RIGHT BRAIN THERAPY

Lawyers. Accountants. Computer programmers. That’s what our parents encouraged us to become when we grew up. But Mom and Dad were wrong. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind. The era of “left brain” dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which “right brain” qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate.

Pink sees three forces driving the Western World in this direction:
1) There is an Abundance of material goods.
2) Asia has become a vast pool of inexpensive labor, especially in the goods-creating products.
3) Automation is changing the landscape of work. Automation of everything from factory assembly to medical diagnosis. Just about everything that can be broken down into a series of logical steps, or actions, is being automated.

As a result Pink presents a convincing argument that our country is entering a new era—the so-called conceptual age—during which right-brained skills such as design and storytelling will become far more crucial than traditionally left-brained skills such as accounting and computer programming. While the latter skills are readily outsourced, transformative abilities such as empathy and creativity are crucial in a new age animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life.