Fiction Addiction’s Blog

I just returned from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) trade show in Atlanta. The guest speaker at our kickoff breakfast was Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

Pink, a dynamic speaker, argues that though the Information Age valued analytic, left-brain thinking, we are now entering a new age, The Conceptual Age, in which those with inventive, empathic, big-picture abilities will forge to the head of the pack.

He pinpoints three causes behind this shift: abundance (in order to stand out in a crowded marketplace, product manufacturers are turning to right-brained design abilities), Asia (just as routine mass-production jobs have moved overseas, so soon will routine knowledge-based work in the fields of computer programming, financial analysis, etc.), and automation (just as machines have replaced human labor, software is now replacing human analytic skills).

In the Conceptual Age, Pink argues that the key skills that will lead to successful, productive careers are “high concept” (the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities or to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new) and “high touch” (the ability to empathize with others and to understand the subtleties of human interaction).   

A Whole New Mind is a revolutionary book that any entrepeneur, recent college graduate, or parent or educator trying to equip children for the future should read. And I highly recommend Daniel Pink as a guest speaker for any business event you may be putting together. He even managed to convince my analytical, Ph.D.-scientist father with his argument!

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