A fellow coach recommended this book to me and it was a great recommendation! As someone who was in an engineering field, but not of it, I began to feel that there was hope for creatures like me. I understand engineering, but my viewpoint tends to be a big picture viewpoint. Writing lines of code left half of me wanting something more and my fellow employees and managers irritated.
Pink provides a clue as to the types of jobs that will no longer exist in the United States in the coming decades by asking three questions: Can someone overseas do it cheaper? Can a computer do it faster? Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?

As I watched Information Technology (IT) jobs move overseas and become automated, I fully understood what Pink meant with the first question, but the last one had me stumped until I read further. Then, I grasped that I was already a member of a "fleet of empathic, meaning-seeking boomers" which had "already started wading ashore." I had self-identified as a Cultural Creative a number of years ago.

So if American jobs are significantly going to change, how do we prepare for what Pink calls the Conceptual Age? Even if you are planning to retire from your current job in the near future, the likelihood is that you will continue your work life in some form or another.

Daniel Pink describes six areas, or senses, which will need to be enhanced in order to be able to compete in the future job market. These six are design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. For each one of these senses, Pink describes how they are being used in the business world right now and how they will be used in the future. He also discusses how their lack can affect the world around us. For example, Pink points out that the nonpartisan investigation of the outcome of the Palm Beach County (Florida) election in the 2004 "wasn't an evil Supreme Court or recalcitrant chads. It was bad design." [Italics his.]

In each section, provides a portfolio of things you can do to enhance your abilities. For example, in the story section, Pink suggests that you visit a storytelling festival. He provides locations, dates and contact information for seven festivals.

All in all, the book is an entertaining read and stimulation for thought. The world is changing and the economy is changing. As boomers enter the last phases of their official working life, what will they bring to the picture? Will corporations understand the value that people with experience bring to the job, or will they pursue the "cheaper and faster" model of exporting to Asia and hiring young college grads (often immigrants) to replace an aging work force?

Time will tell if Daniel Pink is right.

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.