Author: Daniel Pink
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Year Published: 2005
Rating: 
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The world as we know it is changing and the new Conceptual Age being ushered in will take some getting used to. This era won’t be ruled by the MBAs and information junkies of the past but the designers and engineers and other big picture thinkers. At first glance, you might think this is your typical book on left-brained vs right-brained thinking, but Pink takes the debate to a whole new level – one that makes a strong case for right-brainers to rule the future.
The book is laid out in two parts. The first outlines what we can expect in the future ‘Conceptual Age’ and the second gives Pink’s ‘Six Senses’ – the 6 aptitudes we’ll need to survive in this new era.
So just what is this Conceptual Age and how does it differ from where we are now? According to Pink, there are three major trends affecting how firms do business.
- Abundance – Virtually everything we could ever possibly want materially is offered in an overwhelming assortment of choices. Appealing to logic and reason to sell a product or service is becoming less and less effective. Now, it’s all about emotion. How it’s being designed, packaged, and the way that makes people feel.
- Asia – Outsourcing has become the standard for doing business in a global economy. Now, instead of looking internally for white collar workers, companies look overseas to Asia.
- Automation – Just as blue collar workers saw their job possibilities diminish as technology started doing more; white collar workers are losing jobs to desktop applications.
These trends aren’t going away any time soon. What you need to ask yourself are these 3 fundamental questions:
- Can someone oversees do it cheaper?
- Can a computer do it faster?
- Is what I’m offering in demand in an age of abundance?
If you answered ‘yes’ to questions 1 or 2 or ‘no’ to answer 3, there’s a good chance you’ll have problems in the future. Being a knowledge worker is no longer enough. In the Conceptual Age, you’ll need ‘high concept’ and ‘high touch’ abilities.
[H]igh concept involves the ability to create artistic and emotional beauty, to detect patterns and opportunities, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention. High touch involves the ability to empathize, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one’s self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the quotidian, in pursuit of purpose and meaning.
Part 2 details the Six Senses, which are Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. Each chapter is broken into a lesson on each aptitude and a portfolio section, where Pink provides exercises to enhance the way we think.
For instance, in the Empathy section, Pink explains what empathy is – ‘the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position and to intuit what that person is feeling’ – and then talks about how bad humans are at reading facial expressions or knowing when someone is lying.
In fact, studies in neuroscience actually show that people with damage to the left hemispheres of their brains are actually better at reading expressions than the rest of us with both hemispheres intact. But you don’t have to take his word for it. In the portfolio section, he provides links to a few online quizzes where you can test your ability to determine whether someone is genuinely smiling or just faking it. The rest of the exercises are just as interesting. If you take the time to run through the exercises at the end of each chapter, you’ll walk away from this book with a ton of new ideas.
Pink’s writing style is easy to read and his personality is very down to earth. He doesn’t come across as an arrogant guru dictating how the world will be in five years. Rather, he appears to be bursting with ideas and often uses some of his own experiences to highlight his points.
In the Symphony chapter, for instance, he starts with a drawing class he took and includes his ‘before’ and ‘after’ self portraits, which are dramatically different. I had to chuckle because the experience was a lot like my own during my first figure drawing class. Beginners often draw what they think they should be drawing, not what is actually there, so their drawings often don’t look much like what’s right in front of them. Throughout the drawing class, the instructor focuses you on what you actually see, how to interpret what you see, and how to transfer that onto paper. It’s really an eye opening experience that I would encourage everyone to try at least once.
The book is written as Pink’s philosophy, with a toolkit of exercises included to get you thinking creatively. There are some references to scientific studies, but in general, the book is skimpy on references and reads more like an op ed article or a social commentary than a step-by-step, academic, this-is-how-it-is kind of book.
Overall, it is a great book for getting your creative juices flowing and looking at the world in a new way. I highly recommend it to anyone, particularly left-brained people, who feels stuck, uncreative, or uncertain about their future. Yes, with this book, you too can learn to think like one of those ‘creative types.’ If Pink’s right, your future will depend on it.
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