A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

Release date: 2005 / 234 pages

Synopsis (from back cover): Lawyers. Accountants. Radiologists. Software engineers. That’s what our parents told us to be when we grew up. But Mom and Dad were wrong. The future now 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 — is giving way to a new world in which artistic and holistic “right-brain” abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who falls behind.

First Line: The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind — computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers.

Review:

Let me start my review with four statements that you should determine as either true or false:

• Self-made millionaires are four times more likely to be dyslexic.
• Men tend to like slapstick humor more than women.
• Our IQ accounts for 4 – 10 % of our career success.
• We tend to cradle our babies on our left side.

Now, you probably could tell that the answer for each was “True” — simply by how I set up the questions.  But the more interesting question is…  do you know why?

I do, after recently reading Pink’s A Whole New Mind — and I must admit I started out with a skeptical eye after reading the premise for the following reasons.

First, because I tend to be more “left brain” than right, and wasn’t sure I wanted to read about how folks like me will soon be left behind in society, culture, and business…. 

Secondly, I know that brain research is really moving away from viewing the brain as a dichotomy, so I was afraid his premise and therefore treatise might be out-dated.

And third, I was afraid that the 2005 publishing date would make the content hopelessly irrelevant after the recent economic disasters.  

Happily, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about why our formally Left Brain-dominant society needs to embrace the whole enchalada, and found Pink to be quite current — and quite compelling.  Beyond the interesting premise, the book is simply a darn good read (and fast, too). 

His premise is that in a society of abundance, we now have the luxury to focus on things of significance — to turn from profit margins and bottom lines to transcendence and meaning…

Pink begins and ends his book with the following 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?

Now he asks this of not only business people, but of anyone who has a job (and hopes to hang on to it!).  He then organizes his ideas by the following six concepts:

• “Not just function but also Design“  Vignettes in this section include how improving the aesthetics of hospitals have improved patient recovery time, while attractive public schools have improved students’ test scores.
• “Not just argument but also Story” Pink highlights how “stories are important cognitive events, for they encapsulate, into one compact package, information, knowledge, context, and emotion.”(101)
• “Not just focus but also Symphony“  Here the synthesizing power of metaphor is explored.
• “Not just logic but also Empathy” Pink discusses why courses in narration are becoming more common in medical schools.
• “Not just seriousness but also Play” Pink views “play” as a way of knowing, doing, and creating value, and discusses the difference between the more natural “joyfulness” seen in babies vs. the more cerebral “happiness” found in adults.
• “Not just accumulation but also Meaning” This last section is perhaps the most important, given our recent economic crisis.

At the end of each of the above sections, Pink provides a “Portfolio” of reading suggestions, links, an active ideas for integrating the concepts into “real life.”

I heard about this book from my father, who received the book as a gift from my sister, whose elementary school read it for a seminar.  I strongly recommend A Whole New Mind to everyone, especially teachers — and predict Pink will change your perspective on many topics…!

Anyone else read this yet?

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