We are witnessing a shift from the “logical, linear, computer-like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.” I wholeheartedly (and whole mindfully) agree with the premise of A Whole New Mind: Moving From the Information Age to the Conceptual Age by Daniel Pink. And while this isn’t the definitive handbook into personally delving into that new age, it is an excellent primer -- with caveats.
I had high hopes for A Whole New Mind. I wanted to fall headlong in love with this book but could only muster a strong "let's be friends" attraction. So maybe I'm still pining as I write this.
I was aching for a book I could recommend and hand out to individuals in a transitory phase in their life either due to circumstances foisted on them or by a gnawing pull to “find their purpose.” But the book leans too much on fire-and-brimstone arguments to totally motivate the unconverted. Pink claims we need to ask ourselves:
The implicit assumption is: Learn these “high concept, high touch” skills and you are guaranteed your safety net a bit longer. But folks whom successfully carve out a niche of “uncommoditizable” skills aren’t extrinsically motivated by fear of destitution. While Pink tells us that that the fusion of the right brain and left brain are merely metaphors for this conceptual age revolution – he overlooks a bigger metaphor: the passionate, intrinsic drive and motivation which stem from the more primitive, emotional part of the brain.
It’s hard to know whom Pink is writing for: the analytical “comfortable cadre…in for a big surprise” left-brainers whom he assumes are being kicked dragging and screaming into the Conceptual Age or the “creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers” that are somersaulting with joy that finally their due has come. Or both.
I can see why the latter would enjoy the book. Even if you think you already breathe this stuff day and night, I had a really great time reading the chapters on the six senses/aptitudes (design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning). Each of the six is worthy of a book in their own right, so I wasn’t expecting completeness here. They were the big treat in the book and, refreshingly, the persuasive tactics were gone in these sections.
It’s easy to assume that Pink is saying that right-brainers will eat the left’s lunch. But this isn’t a fighting match between the two. Pink is advocating an “androgynous mind” – one that integrates and fuses the left and the right, the feminine and the masculine archetypes. Still, the book leans towards being a pep rally for the right-brainers rather than truly integrating. In the end, the book's greatest appeal will be for those already convinced they need to embrace their whole mind and are seeking the larger contextual framework to fit their personal transformation into and the additional resources to add to their repertoire.
Ultimately though the left brainers most likely will feel not just left behind -- but left out. I'm not sure that the numbers jock whom form the so-called "SAT-ocracy", or what Pink refers to as L-directed workers will rejoice in this book.
I’m a recovering computer engineer (and scored well on the SAT). The day I sauntered into marketing my fellow geeks viewed my traitorous shift as “going over to the dark side.” The subjectivity and nuances of people were disdained as disgusting “politics.” The logical case that Pink presents to persuade the left-brained decision tree types certainly wouldn’t have budged me into action long ago. In fact, from a purely logical stance I could rip apart the logical arguments although I'll leave that to others (although Pink's "abundance" section is a winner).
But forget logic for a moment. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I knew full well what I was doing hiding in numbers, code, concrete forms and the formulaic. I could avoid the self-conscious discomfort I had with emotion, with softness and the vulnerability potentially exposed by dabbling in the realm of the receptive right mind. Pink insightfully points out that this reclaiming of our right brain follows the path of the archetypal mythic hero’s journey. But he never addresses the central fear of embarking on this journey: the journey’s seeming descent into hell. While I may be worried that my job will be shipped to Bangalore, I’m even more terrified of going into the abyss of my right mind. Left-brainers may avoid expressing feelings – but they definitely have them.
I concede that pain is powerful lever for change. But the pain that Pink continuously harps on is the potential loss of your livelihood. Are you an expensive commodity, in other words? He doesn’t mention the pain of being incomplete, of being lopsided, of feeling like an unfulfilled cog in a machine which any developmental psychologist could tell you is the final butt-kicking catalyst. In fact, anyone that has actually made a left-to-right-to-both/and transition can tell you this.
Pink’s own experimentation with a “drawing on the right side of the brain” yielded a bit more depth around the process of accessing and integrating the right brain. But Pink is already an established writer – not a financial analyst, computer programmer or lawyer. The book would have been enriched with at least one or two short case stories of people whom really tilted left sharing their own experience of integrating a few of the six aptitudes and, most importantly, how it’s enhanced their careers and lives.
The book consistently frames globalization as a threat and counters it by arguing that these right brain skills are ones that “low-wage foreign technicians have a more difficult time replicating.” But I ain’t convinced that a kick-ass inventive signature designer isn’t residing right now in Brazil or China. Sure my masseuse won’t live a continent away, but I wouldn't underestimate global talent and our communications capabilities. The Whole Minded thinker is ultimately a global citizen in a global marketplace that envisions the opportunities and possibilities too – not singling out its threats.
In the end, the book would have been much stronger read with more of these six chapter's breezy tone and less of the "do this right now or perish" argumentation that frame the opening and closing chapters. As my book reading time dwindles, I read to be stretched – not vindicated or validated – so ultimately this book didn’t provide quite enough mind-altering illumination for me. But, heck, those six chapters on the six "senses" of design, story, symphony, empathy, play and empathy were so much fun in and of themselves to be worth the price of admission.
Posted by Evelyn Rodriguez at March 25, 2005 07:24 AM | TrackBack“The Whole Minded thinker is ultimately a global citizen in a global marketplace that envisions the opportunities and possibilities too – not singling out its threats.”
Evelyn … nice comment.
But my takeaway from the book was less about the threat of a globalized marketplace and more about how to take advantage of opportunities and possibilities that have come about due to the outsourcing of left-brain jobs.
I sure didn’t think Pink was being dogmatic in offering up his analysis that we must now all forsake our analytical minds for our empathetic minds. Instead, I felt Pink was positing that left-brain thinking is still necessary, but not as necessary as it has been. And that right-brand thinking will increasingly be a valued aptitude in the business world going forward
It’s funny … as an R-Directed thinker, I enjoyed the first half of the book and not so much the second half which was written to appeal more to the right-brain reader.