R-directed Thinking
Most of us desire to become a lawyer, an accountant or a computer programmer because they are well paid and decent. But, this thought may be outdated. Daniel Pink in his book ‘ A Whole New Mind’ put forward that the future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind. A new world in which “right brain” qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate will substitute for the era of “left brain” dominance, and the Information Age engendered.
In this book, the author first starts to describe how our brains work from a high-level point of view. The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, a left and a right part. The author explains the differences between these two parts of our brains, stating that left-brain (L-directed) thinking implies more logical, linear reasoning while right-brain (R-directed) thinking is more holistic and artistic.
The message that he is trying to bring across is that while society highly values L-directed thinking, R-directed thinking is getting more and more important in the world of tomorrow.
Daniel divides L-directed thinking into three types: abundance, Asia and automation. Abundance has satisfied, even oversatisfied, the material needs of millions. They pursue the multifunctional goods. However, for business, it’s no longer enough to create a product that’s reasonably priced and adequately functional. Abundance have to pay more attention to beautiful, unique and meaningful to satisfied customers’ need. Asia means master abilities that can be shipped. For example, information technology industry is moving overseas. According to Forrester Research, “at least 3.3 million white-collar jobs and $136 billion in wages will shift from the U.S. to lowcost countries like India, China and Russia” by 2015. And automation means deal with things by machine. L-directed professionals require developing aptitudes that computers cannot do better, faster and cheaper. Machines can do some calculation and logic things. We have to develop the skills that cannot be completed by machine. The second part of the book is called “The Six Senses”, which are: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning. For each of these senses, the author tries to find real-world examples and stories to prove the values of these aptitudes. Design is all around us, whether it is the way you dress, the color of your room or even the style of your toothbrush. Daily, the choices we make are dependent on their design. Function doesn’t necessarily come into play anymore because the products all function the same. For example, Steve Jobs, he took products that were available and he designed them to be beautiful products as well as functional. When I choose the electronic products, Apple is my first choice not only because of its function, but also because of its design. As Pink says, “Story is just as integral to the human experience as design”. Sharing short stories will help improve students’ public speaking and communication skills. A music, for example, with a story often touch people’s heart. When I think of Daniel Pink's description of Symphony, it takes me to this clip of Disney and Pixar's Ratatouile. In the clip a Rat, Remmy, loves how the flavors of food are delicious individually, but together, they create a symphony of flavor. In order to expand right brain thinking, we need to focus on both separate parts, but we also must identify the whole picture and how all those separate parts relate. Empathy, as defined by Pink, is many things. Generally, empathy is the ability to think in someone else’s position and consider others’ feeling. If we cannot put ourselves in one another’s shoes, we would not make friends with others and quarrel would often happened. Like Southwest Airlines company mission statement, “People rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it.” Pink thinks that three specific ways to manifest play: games, humor and joyfulness. Games have a place not only in leisure time but also in work time. Pursuit of meaning, according the book, is our fundamental drive. However, pursuit is no simple task. We read a book, for instance, in order to find something or something can inspire us, rather just read. Good life needs happiness, and needs meaning. In short, we should enhance our right brain by developing skills of the six senses. This is simply a fascinating book. I can highly recommend this book to just about anyone.