A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Daniel H. Pink (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2005

The paperback edition of Daniel H. Pink's groundbreaking book, A Whole New Mind.

Described by reviewers as "an audacious and powerful work," "a profound read," "right on the money," and "a miracle," the book reveals the six abilities individuals must master in an outsourced and automated world. Several publications named A Whole New Mind one of the best business books of 2005. It is now being translated into 12 languages -- and will appear across Europe and Asia in 2006.

For this updated and expanded edition, Pink has added dozens of new tools, tips, and exercises to help individuals and organizations sharpen their right-brain capacities. Find out why Thomas L. Friedman, author of the mega-bestseller The World is Flat, calls A Whole New Mind his "favorite business book."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Just as information workers surpassed physical laborers in economic importance, Pink claims, the workplace terrain is changing yet again, and power will inevitably shift to people who possess strong right brain qualities. His advocacy of "R-directed thinking" begins with a bit of neuroscience tourism to a brain lab that will be extremely familiar to those who read Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open last year, but while Johnson was fascinated by the brain's internal processes, Pink is more concerned with how certain skill sets can be harnessed effectively in the dawning "Conceptual Age." The second half of the book details the six "senses" Pink identifies as crucial to success in the new economy-design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning-while "portfolio" sections offer practical (and sometimes whimsical) advice on how to cultivate these skills within oneself. Thought-provoking moments abound-from the results of an intensive drawing workshop to the claim that "bad design" created the chaos of the 2000 presidential election-but the basic premise may still strike some as unproven. Furthermore, the warning that people who don't nurture their right brains "may miss out, or worse, suffer" in the economy of tomorrow comes off as alarmist. But since Pink's last big idea (Free Agent Nation) has become a cornerstone of employee-management relations, expect just as much buzz around his latest theory.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

"Abundance, Asia, and automation." Try saying that phrase five times quickly, because if you don't take these words into serious consideration, there is a good chance that sooner or later your career will suffer because of one of those forces. Pink, best-selling author of Free Agent Nation (2001) and also former chief speechwriter for former vice-president Al Gore, has crafted a profound read packed with an abundance of references to books, seminars, Web sites, and such to guide your adjustment to expanding your right brain if you plan to survive and prosper in the Western world. According to Pink, the keys to success are in developing and cultivating six senses: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Pink compares this upcoming "Conceptual Age" to past periods of intense change, such as the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance, as a way of emphasizing its importance. Ed Dwyer
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (March 24, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 1573223085
• ASIN: B000GUJHD0
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (454 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel H. Pink is the author of five provocative books about the changing world of work -- including the long-running New York Times bestsellers, A Whole New Mind and Drive. His books have been translated into 34 languages.

Pink's latest book, To Sell is Human, is a #1 New York Times business bestseller, a #1 Wall Street Journal Business bestseller, and a #1 Washington Post nonfiction bestseller.

In 2011, Harvard Business Review and Thinkers 50 named him one of the top 50 business thinkers in the world.

A graduate of Northwestern University and Yale Law School, Pink lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and their three children.

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#4 in Books > Business & Investing

#9 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#11 in Books > Self-Help

#12 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#26 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

315 of 330 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Business As Usual? November 14, 2005

By sfarmer76

Format:Hardcover

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. Read more ›

786 of 886 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent diagnosis, but insufficient & incomplete solutions April 7, 2005

By John H. Hwung

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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 [...] 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. Read more ›

259 of 308 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Upbeat, but overly simplistic view of globalization May 11, 2005

By Antonio B. Ooka Jr.

Format:Hardcover

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.

49 of 55 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars An incomplete guide for "right-brain" exercises, but not much more August 9, 2011

By Todd Ebert

Format:Paperback

I came across this book at the local dollar bookstore, where
for one buck, it seems hard to ever go wrong.

The premise of the book is that, to survive in the "conceptual age",
"left-brain" thinking/analysis is not sufficient, and that the most successful
people will be those who better use their right hemispheres. The author cites three
reasons for this shift to the right brain: automation and Asia (left brain rule-based tasks
are now being performed by both computers and cheaper white-collar Asian workers), and
abundance (there is more need than ever for inventors and designers).

Although there are some partial truths to his observations, in general I find this outlook a bit shallow
and myopic in perspective.

For one, the author seems to believe that this pipeline of cheap foreign labor will last forever. But we have to
remember that the US exports both knowledge and culture in enormous quantities (for example, the majority
of students who enroll in my computer-science graduate courses are from other countries;
especially China and India), and
these exports spurn more industry abroad which will have the effect of improving the quality of life abroad;
and hence driving up labor costs in those countries.

Secondly, ALL human intelligence is subject to automation, or at least an attempt to automate.
For example, playing chess requires a combination of mathematical-logical, spatial, and what the author refers to as "symphonic" intelligence. Many chess players think of themselves as artists. And many artists are inspired by
the game of chess....

Rather than limit oneself to the six right-brain skill areas identified in the book (design, story, symphony,
empathy, play, and meaning), all of which are to supposedly save us from losing our jobs, I prefer
Harvard University professor Howard Gardener's multiple intelligences; and advocate the development of all of them
to fully experience the best of what humanity has to offer. The intelligences are
1. Spatial: spatial judgment and the ability to develop novel internal images within the mind
Exercises: visiting museums, playing video games, studying geometry, designing, drawing, sculpting
2. Linguistic: the ability to use words, spoken or written
Exercises: writing a story, essay, or poetry, public speaking, reading books of all types, learning a
foreign language, acting
3. Logical-mathematical: the ability to reason, think abstractly, and have number sense.
Exercises: studying science, mathematics, and philosophy, computer programming, solving puzzles
4. Bodily-Kinesthetic: the ability to navigate within the physical world
Exercises: sports, yoga, walking, running, biking, weight lifting, dancing
5. Musical: the ability to play and appreciate music
Exercises: learning to play an instrument, listening to instrumental and orchestral music, writing a
musical composition, singing
6. Interpersonal: the ability to interact, communicate and empathize with others
Exercises: studying the art of listening; socializing, play acting
7. Intrapersonal: the ability to understand oneself, and reflect on oneself; understanding one's own needs,
personal strengths, and weaknesses.
Exercises: going for a quite walk, sitting in complete silence, meditating, keeping a journal
8. Naturalistic: the ability to relate to and observe one's natural surroundings
Exercises: going for a walk in a nature park, observing nature (birds, plants, flowers, butterflies, etc.)

For example, what the author calls "story telling", falls into linguistic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.
Symphony falls within musical, spatial, intrapersonal, and possibly even naturalistic. And "play" can fall into
any number of these intelligences.

By the way, if there is an age in which we are entering, I would call it the "ubiquitous intelligence" age, in which
our personal, social, and work environments are filled with intelligent agents that help us lead more
productive, satisfying, and meaningful lives. The UA age will require us to harness all of the above intelligences
with the help of technology. And, like the conceptual age, it will require many more inventors and designers than
exist today. That is one message of the book that I do agree with. Many of these new designers and inventors will
come from the US, and many more will come from Asia, as that continent begins to further adopt western culture
and technology.

In conclusion, the book did offer some interesting ideas on how to enhance work through storytelling, empathy, design, humor,
games, and finding meaning; and it did provide some good exercises for developing these traits. It seems hard to disagree that
these traits can enrich one's life and the workplace. However, if I had to give advice to someone on how to maintain their
marketability in a fast-changing world, for starters I would suggest that each day one attempt to learn something new about
his or her chosen field. Also, keep a current view of the forest, but also force yourself to learn new things that
seem challenging and move you out of your "comfort zone".
One new piece of information or added skill can make a world of difference in one's outlook and potential.
In the end each person is his or her own employer. Read more ›