Chapter 1: Right Brain Rising
In this chapter, Pink discusses how the brain is divided into two hemispheres and how these two hemispheres perform separate tasks. The left side is similar to a computer. It is able to solve problems, reason, and memorize thousands of practical things. The right side is more creative and organic. It can read facial expressions, innovate and imagine. Together, the left and right sides allow us to function with the practicality of a robot while also emoting and understanding the world as only a human being can. Pink lists the four differences of the left and right hemispheres
- L controls the right side of the body, and R controls the left side of the body
- L is sequential and R is simultaneous
- L specializes in text and R specializes in context
- L analyzes the details and R synthesizes the big picture
Throughout life you may have been labeled as a left-brainer or a right-brainer. Personally, I identify more with the right brain as I am left handed but also consider myself to be more artsy and creative than practical and detail oriented. This gives us two basic approaches which Pink refers to later in the book. L-Directed Thinking is an attitude to life this is characteristic of the L hemisphere - sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic. The other is R-Directed thinking which is an attitude to life that is characteristic of the R hemisphere - simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, and synthetic.
Of course no one can get by using only one side of the brain but I'm sure most of us can identify more with one side than the other. Which brain are you????
Chapter 2: Abundance, Asia, and Automation
Abundance - It's no shock that America is a land of abundance (and waste). If you drive down any major interstate in the US, you'll start to notice clusters of the same stores and restaurants. TJ Maxx, Target, Ross, Stein Mart, PetCo and Lowes seem to always be together in the same shopping centers. I live within a 5-mile radius of three Wal-Mart Supercenters. Three examples of abundance Pink gives are:
- The "American Dream" is to own a home and a car. 2/3 of all Americans own their home and 13% of homes purchased are 2nd homes. The US has more cars than licensed drivers.
- Self-Storage is a $17 Billion industry - a business devoted to storing the extra stuff that won't fit inside your house, garage, and attic.
- The US spends more on trash bags than 90 other countries spend on everything.
Asia - Everyone has heard of outsourcing. Every time I call Chase Visa to try and get my late fee forgiven, there is an Indian person on the other end of the line. But America outsources more than call centers and telemarketing. There are hundreds of thousands of middle class Indians who go to a good college to get engineering and IT degrees who earn approximately $15,000/year for what the same employee would make $60-70,000/year in America. They do just as good of a job, but are able to outsource to a country with a much lower cost of living. Notice the jobs that are being outsourced OUT of America are L-Directed thinking jobs?
Automation - Outsourcing isn't the only threat to American "knowledge worker" jobs. Automation has been doing the work of a human better and faster since the industrial revolution and even before. While we usually think of robots as taking over the jobs of factory workers, there are now such advanced computers and programs being created that can take over the jobs of computer programmers, accountants, medical and legal professionals and much more. Again these are L-directed thinking type jobs. One example in the book talks about legal websites. While a lawyer may charge $180 per hour, USLegalForms.com offers legal forms and other basic documents for $14.95. Instead of paying a lawyer thousands of dollars to draft a contract, people can now find the document online and then have it customized by their lawyer for a couple hundred bucks .
The purpose of these examples is not to freak anyone out but to merely stress the point that we cannot expect to pursue careers that are simply L-Directed. It's the human factor in these occupations, the R-Directed thinking that sets us apart from robots and computers.
Chapter 3: High Concept, High Touch
In the figure to the left you see Pink's pattern From the Agricultural Age to the Conceptual Age. It shows how man has had to evolve to move on to the next era. He says. "We've progressed from a society of farmers to a society of factory workers, to a society of knowledge workers. And now we're progressing yet again - to a society of creators and empathizers, of pattern recognizers and meaning makers".
1 comment:
Which brain am I? A good exercise of introspection... It's like you pause and look into the mirror, wondering...
Very briefly, I majored in physics in college. The main language for concept description in physics is math. I also spent many years writing computer programs and analyzing system stuctures. Supposedly I would be more an L-brainer than a R-brainer, judging from what I do during my waking hours. However, what I have spent most time in my life learning and even doing does not really give me much deep enjoyment in my years gone by. I am sensitive to beautiful music and profound literature, and easily touched by a wonderful natural scene. I am often surprised by my own creativity at times in dealing with real-world problems. I always applaud out-of-box thinking both on others and on myself. Hum... Although I act as an L-brainer when necessary, I am probably more R-brainer inclined.
Post a Comment