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A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age

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The central premise of this book is that people with slightly more right-brain skills will dominate the work force in the 21st century... or at least be much more important than the past 20 years. I bought this book because that is a premise I agree with, so I was curious to see how he demonstrated his point, or any advice he could offer.

What I got was page after page of uninformed conjecture, hyperbole, cliches, and self-important blather. His premise? Left-brained work has dominated the industrial age, and the next "phase" of human development is what he decided to label the "conceptual age," where right-directed people will dominate.

Really? You really think that? That's a hell of a statement... I hope you can back it up with some hard data... statistics, job growth numbers, etc? Anything?

Nope.

He claims the drivers towards the "Conceptual Age" are Abundance, Asia, and Automation. That's it. No further proof. Let's take these one at a time:

Firstly, because of "Abundance", people are looking for better designs, even for ordinary household tools... thus designers become important. And apparently this is a new idea??? He believes that the words from the latest CEO of GM -- who said his job is to produce works of art that people drive -- as being somehow monumental. Oh my god! GM designs cars! They now care about "form" as well as "function!"

Really??? You really think that's a new thing? So I guess then those fins on a 1956 Chevy are there for aerodynamic purposes... and the mountains of chrome were there to make it more visible at night. Apparently the author is equally ignorant of the real drivers of the "left-brained" industrial revolution in the 19th century: the production of cheap textiles for clothing. YEP! The industrial revolution existed for the benefit of fashion designers and other "right brained" people who were tired of the ordinary abundance of the tunic. And how much of the computer revolution existed because people wanted a more "personalized" computer experience for their home or business? Ever hear of the iMac???

The author should try to do some research once in a while...

Secondly, because of "Asia," a lot of left-brian jobs -- computer programming, accounting, and legal -- are moving to Asia. Whereas right-brian jobs that require artistic design, communication, empathy, play, and meaning stay right in the USA. Since these jobs are "high-touch" jobs, they can't be outsourced.

Really??? You really think right-brain jobs cant be outsourced? I got a graphic designer in the Philippines who says differently. I got a dozen "empathy hotlines" you can call if you're feeling like killing yourself, and they'll do a hell of a lot better talking you down from the ledge than your friends or family. I also know of some really good customer support centers in India who are highly trained in empathic communication. Ever hear of teleconferencing or telepresence? Right-brained jobs are just as easily outsourced with the right technology.

Jobs are moving to Asia for one basic reason: SUPPLY AND DEMAND. Nothing more. Most American businesses prefer American workers, simply because culture differences, currency exchange rates, and time zones are a pain to deal with... but Asian workers are so much cheaper that they are worth the extra pain. However, these wages are only low in Asia because Asian industries are not big enough to demand local software developers, lawyers, and accountants. Once Asia becomes more industrialized, local businesses will be demanding up the local talent... which decreases their supply... which drives Asian wages up... which makes American talent more attractive to American businesses again.

This is just cyclical unemployment on a global scale: no more. Again... some research by the author would have been nice...

Thirdly, because of "Automation," those who just follow a well-defined process will be easily replaced by robots, computers, or Asians (apparently). In other words... technology eliminates low-skill jobs. SHOCKER! But of course, this isn't actually true. As any economics professor will tell you, technology is disruptive, but it doesn't eliminate jobs in the long run. The simple fact is that workers who learn how to use the new technology become more productive, and therefore more valuable to their employers! Yes, job responsibilities shift around a bit, but overall productivity increases, which creates more jobs in the medium term.

Then the author goes on to the second section of the book, which contains anecdotes about what skills will be important in the 21st century: design (agree), story (maybe), "symphony" (give me a break...), empathy (big agreement there), play (agree), and meaning (agree). The stories are good reading, but they are never supported by any hard data. There is evidence of a fad, but no evidence of a trend.

The single saving grace of this book are the right-brain exercises. They are pretty fun ways for a left-brain-leaning person to step out of their comfort zone and flex the right brain a little. If you find this book in the bargain bin for $5, then its worth it just for the exercises.

Otherwise, you'll probably want to avoid it...

Forget the left brain/right brain thing which is an outdated metaphor. Within this review I will ignore it. Modern neuroscience suggests this categorization of the brain hemispheres is not accurate. This book is really about thinking well; but, it adds little vs better books written decades ago such as Michael Gelb's How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day and Edward De Bono Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (Perennial Library).

Pink makes a lot of false assumptions. He considers that the vast majority of white collar professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers, analysts, programmers) lack any creative thinking ability. He ignores that they are problem solvers. And, problem solving is very creative. Pink relies on studies that supposedly conclude that IQ accounts for only 4% of career success. Meanwhile, the vast majority of successful people most probably have IQs of 125+ (95th percentile and above). He advances that a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) is more valuable and better recognized than an MBA. Later, he quotes someone stating that they prefer poets to MBAs for managers. Another time, he mentions Australian parents stating they would rather have their children go into nursing than software engineering. Also, he quotes an executive "GM is in the art business." Somehow, Pink loves to refer to the nonsensical.

Pink misses the linkage between job functions. He advances that design is now the master discipline that only creative types can practice proficiently and is leaving all white collar professionals behind. He forgets that for any one product designer you need several patent lawyers, business plan forecasting accountants, mechanical engineers, and programmers. And, that these professionals solve related issues that are just as creatively challenging as the product designer.

Another flawed assumption Pink makes is that Indians (from India) are just like American white collar professionals not creative. He was wrong about the Americans. He is wrong about the Indians. He goes on about all the routine jobs being outsourced to India. He ignores some of the leading consulting firms are Indian. And, these compete already for the most lucrative product development projects worldwide. It is not just the rote stuff that can get outsourced.

Pink when he is not wrong deals with truisms. His chapter on Empathy smacks of that. Doctors should be more empathetic. Women are more empathetic than men. "Sometimes we need detachment; many other times we need attunement." Ok, how many more truisms do you need to read over 30 pages? The chapter on Play is also somewhat truistic. Yet, you probably won't feel like joining a laughing club. Aren't Woody Allen movies good enough for that?

Pink has also a world macroeconomic/demographic vision that is off. Everything is about outsourcing and automating. If you are a (supposedly noncreative) white collar type, you will soon be replaced by either software or someone in Bangalore. No wonder Thomas Friedman considers it "my favorite business book." This is because it supports his own The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century vision. Although superficially convincing, both Pink and Friedman are off. Instead, a far more relevant framework is Richard Florida's. He thinks the world is actually getting increasingly spikier with ever greater concentration of well educated people in just a few cities worldwide. That is because of the network effect. Knowledge workers cluster in specific areas: venture capitalists in Palo Alto, petroleum engineers in Houston, financiers in London, advertising types in Chicago. The Internet has done nothing to flatten those centers. To the contrary, it has accelerated their concentration of talent.

Richard Florida derives the relevant framework because he defines his creative class correctly by capturing all the problem solving white collar professionals Pink so denigrates (reference: The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life). In Florida's books and blog (at the Atlantic), he constantly uncovers interesting relationships between his creative class and various positive economic outcomes precisely depicted with scatter plots and regression coefficients. Meanwhile, Pink uses no supportive data and just refers to outlying studies that don't make sense (like IQ does not matter in career success).

Pink sometimes brands his six senses using the wrong words. For instance "Symphony" has little to do with music. It has to do with synthesizing information. A more accurate description would be simply: Synthesis.

Occasionally, Pink's recommended activities have nothing to do with practicing his cognitive senses. He thinks one of the best ways of learning synthesis is learning how to draw. So, now on page 145 he manages to draw a portrait of Mark Wahlberg, the actor, that he confuses for his own (see his picture on page 167) and he thinks he is a good synthesis thinker.

Finally, Pink's six senses won't help you much in your career more than they already do. That's because you already are proficient at them. In the body of the book, Pink forgets we are human beings with a life outside work that develops our abilities to tell stories, play, empathize, etc... He recalls that only on the last page, when he states: "[His six senses] are fundamentally human attributes... They reside in all of us, and need only be nurtured into being." Now, you know it. You already do all that stuff.

If you want to succeed do the opposite of what Pink suggests. Instead of practicing telling stories or joining a laughing club study Marcus Buckingham's Now, Discover Your Strengths. You will uncover what you are good at and know how to get even better at it. It will teach you to focus which is just the opposite of Pink's theory (doing all sorts of activities that are distracting you from your objectives).

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.

The self-important "management class" feels that this book validates what they have been trying to sell as their core values. They LOVE THIS BOOK.

Lets be realistic. Can America survive as a nation of "right brained, higher thinkers", having out sourced all the knowledge work to asian countries? This glorified notion of americans as some sort of uber-directors, divinely gifted with the ability to rule is laughable.

Other nations design. Other nations create. Right brained thinking is at a premium in every culture.

I think a better approach would be to advocate balance. Right brained thinking, the entrepreneurial spirit that made America great is, AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN important. Nothing new here. But let us respect other forms of thinking, and recognize that right and left brained thinking are not mutually exclusive.

Lets not go off the deep end, by glorifying america as a nation of super directors. The brainy kid who programs computers is still of more value to the economy than your average middle manager. The sad truth is that the management class has figured out (and can sadly justify) how to outsource his job. However, make no mistake, the right-brained positions, can and are being outsourced.

The only jobs that cannot be outsourced are service positions.

Let us seek balanced teams, with talent from every tier of the problem solving chain. Let us not fall prey to the divine right and arrogance of a caste system with "right brained thinkers" at the top.

Frankly, I will take raw IQ over either left or right brained disposition.

A Whole New Mind By Dan Pink (Riverhead Books, 2006). Reviewed by Steve Gladis,Ph.D.

Just as Picasso was in his "blue period," I think I'm in my "pink period"...Dan Pink that is. I just read A Whole New Mind, which I should have read years before, and which I think describes me better than my mother would have. In fact, I think Pink and I may have come from the same mother ;). Cherished for years and oft repeated in whole or part: "The truth is, a great mind must be androgynous" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge). In this book, Pink helped me understand once and for all why as a poet masquerading as an FBI agent, I always felt "weird." A right-brainer living in a world of alpha left-brainers. Perhaps that's why Dan (a lawyer by education) ended up as a speechwriter for Al Gore, and I ended up writing speeches for several directors of the FBI. Could we have been twins separated at birth?

He argues convincingly that we're moving from an Information Age to a Conceptual (creative/inventive) Age, because of: Abundance (we're living at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs), Asia (left-brained work is outsourced there because it's been commoditized, and thus cheaper), and Automation (things that are solved by a strict set of rules--heuristics--are better crunched by microchips). He argues that in the coming age those with more inventive minds will be more valued. And he argues these points well--remember Dan's a lawyer--at least, a recovering one.

In the rest of the book, Dan describes what he calls the "Six Senses ." 1) Design--making things not only functional but engaging by design; 2) Story--developing a compelling narrative from the data; 3) Symphony--seeing the big picture and gathering seemingly desperate parts into a harmonious whole; 4) Empathy--fostering caring relationships with our family, friends and colleagues at work; 5) Play--the need to have fun at whatever you do; 6) Meaning--seeking purpose and the greater good seems to define us uniquely as humans.


I'll be reviewing Dan's book in some depth on my blog: [...]. I highly recommend you buy a copy and underline the hell out of it as I did. There's a ton of useful, important information that I won't have the space to mention. Thanks to Dan for writing this classic.

I bought this book recently but after a few pages it just became too simplistic in its content and I began to wonder whether it was even worth the effort to write such a book unless of course you can make some money from sticking a few ideas down on paper. It appears that hardly any serious reserach and investigation had been done to support the thesis. Waste of money as it could be sped read in the bookshop in about 5 minutes and you would learn just as much as you would from buying the book.

William Blake wrote "London," his blistering, loud poem vehemently denouncing the Age of Reason, before the end of the 18th century. Shortly prior to Blake's poem, Immanuel Kant delivered his daunting philosophical treatise "Critique of Pure Reason," but it was Blake who blamed all of the ills of civilization--from oppressive laws, military institutions, and patriarchal church dogma--on his culture's replacement of the Imagination by the "mind-forged manacles" of Reason and Logic. In the 19th century the Romantic Age followed these texts with many more privileging the imaginative faculty above all else--by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron--all mapping the inner cosmos of inspiration and creativity that had been overlooked by the 17th-18th century Age of Enlightenment.

You won't find the foregoing history of ideas in "A Whole New Mind": the author declares that everything prior to the 20th century was the "Agricultural Age" while most of the 20th century was the "Industrial Age," followed by the "Information Age" from which we are now emerging into the "Conceptual Age" (the period when the "right brain" will finally receive its due).

This is welterweight reading, and the author is so loose and careless (if not carefree) with his terminology that the book becomes an argument not on behalf of but against anything resembling a thesis about the importance of "right-brained" thinkers, creators, and personality types: the book could clearly profit from what the author speaks of disparagingly as "left-brained," or "analytic" thinking. The argument is without intellectual rigor, consistent or precise definitions, insights or useful information. It's a feel-good, quick read that tells the reader what he wants to hear--be your intuitive, creative, imaginative self, secure in the knowledge that you're needed (to figure out the economy?).

The absurdities are too numerous to mention. For example, right-brain thinking is associated both with "simultaneous" thinking and with "telling stories" and "listening to music." In other words, the author doesn't understand the distinction between "spatialized" arts such as painting and photography and "temporal" (i.e. sequential rather than simultaneous) arts like narrative and music. "Be a poet," he says, without showing the least bit of evidence that he understands the sequential, developmental nature of, say, a Shakespearean sonnet. And don't tell this author that it's foolhardy to prove a negative: he uses Al Gore's defeat in the 2002 presidential election as proof of the superiority of the right brain because clearly the Florida ballots with the confusing boxes and chads had to have been constructed by someone with a right-brain deficiency! Finally, the author declares that right-brained thinkers are distinguished by (drum-roll) their interest in, and pursuit of, "Meaning" (it would be nice to see more evidence of it).

If you need any more excuses not to waste your time on a book that belabors the obvious (and not very well), I finished the book on a flight from Houston to Detroit. When I got off the plane, I saw advertising signs in the airport that were inarguably of the same persuasion, and of the same depth, as the author's insights: "Imagination rules!" "We're the leader in design!" (The author equates "design" with right brain thinking; "function" with left.) And "Unleash your wild side!" Obviously, the battle has been won.

If you follow the author's instructions to suspend the critical faculty, those three slogans come close to representing as much as this book has to offer. To his credit, the author does encourage readers to listen to a good symphony--no hints about how to do so--that would require some use of the critical faculty about which the author appears relatively clueless. But how could you expect anything more from someone who attributes the discovery of velcro, clearly an example of inductive reasoning based upon empirical evidence, to a "metaphor"? To put it plainly, you don't have to be a poet or a mathematician to cringe all the way through this book.

Followed to its "illogical" conclusion, Americans can, in the near future, only expect to fall further behind the left-brained Asian upsurge in reason and logic that is threatening to make us a second-rate, dependent nation in the international arena. Whereas formerly it was the mystic East that contemplated the Divine while we in the West followed the Puritanical work ethic directing us to build Fords and invent computers, the tables have been turned. "Make a virtue of necessity," the author seems to be saying, "Discover within yourself the soul of a poet."

The author's assurance that your employer will love you all the more would sound less hollow had we not already indulged our imaginative fantasies with the flower children of the 1960s. Woodstock is done and near-forgotten. Time to move on. Shakespeare's language will not be understood by the reader who suspends grammatical logic any more than Beethoven's will make sense to someone who chooses to ignore sonata form. The mind that Pink writes about is a perfect fit with the one that Madison Avenue pursues on a relentless, daily basis.

First, let me make it clear that Pink's targeted audience is an uneducated majority or a group looking for a quick read. He paints his argument in a black-and-white fashion, ignoring complexities, probably angering more sophisticated readers. In addition, he seems to be writing to a "right-brained" audience to reinforce thinking rather than to create converts. Reason is, his arguments are not supported with factual data, but rather with anecdotes. Although they read well, "left-brainers" will be disappointed if looking for any type of intellectual thesis. Also, if you're shopping at Barnes & Noble, it will be found in "self-help," a section that is less hard science and more motivational. Reading Pink's book in this context will make it more enjoyable, because all in all, it's not a terrible book.

It does make several big blunders.
1) It underestimates the capabilities of our Asian counterparts, reducing them to machines basically, while overestimating our own potential.
2) It encourages individuals to go into design fields, which economically, there is no demand for. Not to say it's not important, it's definitely a value-added function, but either the demand is being met or companies will have to find a way to make it a larger competitive advantage that can translate into $$. Apple has done it, but other companies have not.

On the other hand, it does have good overarching messages (when you read through the crap).
1) Society should focus on value-added activities because yes, a lot of jobs are replaceable through technological means.
2) American liberal arts education provides a very different perspective and way of thinking which can be an asset.
3) Parents (if reading) should encourage creative arts in conjunction with the hard sciences and maths because everyone learns differently, and having a balanced education provides better synthesis.

It's not a bad book... just remember to read it in context of the author's audience. I seriously doubt that Pink is actually as extreme as his book presents him to be.

Daniel Pink suggests in his book "A Whole New Mind" that we are moving into a new "Conceptual Age". A work world no longer dominated by knowledge workers such as MBA's and engineers, but by creators and empathizers like designers. While knowledge workers will still be essential, their services are able to be found elsewhere through abundance, automation, and Asia.
Considering the extreme technicality of the brain and the world we live in, the book is an easy read which breaks what would be difficult to understand terms and ideas into user friendly phrases everyone can understand, such as "high concept" and "high touch". Other than the brain, "A Whole New Mind" is about the working world and economy of the near future. Jobs being sent off to Asia. Automation doing jobs better and faster. Abundance causing indecision because so many of the same things are available. What is to be the savior of America against these three A's? The use of the creative right-brain in coordination with the analytical left-brain is the key to survival.
Pink's conclusions are however meaningless. Asia is filled with right brain thinkers. It is populated by artists, musicians, and story tellers. Pink is apparently writing this book under the assumption that all Asians do is sit in front of a computer and do calculus. Although there are many workers coming from places in Asia like India, I disagree that they do the job at the same quality. Engineering schools there and the overall quality of much of the education there is substandard to the quality of the typical four year American institution. Pink's conclusions are unsubstantiated. When he gets some real support, I will listen, but until then, I'll keep going with my knowledge worker education and let designers worry about design.
The book was required reading for my English 102 class at Drexel University. For all the other college students out there. Stay away. This book will not do you any good. It might make you question yourself a little bit, but you already have enough to worry about. Do not trouble yourself with the claims this book makes. If you're some kind of art student, good. You'll be fine. If you're some kind of science or engineering student, good. You'll be fine. Don't let Daniel Pink tell you otherwise.
"A Whole New Mind" discusses three forces driving our society into the "Conceptual Age". There are so many products that offer the same quality and price that the only way to set them apart is their visual appeal. Abundance. Pink mentions several jobs like computer programming and engineering that are outsourced to Asia to workers who do the same if not better work for a great deal less. Asia. Pink states that many jobs that require analysis derived from a series of steps are now able to be done by machines. Automation.
Pink derives that you must ask yourself three questions about your job, "Can someone overseas do it cheaper? Can a computer do it faster? Am I offering something that satisfies the nonmaterial, transcendent desires of an abundant age?" If the answer to any of those questions is yes, Pink says that in order to survive in the new world created by the three A's, you must use the six senses: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. In the new world, things must be visually appealing so that they may compete with their lower priced counterparts. Design. People don't remember facts, they remember stories. Pink tells a story about how he bought a bottle of wine because it had a story on the bottle telling where it came from and that the proceeds benefited a charity. He didn't buy the other bottles because there was nothing special about them, just ingredients. Story. People must be able to see the big picture and put all the pieces together like language and culture. Symphony. People must be able to feel what their clients feel so that they can know what they want. Empathy. Seriousness is not always good. It can place too much stress on people and doesn't let the mind flow freely. People must be able to open their minds and enjoy their work. Play. People must have purpose. They can't just do. They have to be working for something and feel there is something else greater than themselves. Meaning. (Gudrun Krebs)

I'm surprised at how some people are blaming the book for not going deeply enough into the economic challeges facing the U.S. Folks, this book isn't "The World is Flat" or "The Post-American World." The author does a fantastic job of giving us an OVERVIEW of the challenges and then providing practical advice on how to expand your thinking. The book challenges readers to get outside their comfort zone and grow. He's never going to be asked to testify before Congress on his views, but I think he should be! His ideas about the way we need to change American education are thought-provoking.