A Whole New Mind

Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

By: Daniel H. Pink

Narrated by: Daniel H. Pink

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Lawyers. Accountants. Software Engineers. That's what Mom and Dad encouraged us to become. They were wrong. Gone is the age of "left-brain" dominance. The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers - creative and emphatic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't.

Drawing on research from around the advanced world, Daniel Pink outlines six fundamentally human abilities that are essential for professional success and personal fulfillment - and reveals how to master them.

From a laughter club in Bombay to an inner-city high school devoted to design, to a lesson on how to detect an insincere smile, A Whole New Mind takes listeners to a daring new place, and offers a provocative and urgent new way of thinking about a future that has already arrived.

©2005 Daniel H. Pink (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Thought-provoking moments abound." ( Publishers Weekly)
"This book is a miracle. Completely original and profound." (Tom Peters)
"For soon-to-be liberal arts graduates, it makes an encouraging graduation gift." ( Newsweek)
"This is one author who knows how to narrate. Pink has excellent pacing, diction, and tone." ( AudioFile)

Loved!

As a designer this book made me so happy!!! I always used to feel you weren't smart if you didn't do hard sciences, so this book made me feel good about my choice in creative careers.

I was so amazed by the new era we are living!!!

What did you love best about A Whole New Mind?

The easy to digest narrative used by Daniel Pink

What other book might you compare A Whole New Mind to and why?

I read The Power of Habit before reading a Whole new mind, and even though they are connected both books are quite different.

Have you listened to any of Daniel H. Pink’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I have not

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

yes the 6 new principles of the High meaning High touch era

Any additional comments?

I will find out some of the books recommended by Daniel and read them

One read that you would benefit plenty

Would you consider the audio edition of A Whole New Mind to be better than the print version?

I really enjoyed learning from this book and its author. I actually read the hard copy and then purchased the audio since I am truly an auditory learner. I highly recommended this
book to you.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Whole New Mind?

The realities of change happening right in front of us.

What does Daniel H. Pink bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The understanding of the right and left brain needing to work together.

Not nearly as good as Drive

I like Daniel Pink. His book Drive on how to motivate employees was very good. I have watched videos of him speaking and in general like his style of Business Psychology books.

But I was not excited about this book. I almost stopped listening several times (and it is only just over 6 hours on audio). I actually missed the last 30 minutes because of a problem with my audiobook player and I did not feel like downloading the file again.

Pink’s point I think is basically right. In the past, left brain analytical thinking has been dominant in the business world. But increasingly as the economy moves toward a knowledge economy, right brain thinking is more valued. His first chapter summarizes the problem as Abundance, Automation and Asia. We are no longer in an economy where we are after the basics to sustain life. So we value creativity and design (abundance). Computers are good at left brain thinking, so automation is increasingly able to do many of the routine or rule based work that was a staple of our work force. Those activities that are more advanced that what computers can do, but still able to be done from afar, are being shipped off to cheaper labor markets like India and China (Asia).

So I think he has diagnose the problem, but he added very little to the analysis that is not already in Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat or a variety of other books.

What he is adding to the genre is trying to teach people how to be more right brained. He believes that people can learn to be more right brained. So much of the book is trying to teach us to do more right brained activities (laugh, tell stories, play, seek after meaning, have empathy, string together disparate ideas).

These things are all fine, but they really didn’t interest me all that much. In general, I am not sure of who the audience of this book is supposed to be. Many right brained thinkers might pick it up to encourage themselves that they are pursuing the right direction. They will like the first chapter but the instruction will probably not interest them. People that value left brain thinking probably won’t pick up the book and probably won’t get much out of the instruction.

I might have liked it more if I had not just read Shop Class as Soul Craft. Matthew Crawford talked about a lot of similar ideas from a very different perspective. Interestingly they both used several of the same illustrations. But Crawford was focused on doing what you find meaningful and enjoyable. Pink seems to be trying to help people re-create themselves and that is a much harder job.

I picked up this book for only $5 on audiobook. So I don’t feel cheated. But I did not get much out of it. If you are going to buy it, it is still on sale for audio and I would recommend that. It is clearly not worth the $13 for the kindle edition.

Meh

Nothing earth shattering and a little rambling. Some informative tidbits, and lots of external resources, but no cohesive plan.

Fine for general info I you are new to the topic, but people familiar with topic will likely be underwhelmed.

Words for direction

Dan Pjnk has written something that helps clarify a shift that has been happening. While this piece is not a story it tells us how to engage in a story and he provides us with specific direction on how to do that. This book/audiobook is art that guides us to an adventure to enjoy life and how to lead others on that path. Ironically after listening to the book I want to buy a hard copy for my library for the tools and to show others. Well done Dan. Now send me a free hard copy.

New lease on life!

This book is very good. Very easy to follow. After listening to this book it has inspired me toward a career change. YOLO. Thank you

Great Audiobook!

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. looking forward to more from Daniel H. Pink.

First part was good. Second part? Not so much.

I’ve read a few of Pink’s books in the past and enjoyed them, so I went and grabbed this one from 2005. From a purely conceptual standpoint, I liked its core theme / idea (that demand for left-brained knowledge workers will slowly wane as the market calls for more right-brained, design-centric folks). However, from a more detailed standpoint, I thought it missed the mark.

It was interesting to me that Pink had foreseen this trend all the way back in 2005. As I read this one today (2021), it felt as though he definitely hit the nail on the head with his high-level market predictions. That’s why I found it a shame that the rest of the book wasn’t that great; he got the hard part right but fumbled the easier elements.

When I refer to such elements, I’m mostly talking about the contents of “Part 2.” In it, Pink talks about his “six senses” of a right-brained approach. Save for the final one (meaning), those “senses” were just so dull and obvious that they didn’t add anything to the manuscript of the reader’s experience with it. Sure, it’s helpful to know that we should draw, meditate, and learn to multitask better, but do such subjects really need to take up several chapters of the book? I tend to think not.

Now, with that being said, there’s definitely some good content here as well. That includes “Part 1” of the book (where Pink lays out his broad market theory) and the final chapter on the “meaning” element of the right-brained approach. I found those parts to be very interesting.

Overall, though, I wouldn’t recommend this one. Pink has much better titles out there anyway. I’d start with “Drive” if you’re looking to get your feet wet.

-Brian Sachetta
Author of “Get Out of Your Head”

Super clear!

One of the best description of the world we are living. Great tools to reflect and apply to our lives.