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| A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel H. Pink
Publisher: Amazon Remainders Account
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.36
You Save: $9.59 (38%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  196 reviews
Sales Rank: 248472
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 0.9
ASIN: B000GUJHD0
Publication Date: March 24, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Lawyers. Accountants. Software engineers. That’s what Mom and Dad encouraged us to become. They were wrong. Gone is the age of “left-brain” dominance. The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers—creative and empathic “right-brain” thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t. Drawing on research from around the advanced world, Daniel Pink outlines the six fundamentally human abilities that are essential for professional success and personal fulfillment—and reveals how to master them. From a laughter club in Bombay, to an inner-city high school devoted to design, to a lesson on how to detect an insincere smile, A Whole New Mind takes listeners to a daring new place, and offers a provocative and urgent new way of thinking about a future that has already arrived.
“This book is a miracle. Completely original and profound.” — Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence
“A very important, convincingly argued and mind-altering book.” — Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do With My Life?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 191 more reviews...
 Excellent diagnosis, but insufficient & incomplete solutions April 7, 2005
428 out of 478 found this review helpful
The title of the book is very appropriate. For the age that we are in, we need a whole new mind. However, the book promised a mansion, but ended up giving us an apartment. It begins like a Porsche, but ended like a VW Beetle. The author correctly diagnosed the disease of Abundance, Asia, and Automation, but prescribed the wrong medicine of six right-brain-directed (R-Directed) aptitudes.
To the author's credit, he is the first that succinctly diagnosed the major problems the Western countries are facing: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. Most people, including intellectuals and high government officials are in the coma state of not sensing the lethal effects of offshore outsourcing of high-tech jobs and R&D to the fundamental wellbeing of U.S. and other Western countries, nor the consequence of automating white collar jobs by the ever more powerful computer hardware and software. This is the first book that I know of that sounded the alarm to the great masses of the coming sea change. For this, the author ought to be congratulated.
The author has a vision that we are moving from Information Age to Conceptual Age. He said that if we have a whole new mind, we can have an economy and society that are built on the inventive, empathic and big-picture capabilities. He stresses that the main characters now are the creator and the empathizer. He argues that we need to move from high tech to high concept and high touch. These are all great ideas. However, the strategies that the author prescribed through the six R-Directed aptitudes, which consist most of the book, while adequate to battle Abundance and Automation, is hardly sufficient to overcome Asia. There are several major shortcomings to the book:
First and foremost, these six R-Directed aptitudes are not the sole possessions of the Western countries. Asian countries have them, too, and can probably master them just as well. The author seemed to forget to constantly validate his assumptions against the three questions he must answer. One of them was: Can someone overseas do it cheaper? This author has a dangerous underestimation of foreigners: "Sure. They can do low-level programming and accountancy but we still come up with the innovation and creativity." He did not notice that R&D are moving overseas to the foreign countries. For this, see http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_12/b3925611.htm for more detail.
Secondly, how does the author know that these six R-Directed aptitudes are the most essential of all possible right-brain aptitudes? He never showed research evidences for these aptitudes are indeed the most important.
Thirdly, the six R-Directed aptitudes are highly subjective, social-dependent and culture-dependent. For example, design is highly culture-dependent. What is deemed elegant and tasteful design in a culture may be offensive to another. A beautiful design to you may be an average one to me. Take another aptitude, story, as another example: the contents of stories are highly culture-dependent. A story that makes sense in one culture may not make sense to another.
Fourthly, the result of developing these aptitudes, if developed to the full extent, is the further fragmentation of our world, for we have divide ourselves into smaller and smaller subjective realms. A side consequence is the fragmentation of the market for goods and services.
Above all, the solution proposed by the author is not going to be able to solve the problem of "Can someone overseas do it cheaper?"
In summary, the author deserves 3 stars for correctly diagnosed the problems, but gave the very incomplete solutions. However, I would encourage the author to continue to search for the solutions for Abundance, Asia, and Automation.
Upbeat, but overly simplistic view of globalization May 11, 2005
174 out of 213 found this review helpful
Pink is absolutely right: creativity and innovation
will be a boon for post-industrial, post-information
age workers now that countries like China and India
can produce cheaper knowledge workers.
However, the economics of supply and demand will simply
do the same to this new conceptual age worker that
it did to programmers and MBAs.
Once the economy is flooded with talented designers and
creative personnel, the market will correct and wages
will fall. And many creative and brilliant "whole brain"
workers will become yet again another glut of talent.
In the end, the market favors no whole class of worker but
rather the most unique and talented of a class. And this
has always been the case.
 Simplistic but Useful Guide to Global Dialog October 20, 2005
56 out of 69 found this review helpful
>
This book, like Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself is written for people who live in an ivory tower, a gated community, or a corporate palace. It is completely out of touch with the 90% of humanity that is comprised of the Working Poor in America, or the destitute and disenfranchised everywhere else. For that it loses one star.
However, and this is high praise from me, it is a "must read" for any knowledge worker, and I am particularly recommending it to the new breed of warrior in the U.S. Government, the Information Operations specialist. A **major** part of our government's failure at foreign policy and national security--including its failure at homeland security and its mis-steps in the global war on terror, going back to the Viet-Nam era, can be traced to a combination of excessive reliance on "metrics" (remember the "body counts?") diluted by ideological preferences absent historical or cultural contexts.
This book, while simplistic, is a superb over-view of the alternative methods of **perception**, integration, understanding, and outreach--empathy and strategic communication to others in terms they can "receive," and for that reason I consider it a "must read."
The six senses, design, story-telling (see Steve Dunning), symphony, Empathy (none to be found in this White House), Play (intertwing work and play, mixing it up to energize both), and Meaning, are well covered by this book, and in a way that makes sense, where the value of listening is clear to the reader.
It is a well-put-together book, with the right amount of white space, good illustrations, good notes and recommended readings, and over-all a pleasant and instructive contribution to my library and my reflections.
Business As Usual? November 14, 2005
49 out of 54 found this review helpful
A Whole New Mind $16.47 US, is a 2005 release from Daniel H. Pink that covers creative thinking and other aspects of success. Ostensibly geared toward career pros, this non-fiction title analyzes transitions in society as America migrates from an Information Age to a Conceptual Age economy. The text in Dan's book is not academic -- instead it is more biographical, intuitive, observational, and playful. His book is a real triple threat of content, style, and visual presentation.
Word to the wise -- you are in for a slightly different book here -- right of the bat, the author walks us through the procedure of having his brain scanned as part of a project conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington D.C. This unorthodox introduction (with four photo illustrations) is welcomed by the reader, as it gives the chapter an introspective quality. Pink shares this experience to illustrate normal brain function -- to note a few misconceptions about the way the brain divides work -- and then posits that while most people integrate both left and right brain activity, R-Directed Thinking will increasingly be relied upon in the future, by people that want to succeed in business or life.
Here is the crux of what Pink is trying to relay. America is currently organized around a cadre of accountants, doctors, engineers, executives and lawyers. These "knowledge workers" excel at the ability to acquire and marry facts to data, and these abilities are typically accrued through a series of standardized tests such as the PSAT, SAT, GMAT, LSAT and MCAT. (As an aside, Bush's test-happy Department of Education only serves to increase the number of L-Directed Thinkers, providing corporations cheap labor in abundance.) Pink asserts this regime of L-Directed Thinking in America is diminishing due to three factors: Abundance, Asia, and Automation.
Our guide Dan conjectures -- that in this age of Abundance -- appealing only to functional, logical, and rational requirements is not enough. Design, empathy, play, and other "soft" aptitudes have become the focal point for individuals and companies that want to stand out above the others in a crowded marketplace. Look no further than Apple's design-triumph, the physically appealing and emotionally compelling iPod, for quick confirmation of this notion!
Looking at trends, Pink concludes outsourcing of white-collar jobs (knowledge work) to nations in Asia will have profound "long term effects" on the economic well-being of Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US. Just as factory jobs flowed out of the country during the eighties, globalization of white-collar jobs will soon follow. Consequently, most Americans will need to come up with a new skill set that is not abundant overseas.
Even if Pink is wrong, and Abundance and Asia aren't transforming America, rest assured that Automation is. In long paragraphs, Pink cites specific examples of how Computer Programming, Law, and Medicine have been radically altered by technology. You'll notice this trend in even simpler venues (like self-checkout at supermarket and department store chains) throughout the US. Implication of Pink's research? Transaction based jobs may soon start declining.
Now here are a few key items worthy of consideration -- when it comes to your present or future career track -- according to Dan. Can computers do it faster? Can overseas labor do it cheaper? Are your skills in demand? Are your skills overly abundant?
Eventually we'll all have to find new jobs, Pink theorizes. The Agricultural Age and Industrial Age have fallen away, and the Information Age is fading fast. We're hurtling into the Conceptual Age, where the majority of jobs will be held by people that create something, or by people that are capable of empathizing with others. Most of these jobs will require care, humor, imagination, ingenuity, instinct, joyfulness, personal rapport, or social dexterity.
Writer Pink explains High Concept, High Touch, avenues of growth that are likely to appear, delves into the importance of gaining an MBA or MFA, and then compares the differences between IQ and Emotional Intelligence in rough metaphor. He then closes Part One with two pages of observation on the baby boomer generation, and their newfound gravitation toward meaning and transcendence, and away from the allure of wealth.
Most of A Whole New Mind actually resides in Part Two, wherein Mr. Pink delineates a complex theory of the "six senses" that one could harvest to build a whole new mind. In Dan's worldview, Design is an asset above function. Story is an asset above argument. Symphony is an asset above focus. Empathy is an asset above logic. Play is an asset above seriousness, and Meaning is an asset above accumulation. After an extensive essay about each of these six components, Pink includes a "portfolio" of exercises (further reading, tools, and websites) that one could call upon to enhance this mindset, all being useful.
In the interest of keeping this review at one thousand words I've concentrated on the first half of the book -- since that is the framework that the book is built around. I will allow you the pleasure of reading the majority of part two on your own, but I'll lightly sketch some factoids that I enjoyed in the "portfolios" accompanying Dan's groupings.
3 Forces And 6 Skills October 28, 2005
31 out of 34 found this review helpful
Daniel Pink has an interesting view on globalisation where he argues that the world is moving from the Informational Age to the Conceptual Age. Abundance, Asia and Automation are identified as three forces that are changing the future.
The first force, `Abundance' refers to the state of our lives in developed countries and increasingly we want products or services that are aesthetically pleasing. The second force, `Asia' refers to outsourcing. The third force, `Automation' is self-explanatory. Pink reasons that if we are not creating aesthetically pleasing outcomes (experience, service or products) at work, or if our jobs can be outsourced or automated then we are in danger of being redundant.
But fret not, as Pink also states the six skills or abilities that will help us thrive in this New Economy and the six antidotes are as follows:
a)Design: This is related to the factor of abundance hence, design is a skill that is vital to produce experiences, products or services that appeal to the consumers' senses. For example, even government housing (in Singapore, at least, called HDB flats ) nowadays are being designed to please our senses and it is not merely functional blocks that serve as shelters.
b)Story: Increasingly, it is being seen that stories are being used by companies and individuals for purposes of selling, inspiring, communicating and persuading. Pink gives a number of tips to improve our story-telling and states `mini sagas' as one of the way by which our story-telling skills can be honed.
c)Symphony: The ability to see the big picture and put the disparate pieces together.
d)Empathy: The ability to understand other people and their feelings. Not sympathy but empathy.
e)Play: This is a skill of understanding games, humour and laughter. It helps us balance our lives. Remember, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
f)Meaning: The search for meaning or purpose of life through spirituality, charity or other means. This is a vital element that is possibly the most important among the six to live a meaningful life in this day and age.
Remember, 9 is the magical number to thrive in today's environment i.e. awareness of the 3 forces and the mastery of 6 skills.
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