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

Daniel Pink does a fantastic job describing the qualities needed to be successful in the conceptual age that we are currently in. Ironically, Pink uses many analytics to justify active exercise of right-brain senses to accompany typical left-brain dominance. Get ready to realize what you don't know!

This book connects the reader with a wide ranging variety of areas. It opens one to re-imagining the world and people around us. He suggests music to listen to, books to read, web sites to visit and people to engage. He recounts his personal process in search of an answer: how do we conceive the world? It doesn't tilt into: How we Should conceive the world.

This book is a compilation of research and observations of what has been occurring and is occurring in our society. There is definitely a move from an information society to a conceptual one with an emphasis on design, humanity, and spirituality. Every business needs to be aware of this powerful shift in order to meet the needs of customers. Fail to understand and implement the concepts described in this book will result in losing customers and eventually the business.

I am always looking for ways to be more productive. Being left-handed I became interested in this book when I saw the sub-title "Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The World". I thought: "finally, my day has come!".

What I found was not quite a "recipe book" for success but rather a new and different way to look at the world.

The book is replete with references to resource materials (many of which are found on the Internet free of cost). Now on my second reading I am taking the time to visit these resources to take my understanding of my fledgling new skill set to a deeper level.

When I really like a book I buy extras to give to friends. Of the five extras that I bought I have given them to; a school superintendent, a financial services businessman, a nurse nearing retirement, a newspaper editor and an attorney.

If you want to learn what you will need to do differently or better to excel in our changing world this book is for you.

Great Read. Awesome clear writing that anyone can read and remember its concepts. I read this leisurely and found myself quoting Pinks ideas and concepts about future right brain thinkers. Furthermore, Pink incorporates "activities" that stimulate right brain thinking. I recommend doing them, they are fun.

Fasten Your seatbelt! Daniel Pink is about to take you for a ride.... into what was (at the time) the future, yet is now the present! After reading his classic Free agent Nation, I was eagerly anticipating a whole New Mind. And it did not dissapoint.

Pink opens with his argument that we are moving from an economy and socioty based on the "logical, linear" cababilities of the Information age to an economy built on the " emapthic, big picture" capabilities of the Conceptual age. And to survive in this era we will need to develop our right brain capabilites ( inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, meaning et. ceterra). This is so, in Pinks view, because the type of work that was previuosly dependant on the " left brain capabilies ( sequential,logical,analytical) can be easliy replaced by automation and/ or lower cost employees in Asia.
In addition, the unprecedented material abundance that we have experienced has left many of us searching for greater "meaning" in our lives (and purchases). This thirst for meaning - the author points out- will also be satisfied primaly by "right brain functions".

Sounding a bit like a recovering left brain addict, Pink takes us through the "six senses" that support the Right Brain ( What he calls " R-Direceted) aptitudes. And they are:

Design
Story
Symphony
Empathy
Play
Meaning

After a chapter explaining each, he follows with very specific ideas -action steps- that can help us to further develop these aptitudes. I have already followd through on 3 of the suggestions and am a better person, both personaly and profesionally, for doing so.

The only downside to the book is that there is SO much information that one can feel overloaded and shut it all out. But for the most part- it is right on the Money. I have read hundreds of business books and in my view, Pink is the best business writer of our era- and a whole new Mind may be his best work yet!

Great book. Pink does a good job of explaining the benefits of learning to use both hemispheres of the brain. The book does a good job of combining research with insights and great examples. The excercises in each chapter were also very helpful in helping to begin unlocking my creative brain.

If you have never been exposed to right/left brain thinking you will find this book to be quite enlightening. If you have you will appreciate the way this book provides both new knowledge and a strategy for application.

Enjoyed the book quite a bit. Vast number of resources and follow up websites. Wish I could insert a photo of what I think of this book - wouldn't that be more appropriate. Pink writes in a format that is easily understood. Would love to see the concepts of this book revisited and updated to current issues. Reading the selling book now - can't say I'm as enthused about the Pink's book on selling - slow start.

There are some predictable naysayers in this review section, but then, "Angry Critic Guy" is nothing new to the store. He or she loves to play "Holy Mackerel, the extent to which I am smarter than the morons writing books is staggering." We all know That Guy.

Interesting ideas in the book. If somebody was looking to have the current state of the unverse explained in a couple hundred pages, with thorough "evidence" (ah, the crap that passes for evidence these days...), then hanging out at the bookshop in O'Hare probably ain't where you want to be.

If the general premise interests you, read it. You can take what seems valuable, and leave what seems less so. Simple. We find inner resonance with books/ideas/thoughts/poems/ or we do not. I do not need Pink's evidence to know whether my inner knower finds the ideas worth reflecting upon.

I can't believe I let myself read some of the thread of the guys who use the statistically REALLY small number of bashers as an excuse to "avoid this one"....You could PROBABLY avoid reading anything, ever, by that line of reasoning. Some people think "Hamlet" sucked. "THANKS! I WILL AVOID THAT ONE !!" Shakespeare offered not a scintilla of evidence !!

Interesting commentary. I enjoyed this book and partially bought in to its' concepts. Yes, I believe there are valid points but I question the utility of the references. There are books and activities that I do not feel will increase "right-brain" power.

This was recommended to me in an Information Technology Training Course. This gives a different perspective on how our minds work and how it affects our future. This is very easy to read and has a lot of helpful references and activities at the end of each section. I love technology but the right brain will rule in spite of us!!

Daniel Pink has written a great right brain left brain book. It's worth a look if you have any interest in how people function and why. Great for sales, teachers, administrators, managers and parents. I recommend.

The simple acknowledge that left Brain skills have been rulling the world, and the conclusion that it is not enough anymore, is a glorious achievement for Mankind reborn.

I hope that many people who will read this book, can effectively start reborning and changing their whole lifes, the way of doing things and come to free their minds from left brain claws, being creative and more human. Learn about the million things they have been missing, and share all the beuty they posess, coming directly from their right-brain resources.

This book came to my ands as a fountain of good and full-filling inspiration source, wich has confirmed what I`ve allways felt was missing to be said an done, in order to enable, us humans, taking the next important step, to what the Author calls the "Conceptual Age", and to get there we defenetely need to embrace a "Whole new Mind".

Fernando Brito Barros

Everyone should read this book! I've used this book in multiple settings. It's helped me (personally), and it's challenged others. Pink gives real, tangible ways for people to apply the tenets of the book.

... never regains its former dimensions."
This is THAT kind of book and should be required reading for anyone who feels the need to apologize for or justify his or her creativity. This book should be on the desk of every College of Arts and Letters professor and student and in every English, Art, Theatre, Music, Design class in America.

Right-brain jobs, in addition to left-brain jobs, can also be outsourced from the first world to the third world, especially to Latin America and perhaps Africa, because of a lower labor cost and perhaps better quality in selected cases. This is due to the fact that, unlike in the first world, our right-brain qualities have not become attrophiated by an excess of left-brain labor for centuries. I would imagine that there is much such right-brain outsourcing already occurring with Mexico. Therefore outsourcing from the first world to the third would continue for ANY kind of job, not just menial left-brain jobs; however, specific niches can be kept safely in the first world at first world wages requiring specific combinations of both sides of brain activity.

One clear example are doctors. Lots of California patients go to Mexico for visits to doctors who have great right-brain training from the University and have completed specialized left-brain specializations in the US, at a fraction of the US cost. Vemezuelan doctors who seek a better living in the US also have that profle.

Workers in India are highly motivated to excel in outsourced left-brain jobs. I do not know much on Indian culture, but my guess is that they concluded that millenia of emphasis in the right brain failed to provide the abundance they yearn, so Indians are slowly finding the way to overcome that lack.

Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind establishes a left-brain kind of routine questionnaire for any new business endeavor, I will attempt to reply to it based on my specific Venezuelan environment:

Question 1) The question on "Can it be produced abroad more cheaply?" is yes for pretty much every single Venezuelan industry but oil. We suffer an exchange control regime that forces exporters to convert their dollars at the official rate of 2.15 bolivars, while the market exchange rate approximately triples this value. That is, Venezuelan products are competitive worldwide only if they can be produced locally at below 30% of the production cost for that item in any single other country. We are even becoming coffee importers! We are importing most foodstuffs for that reason. Local manufacturing industries are migrating to Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Brazil. On these grounds, we are quite hopeless until there is an exogenous change of government regulation systems.

Question 2) In the Venezuelan case only the question on "Can a computer do it cheaper?" can be replied similarly as when asked to a US citizen.

Question 3) The question on "Will my product satisfy the needs on an age of abundance?" must be reversed in my country. GDP per capita has substantially decreased during my lifetime. In the 60s and 70s any college graduate landed a job and could buy a comfortable home on credit. Today, lots of middle-aged people continue living with their parents. Grocery shopping consumes about half of most people's income, due to one of the greatest inflation rates of the world. I remember when I was a kid it was an age of abundance, but now this is no doubt an age of scarcity. I do not know what, in my local situation, would be an appropriate rephrasing of that question number 3.

In short, Venezuelans need to apply a lot of right-brain creativity in order to come up with a similar "recipe questionnaire for success" specific for our situation. Maybe we won't come up with such a recipe yet.

The fresh emphasis on right-brain qualities is appropriate to the US situation. I am just not sure on how that Conceptual Age can take a general hold in the developed world, on the current globalization/illegal immigration climate, with so many other countries still living under scarcity. I do not think, seriously, that the abundance assumption is valid. The world is still quite far from being a place of abundance. It will be interesting to see what Cubans within Cuba, if they had the right to speak freely, would add to this respect.

A topic for further research would be to find out if there are any left-brain activities that may be needed worldwide in order to achieve the abundance prerequisite for the Conceptual Age overturn of the Information Age.

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This book arrived on time and was in perfect condition. I purchased it for a public administration class. It is also a quick and easy read so even if you don't have to read it, it is an interesting book.

This is in my estimation an important book. I read it shortly after reading Friedman's The World is Flat. I highly recommend reading them closely together as they compliment each other nicely. Pinks three questions that everyone should ask themselves still resonate with me months after reading this work. 1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper? 2. can a computer do it faster? 3. Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance? I regularly consider these questions now in my assessment in decision making processes. Look out if you answer yes, yes, no!

The image of high concept high touch is similarly meaningful in how I look at the world and my industry.

Finally the resources available at the end of each chapter are extremely useful for nurturing "a whole new mind". This work is both visionary and practical in its usefulness. These two seemingly disparate compliments are only possible because of the way Mr. Pink has crafted this text.

I highly recommend this book.

Excellent Book! It offered a different perspective on how people think and the creative thinking process. It was easy to read and understand. I would definitely read it again. In fact, my copy is pretty worn out!

Pink is entertaining while detailing the transition our culture is making from the tech era to the conceptual era, where employment will center on retaining a workforce by giving them a sense of meaning in their jobs and encouraging them to be imaginative and innovative, by hearing the stories that our clients and staff have and connecting them to our goals through these stories. Good luck!

A Book which should be read by everybody in Portugal . Mainly by the politicians.
Daniel Pink makes evident that the Information Society is the past to the west. The dazzling growing of India (and China in a nearly future) in IT will absorb all the world necessities of IT development. The future, Daniel Pink says, is in the right side of the brain: the one who does not labors with mathematic but with creativity and sociability.
I sincerely hope Portuguese Prime Minister to read this book!

Schools emphasis what we call left-brain thinking - linear, logical and hierarchical, but it also de-emphasizes right-brain skills - recognizing relationships, seeing the big picture and synthesizing data into a coherent story. Daniel Pink argues that right-brain skill sets will be more and more in demand in the work place in the 21st century as left-brain skills are performed by computers or low-cost workers in Asia and elsewhere. Pink has taken his own medicine. He develops his thesis through a series of stories and even presents exercises for people to increase their right-brain skills. This book is a quick, easy read, but it will give both sides of your brain lots to think about for years to come.

I found Daniel Pink's writing style and reporting on the emergence of right brain thinking as a necessity for the economic future of employment in our society to be valuable. His approach embraces the necessary changes with curiosity and enthusiasm. I also appreciated his method of first-person experience with the six senses he proposes as needed to succeed in this new economic age.

The outline described by Daniel Pink is something everybody with children needs to know. Its an extrapolation of something that has always been in effect. If you pay attention and figure out what is really going on, you can claim the future. More today this is the truth with population growth and technology on the cutting edge, his futuristic and present scenario are really of the human heart. What really counts is the extraordinary, the ordinary will always be of the masses. The read is very interesting and and if one seeks out examples of what he presents, the thesis is made.

The market landscape is shifting and the financial center of gravity is moving back towards Asia.

In a world of automation, being smart and fast is simply not enough in order to maintain our current standard of living. If we want to excel we must stand out, and start using the right side of our brain. The creative side.

"A Whole New Mind" is for business what the book "Drawing on the right side of the brain" was for artists.

Apply the theory and you will see the same astonishing results.