03-26-2005

A Whole New Mind

I just finished reading a copy of Daniel H. Pink’s “A Whole New Mind,” which the author gave out for free at the close of his session at SXSW Interactive. I now wish I’d made it in for the entirety of Pink’s presentation, rather than only catching the tail end.

I really enjoyed the book and found it inspirational. The book presents a compelling case that in order to thrive in this age of abundance, automation, and Asia (i.e., Asian outsourcing) — we will need to build a new skill set of six right-brained thinking tools: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning.

Though there is more to it, “A Whole New Mind” gives the most compelling game plan I’ve seen for thriving in an era of Asian outsourcing. Until now, the only solution I’d seen was a hollow call to get creative. Pink mentions creativity, especially in his chapter on “Symphony”, but he includes five additional skills which also tie into the equation.

The book synthesizes a wide variety of things I’ve been reading or hearing recently. In particular, it reminded me of a presentation by Doug Rushkoff that I listened to from the IT Conversations website. Rushkoff makes the case that we are entering a new Renaissance. If that’s true, “A Whole New Mind” is the equivalent of “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci” for the new Renaissance.

The book could be the basis for an excellent Informal Class. I could even see it being a whole series of classes, potentially tying a variety of my own interests, suc as improv, creativity techniques, board games, and tours of local labyrinths. Maybe that would give me an excuse to finally get a copy of the MicroExpression Training Tool, which I’ve been interested in ever since reading Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent article The Naked Face.

Posted by Matt in creativity, reading | RSS 2.0

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