need to be balanced by right brain activities. Thus, we should develop our right-brain aptitudes so that we are using our 'whole brain' and not simply the right-brain instead of the left. So for him it isn't so much about right-brain dominance (contra the cover) as giving the rightbrain show more its due.

This is a business book and so Pink justifies his appeal to rightbrain aptitudes with a look at the bottomline. In his chapter, Abundance, Asia and Automation he explains his need to evoke the right brain for success in the future. Because of the abundance in our culture, people buy things that reflect their sense of beauty and personal taste rather than purely for their utility. Asia is significant because, increasingly companies are outsourcing to Asia for white collar jobs because they save a lot of money. By Automation, Pink means the ways in which computers are replacing many of the traditional left brain jobs (analysis, number crunching). With these realities impinging on job security, Pink asks you three questions: (1)Can someone overseas do it cheaper? (2) Can a computer do it faster? (3)Am I offering something that satisfies the nonmaterial, transcendent desires of an abundant age?

So what help can the right brain bring to our dilemma as we move from the left brain centured 'infomation age' to the Conceptual age? Pink suggests 6 senses (right brain aptitudes): Design, Story, Symphony (a more musical way of describing systems thinking), Empathy, Play, and Meaning.
Each section describes in detail how each of these can contribute to success and provides activities for increasing your aptitude or understanding of each of these 'senses.'

But in the end this book is a fun and easy read. I read it from cover to cover in almost one sitting. Some of its suggestions I may come back to.
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In A Whole New Mind, Pink argues that in an age of computers and outsourcing, as well as relative abundance at lost cost, what we think of as "right brain" behavior will be what gets us ahead in the business world. Specifically, Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning, will be ways in which you can gain ground in a world that no longer has to be purely logical and utilitarian, since we have more time and more money to concentrate on aesthetics. He uses left brain/right brain as a metaphor, while emphasizing that a holistic approach is important.

I first heard of this book when I was reading a professional journal talking about what librarianship was going to be like in the future. The author suggested reading this book to get show more an idea of the qualities that we would need to have to be relevant in an increasingly electronic age. I read thinking about ways in which this is true: we make connections between books, movies, mood, a particular reader (Symphony), and we definitely need Empathy to figure out what kind of information someone is looking for, or finding the right book for someone whose taste is completely different from my own. I definitely have some food for thought about my profession.

At the same time, I discovered a lot about myself while I was reading. I found that I am very logical, analytic, and detail-oriented in my approach. Unlike many people (apparently), I have an easier time remembering random facts than stories. I found that I have a tendency towards a "male" brain - that is, tending towards logic, and not as good at reading facial expressions (I kind of knew that already, but some of the exercises in the book just confirmed that for me). Also, I like the Three Stooges just fine, which apparently is also more of a male tendency. On the other hand, I connected a lot more with his chapters on Play and Meaning, and these were the two chapters that I was most intrigued by his list of activities designed to help you stretch that sense in your own mind. Unfortunately, the stories and arguments Pink uses become repetitive after awhile, especially if you're reading several chapters in one sitting. Still, his ideas provide excellent food for thought, and I've added a few more books to read as a result. show less

I like the ideas in this book more than I like the book itself. I found Pink's writing style somewhat pedestrian, but the whole "right-brained thinking" is such a profoundly intriguing idea, that he wins me over in spite of himself. Pink's premise is that the more creative and innovative parts of our thought processes will be the engine that drives the U.S. ahead into the 21st century.

The book has become au courrant in the Independent School world and lots of people are trying to design school programs that cater to Pink's ideas. I worry that this may be a bit of a trendy bandwagon and it would be easy to go overboard. Still, I'm glad to see that the arts are being given a second life, so to speak, with this trend.

This is one of those squishy, fuzzy books that pushes a supposed earth-shattering idea but doesn't quite back it up. More's the pity, for I really liked - and embraced - the concepts of Pink's later book, Drive. Pink does tell a good story, and it's a feel-good one at that, but he's wrong - Right-brainers will not rule the future...unless we're talking a few hundreds of years in the future, and then who knows?. The revolution can't get any traction here, and in Asia, the culture raises obstacles the Western mind doesn't factor in.

It does seem that I'm a lot more "right-brained" than I thought/think. Who'd a thunk it?

There's hope for touchy-feely folk like me, according to Pink and his analysis of work in the 21st century. No more apologizing for my right-brained leanings or feeling confused by the learned left-brain survival tactics that have kept me "respectable" as an academic. Now, all I need to do is figure out how the left and right come together for me in a better professional iteration and my whole new mind.