39 pages • 1 hour read
Daniel H. PinkA Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “The Conceptual Age”-Part 2: “The Six Senses”
Chapter 3 Summary: “High Concept, High Touch”
Pink describes the last 150 years as a drama with three acts: Act I is the Industrial Age, Act II the Information Age, and Act III the Conceptual Age. While Acts I and II required factory workers and then knowledge works, Act III seeks out creators and empathizers. In this new age, L-Directed abilities need to be supplemented with abilities that are “high concept and high touch” (51). High concept is “the ability to create artistic and emotional beauty,” to identify patterns, to design narratives, and to combine distinctive ideas into one vision (51). High touch entirely involves empathizing; it is the ability to detect the subtle aspects of human expression and interaction, to find joy within oneself and inspire it in others, and to seek out purpose and meaning (52).
In the Conceptual Age, previous dynamics are switched. MFAs become the new MBAs, and EQ (or empathy quotient) is the new IQ (intelligence quotient). More drastically, the search for money becomes the search for meaning. Pink argues that a microcosm of this shift is represented by individuals as they age; after achieving professional and monetary goals, most people turn their pursuit inward and try to find real purpose in life. Pink will spend the next six chapters outlining exactly how one is to succeed in the Conceptual Age.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Design”
The six senses are Pink’s six essential R-Directed propensities: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Together, these high-touch and high-concept aptitudes inform our world and are essentially “what it means to be human” (67). Pink describes how Design is often misunderstood; it is not about ornamentals but is in fact humans’ natural inclination to shape their environment in a way that serves functionality and offers meaning. In this way, design is a “whole-minded aptitude” because it focuses on utility (L-Directed) and significance (R-Directed).
The best example of the efficacy of Design is the Charter High School for Architecture and Design in Philadelphia. At CHAD, students can focus on design, color theory, or architecture while also studying conventional school subjects. CHAD boasts an attendance rate of 95%, while the average Philadelphia public school has a 63% daily attendance rate. When students are given an opportunity to explore their creativity and implement their vision, they care more about their education.
Pink also offers an example of the possible consequences of poor design: the 2000 US presidential election. The infamous butterfly ballot used in Palm Beach County, Florida, befuddled voters, causing the mostly Democratic elderly population to vote for “ultraconservative fringe candidate” Pat Buchanan at three times the rate of any other county (84). This bad design ultimately gave George Bush the state by only 537 votes. A nonpartisan investigation was conducted and found that Bush’s win in Florida was due entirely to bad design. This example proves, to Pink, that this high-concept skill is nearly impossible to outsource and will offer a competitive business advantage.
At the end of the chapter, Pink suggests that readers keep a design book and channel frustration into creativity; when an appliance upsets us, we should sketch a new design for it. He also recommends that readers keep up with design magazines and museums.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Story”
Story is essential to the human experience. Our minds are hardwired to recall stories and implement their lessons more easily than facts without context. Moreover, fact knowing has become less impressive and less necessary; the internet has made all facts widely available and therefore less valuable than concepts that require greater critical thinking.
The rising importance of Story is affecting every business, but Pink outlines its shift explicitly in the housing market. In his suburb of Washington, DC, his elderly neighbors are selling their houses to young couples. Each time this happens, a realtor sends a card to each house in the neighborhood boasting the price they could potentially get for their own house. One day, Pink opens one of these cards to find not a giant number with exclamation points, but a story. This card briefly details the life of the woman who sold the house, who bought it with her husband in 1955. It describes the features that the former owners loved most and introduces the new owners, saying they love the house just as much. This card, unlike the others, personalizes the purchase and elicits the emotional reaction that only Story can.
Similarly, Pink describes the medical field’s embracing of storytelling in its curricula and training. Narrative medicine is an approach spearheaded by Columbia professor Dr. Rita Charon that encourages med students to learn to treat their patients with context. Too often doctors appear apathetic in their treatments. This method teaches doctors to listen to their patients’ stories more intently and to read them more accurately. In this way, Story represents a skill inaccessible to the left side of the brain. The logical and apathetic left struggles to relate the emotion and decipher the context needed to effectively tell a story.
To strengthen this sense, Pink recommends writing a story, recording oneself telling a story, and visiting a storytelling festival. He also suggests inventing backstories for strangers when running errands and doing further reading on the concept of narrative design.
Chapters 3-5 Analysis
Conceptualizing the past three economic ages (over the last 150 years) as a three-act play implies that the Conceptual Age is the climactic finale to hundreds of years of buildup—that the previous ages have been catalysts for an age that is necessary to the advancement of humankind. The ethos of Chapter 3 is markedly different from the opening few chapters. Pink spends the chapter arguing that “meaning is the new money” and that the pursuit for success has become the search for fulfillment (61). Although this discussion fits adjacently into the pathways to success Pink lays out via the six senses, this chapter temporarily shifts its gaze from the purpose of the overall text, which is achieving business savvy through behavioral traits. Rather, Chapter 3 implies that the very pursuit that this book aids is slowly becoming obsolete. This is an intentional wrinkle that Pink leaves for readers to iron out; overcoming the drastic changes brought on by the Conceptual Age will require a whole new mind.
Design is the first whole-minded skill Pink wants workers of the Conceptual Age to master precisely because of how misunderstood it has been. Despite being integral to our lives and economy, artistic identities are often marginalized and belittled. The historical treatment of creatives that Pink alludes to is indicative of a national economy that demands docility and standardization. Although Pink argues that the cultural shift brought on by the Conceptual Age will change how society treats creatives, Design has always been essential to left-brained logic and analytics. Design has often been associated with the artistic elements of the right hemisphere, but Pink’s examples prove that it is an ability that relies on the mastery of L-Directed and R-Directed Thinking.
Design is a high-concept aptitude that transcends logic and functionality by blending elements of practicality and aesthetics. Not only does Design improve utility of products, but it proves to enrich the lives of those exposed to it. The example of the CHAD students represents the possibilities available when R-Directed Thinking is embraced. It also proves that standardized lessons and testing too often keep students from reaching their potential. The one-size-fits-all educational system consistently fails students who do not or cannot subscribe to prescriptive academic roles. By embracing a whole-minded approach, success and fulfillment will be more widely accessible.
Chapter 5 employs narrative and metaphor to underscore the thematic elements of the overall text. Pink’s example of the real estate agent’s use of Story exemplifies the moves businesses are making to reach more consumers in what appears as an individualized manner. Even companies that have been around for decades are making the shift; executives humanize their company and its purpose by offering origin narratives or delivering detailed anecdotes about how their products have enriched the lives of their customers. This approach works. Consumers are more likely to choose a product/service—and return to it—when they have an emotional connection to it.
The lasting significance of emotional impact is further exemplified by the changes taking hold of the medical field. The once clinical and sometimes apathetic demeanor of health care workers stemmed from a culture of L-Directed Thinking that prized efficiency and feared that emotional responses would compromise their practice. The move towards Story-driven medicine allows health practitioners to see the full picture of who their patients are and, therefore, understand their needs better. These two examples prove that incorporating Story into daily human behavior not only improves business models, but also can save lives.
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