A Whole New Mind

In his latest book, bestselling author Daniel H. Pink offersa unique perspective on what it will take for individuals and organizations to move from the Information Age to what he calls the Conceptual Age. He believes that there are six essential aptitudes — Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning that will be meaning as we move away from being “knowledge workers” who only excel at the ability to acquire and marry facts to data toward. The starts out by addressing the biggest question raised by The World is flat which is – How do you stand out in a world where just about any repetitive knowledge job can be outsourced? Pink argues that the repetitive, procedural and inherently left-brain centered jobs that we have been encouraged to pursue in the information age, can be outsourced or programmed into a computer; leaving behind the uniquely human ability to perceive pattern and meaning using the right-brain.

My Take On The Book

I love the concepts explored in the book (as clearly demonstrated on this site) but do think that there are points where the argument is bit one-sided, simply because I think that there is real value in taking a holistic view of how our minds work. In the end I think the he is saying “look if you are an accountant that’s great, but you had better be able to give meaning to those number, and be able to see the human side of what they mean to you, your employer and the other groups that the number affect (e.g. employees, investors, customers”. I also don’t think that the word will be flooded with designers. I do think that a shift toward design based thinking will become the going trend.