A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

The successor to the Information Age. This new age is characterized by a society and an economy that rely on innovation, empathy, and “big-picture capabilities” (2). Pink argues that those who want to succeed in this new era must master the six senses: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. This age is a cultural response to the effects of the Industrial and Information ages; abundance and outsourcing have necessitated a new, emotionally intuitive approach to business that cannot be replicated by computers or workers abroad. 

In 2000, researchers Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson classified 50 million Americans as a subculture group called Cultural Creatives. These individuals are embodiments of R-Directed Thinking because they see the big picture, easily synthesize ideas, are empathetic, and see “personal experiences and first-person stories as important ways of learning” (61). The researchers identify these traits as validating women’s perspectives because these abilities are often associated with femininity and womanhood.  

This is the first approach to a new way of thinking that Pink suggests will help readers survive and thrive in the Conceptual Age. It refers to the ability to recognize opportunities and patterns, master aesthetic and emotional beauty, create successful narratives, and effortlessly synthesize (2-3). The aptitudes that Pink outlines throughout the book are intricately high concept.

This is the counterpart to high concept and equally important. High touch deals with feeling: It is the ability to empathize, “to understand the subtleties of human interaction,” to find joy with and around one’s self, and going above and beyond in the search for meaning (3). Like high concept, high touch is an essential component of the six senses and of Pink’s advice for succeeding in the Conceptual Age. This move from effect to affect is present in nearly every industry, but especially in medicine and academia. The world is shifting to recognize the validity of emotional intelligence, and high touch abilities are the only path to prosperity in this burgeoning society. 

The combination of left- and right-brained thinking is perfected in the Inventor. They are both logical and ideological; they forge inventive relationships between starkly different concepts. 

People who use what they learned in school to earn a living rather than manual skill. These workers are typically lawyers, accountants, engineers, doctors, teachers, and executives. Pink categorizes these professionals as individuals who excel at L-Directed Thinking. 

This is the method of thinking that has been prevalent in American society for most of its history. It essentially describes conventional understandings of how the left hemisphere works; L-Directed Thinking is “sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic” (26). Such types of thinkers often become lawyers, doctors, or accountants, and subsequently this type of thinking is valued highly because of these professions’ associations with high salary and respectability in society. These thinkers are borne of and thrive in the Information Age but will struggle as society moves toward high-touch and high-concept abilities. These professions will always be present, of course, but their landscape is changing; emotional intelligence and creativity will become more necessary alongside knowledge. 

Despite its reputation of being ornamental, metaphor “is central reason” because the human mind processes information largely metaphorically (139). Individuals who can forge meaning for themselves and others will be successful in the Conceptual Age. 

This is the way of thinking associated with the right hemisphere of the brain. It is “simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, and synthetic” (26). R-Directed thinkers were undermined or even maligned in the previous economic ages, but during the Conceptual Age, they will be key as society embraces high-touch and high-concept abilities. Professionally, they are caregivers and creators, and, Pink claims, they are individuals who will inform the direction of society for generations to come. R-Directed Thinking has a brutal reputation to overcome; consistently, it has been condescended to by left-brain-dominated society, often reduced to a “touchy-feely” approach to thinking. Now, as society embraces emotional intelligence and begins to recognize the validity of high-touch and high-concept aptitudes (because of their inability to be replicated or outsourced), R-Directed Thinking will be necessary to succeed in the Conceptual Age.