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A Whole New Mind : Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (平装)
by Daniel H. Pink
| Category:
Creativity, Innovation, Social trends, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Claiming that the future belongs to those right-brain- directed people, this book is a perfect handbook for tech sector innovation. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 13 items |
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Tom Peters (author of In Search of Excellence) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
This book is a miracle. On one hand, it provides a completely original and profound analysis of the most pressing personal and economic issue of the days ahead – how the gargantuan changes wrought by technology and globalization are going to impact the way we live and work and imagine our world. Then Dan Pink provides an equally original and profound and practical guidebook for survival – and joy – in this topsy-turvy environment. I was moved and disturbed and exhilarated all at once. A few years ago, Peter Drucker wondered whether the modern economy would ever find its Copernicus. With this remarkable book, we just may have discovered our Copernicus for the brave new age that's accelerating into being. |
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Po Bronson (author of What Should We Do with Our Life) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
A Whole New Mind is a very important, convincingly argued, mind- altering book. |
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Seth Godin (author of Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Wow! This is not a self-help book. It's way more important than that. It's one of those rare books that mark a turning point, one of those books you wish you read before everyone else did. Once again, Dan Pink nails it. |
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US News and World Report (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Right on the money. |
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Rolf Dobelli (MSL quote), Switzerland
<2006-12-28 00:00>
This fun, exciting read suggests many ways to develop your "right-brain" thinking - the kind of relationship-based thought patterns that author Daniel Pink argues will be essential in the emerging "Conceptual Age." Pink draws examples from numerous disciplines, industries and locations. The result is thought-provoking and applicable. We recommend this work to individuals and companies committed to change and open to originality; its tools will raise your capacities. Pink's reasoning about the forces shaping this new age is striking in its simple rigor, as are the questions he offers that let you check how ready you and your business are for the economy that is emerging. His emphasis on the positive is the book's one weakness. He doesn't really address how trauma or turmoil would affect the driving forces of the Conceptual Age. Also, he only briefly touches upon those aspects of business where right brain thinking is hard to apply. What's here is good, but what's left out is somewhat troubling. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
There is a wisdom in knowing when it is time to move and what you need to take with you! The Information Age will never ultimately leave us as technology is always on the move and will provide resources for us to develop; however, the Conceptual Age is a worthy partner and the "senses" necessary to effectively navigate through it are wonderfully laid out for us in this book with fantastic practices to develop what we need to be successful. Daniel Pink has done a masterful job in creating a recipe for the future age. Although he speaks to the coming age; perhaps his biggest gift is his insight for years beyond the coming age. He challenges us to develop as whole people. Using every part of who we are to do what we do is what is explored in this book and I give credit to Mr. Pink for his pioneering effort. Granted, all of his writing is not brand new insight for us; however, how he analyzes and gives perspective is masterful. I love the front half of the book where he lays out the land where we dwell while casting images of how we got here and what exactly is moving us forward to the new age - abundance, automation, and Asia. The back portion is so very practical and user friendly. I have tried a number of his ideas and found them very helpful. No doubt, the transition won't be easily accomplished without an openness to growth and a commitment to see things differently with a "Whole New Mind." What we have here is a gift and an opportunity to travel into the future with a handy guide and a compass for direction. I can't put it down; even after I've completed it. Make sure you leave time to ponder. This is a book that will never grow old. |
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Jim Caruthers (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Say goodbye to the Information Age, we're entering an exciting new age. In the past "ages", certain things were extremely valuable. In the Agricultural Age, farms were important. Economies existed to support the farmers and the farm. The rich people were the farm owners, and almost everyone worked to support the farm in some way.
Then we moved into the Industrial Age. Farms became less important, and factories became the thing that economies were built around. The job to have was the job of the factory worker, standing on a factory line doing your part to assemble something. The rich were the people that owned and ran the factories. The job of the farmhand was disappearing, as machines were being invented to take their jobs, and farmers had to keep buying more expensive and complicated machinery just to make it and compete as a farmer.
Then came the Information Age. The job of the factory worker was slowly being replaced by automation, immigrants (both legal and illegal), and overseas labor. And because of technology, running a farm only required a fraction of the help it needed in the past. The job to have was that of the "information" guy; the guy that had all the answers to all the questions, the person that could do things that others couldn't or wouldn't. The Information Age was the age of the left brainers. Accountants, computer software coders, troubleshooters, doctors, all those jobs were in high demand. That's what our parents told us we should be when we grow up.
We're entering a new age now, an age where the accountant's job, the coder's job, even the doctor's job is being outsourced to Asia, or taken over by a computer program. The job of the telephone troubleshooter has moved to India. The job of the coder is being moved there. The accountant's job of sticking numbers into a formula is going away. You can even get surgeries performed in Asia for a fraction of the cost, with the same level of quality, and take an exotic vacation while you're there.
Ask yourself three questions: Can my job be done faster by a computer? Can my job be done cheaper by someone in Asia? In this world of abundance, where I can get anything I want, anytime I want it, and pay almost nothing for it, what do I have to offer? If your answer to the first two questions is "yes", or you don't have an answer to the third question, be afraid. Be very, very afraid. It's likely that the job that you're doing now will disappear in the next few years.
If you are one of the millions of people who's job will be moved overseas, you have a choice.
Choice #1 is to keep doing what you're doing, lose your job, and complain about it.
Choice #2 is to do whatever you can in the time you have left in your current position to become the most valuable employee you can. You can't predict the future, but you can prepare for it by growing your skills so you're prepared to do something else when your job is outsourced. If, when it's time for your job to go away, you are too valuable to be let go, they'll find something else for you to do. Better yet, you can spend the time you have left learning how to do something new, and can move seamlessly into your new role when the time comes.
Which is the easier choice? #1 always is. Which will get you better results? #2 of course.
But what most people forget is this: You have a choice.
Sure, it's easy to complain when your job gets taken by someone or something that can do it cheaper or faster, but guess what? This is always going to happen, and whatever is happening now is only going to get worse.
What can be done about this? All you have to do is make yourself valuable. I run into so many people that believe that since they've been with a company for so long, the company owes them something. This type of thinking is outdated. Companies can no longer offer you a job for life. What I mean by that is that companies can no longer offer you the same job for life.
In order to survive in the world we live in today, you have to be able to, at the very least, adapt to the changes that will inevitably happen.
Better yet, anticipate that change before it happens, prepare for it, and when it happens you'll have already made the transition.
Don't complain about your job being moved to Asia. There are enough complainers in this world already. |
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John Harpur (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
I got this book as a present. The person who gave it to me has an autistic son that attends a social skills group I run. Given my own books on Asperger syndrome, he was interested in what I would make of the 'right-brain' arguments - since he hopes his son will get into IT in the longer run. It is a measure of the challenges these admirable parents cope with every day.
Well, the first thing I told him was that I didn't think this book could help him shape his son's future. But he already knew that I reckon. And the second thing I said was that the book was a little confused in its right brain thinking. In fact, if we all became right-brained it would probably be due to testosterone poisoning prenatally. Our right hemisphere would be forced to take over some of the functions of the left hemisphere. In other words, we would end up with pretty good visual skills put pretty poor on communication nuances. Now the author doesn't say this but it running through the book is a recognition that automaton thinking devoid of human sentiment might be no bad thing. What the book does say however, and this confused me, is that we have to adjust our emotional make-up to accommodate R-thinking - and that means more or less getting rid of it or at least turning it into something unrecognizable to the Western household.
The book makes all kind of claims for Right brain superiority, I won't get into these. Some are fanciful. However, it fails to deal with cultural (environmental) influences on how cognition and implicitly values are shaped. This isn't a new flaw in this genre of book. In fact it is pretty much the hallmark of the genre. I am old enough to remember the swamps of books that appeared in the early 80's recommending that we all become more Japanese to survive. Adopt Japanese culinary habits, modes of domestic activity, management styles and away we go. Now look at Japan. This book, unfortunately, is in the same vein. It could have been entitled 'How to be more SE Asian than the SE Asians and be home for dinner'. What the book is hobbled by is the assumption that learning from another culture entails an imperative to copy it. It clearly doesn't and this kind of flawed socio-economic chutzpah infects the plausibility of many interesting conclusions. The unpalatable fact is that none of us has a copy of tomorrow's newspaper.
It is always nice to get a present and I was able to answer that father's questions, but if I hadn't got the book as a present I would probably have bought it anyway. It is good to be provocative at times. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Don't know whether it's the book title or the popularity of the "The World is Flat" or what, many reviewers make direct comparison between the two and downplay this one, influenced by the author's extensive elaboration on abundance, Asia and automation as the driving force behind a shift from left brain style thinking (logic, sequence, literalness and analysis) to right brain one (synthesis, emotional expression, context and the big picture). IMHO, despite the similarities, the writings on the functioning of our brain and the six aptitudes (design, story, symphony, empathy, play, meaning) preached by the author to be the key dependents of any future professional success really are thought provoking or even mind blowing! No matter what, I love this book and I deem it really helpful to enhance my thinking. I am sure it will improve yours as well. Highly recommended!
Below please find my favorite passages for your reference:
The US spends more on trash bags than ninety other countries spend on everything. pg 33
To survive in this age, individuals and organizations must examine what they're doing to earn a living and ask themselves three questions:
1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
2. Can a computer do it faster?
3. I s what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance? pg 51
Not just function but also Design;... Not just argument but also Story;... Not just focus but also Symphony;... Not just logic but also Empathy;... Not just seriousness but also Play;... Not just accumulation but also Meaning... pg 65-66
Businesspeople don't need to understand designers better. They need to be designers. pg 78
At Sony, we assume that all products of our competitors have basically the same technology, price, performance, and features. Design is the only thing that differentiates one product from another in the marketplace. - Ohga, ex-Chairman, Sony pg78
The typical person uses a toaster at most 15 minutes per day. The remaining 1425 minutes of the day the toaster is on display. In other words, 1% of the toaster's time is devoted to utility, while 99% to significance. Why shouldn’t it be beautiful? pg 80
To paraphrase E.M. Forester's famous observation, a fact is "The queen died and the king died." A story is "The queen died and the king died of a broken heart." pg 101
The guy who invented the wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was a genius. - Sid Caesar pg 138
The vast majority of women - regardless of whether they are right handed or left handed - cradle babies on their left side. Since babies cant talk, the only way we can understand their needs is by reading their expressions and intuiting their emotions. So we depend on our right hemisphere, which we enlist by turning to the left. pg 157
The opposite of play isn't work. It's depression. To play is to act out and be willful, exultant and committed as if one is assured of one's prospects. pg 179
We are born for meaning, not pleasure, unless it is pleasure that is steeped in meaning. - Jacob Needleman pg 209
We are not human beings on a spiritual path, but spiritual beings on a human path. - Dr Lauren Artress pg 221. |
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Fang Bailin (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
You might be judge Alito, or you might be a couch potato. But all of you out there might find it helpful to read A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, Al Gore's former chief speechwriter, the guy who also wrote Free Agent Nation.
Like all faddish books, the book proposes nothing short of a revolution about the way we conceptualize our work in the near future. Abundance, Automation, Asia (in no particular order), the author claims, are taking away all the left-brain white collar jobs. The future belongs to those R-Directed people. The future belongs to people who has highly developed senses of design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.
The author seems to suggest that the information age will also come to pass just like its predecessor, the industrial age, and still further, the agricultural age. And then follows the conceptual age will eliminate quite a number of jobs. This might sound alarmist, but think of what Bill Ford has done to families and families of workers who used to think that Ford means security.
However, terms like the information age, conceptual age are innately problematic. If you are 20 this year, you cannot be 19 like last year. Information age, conceptual age, etc do not work this way. People use these metaphorically, but still, they mislead. These ages are rather waves of development. Or rather, to use the author's own term, it is a symphony of various sectors at play at all ages.
This being said, you might still find the book insightful. You can always take the views with a grain of salt, and you don't have to accept any of its conclusions, but these six senses really help you to see things that unfold before you in ways you never see before. It's the Joshua's tree epiphany.
Yesterday, I heard a talk on the radio. A guy called in to the radio host, and the host asks: "What do you do for a living?" The guy answers: "I an instructional designer designing training materials for the corporate setting." The host snapped: "I am sorry for you."
I am sorry for the host too, for carrying his old mind. |
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