Book Review: A Whole New Mind

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink

Before I listened to this book, I took some online quizzes to find out if I was more right brained or left brained. Three quizzes said I was left brained, one said I was right brained. So when I say I didn’t like this book, you can chalk it up to my left-brained narrow-mindedness.

Pink starts out his book with one solid premise: left-brained tech centered jobs are being outsourced overseas and taken over by computers. If you want to succeed, you need to learn how to be more in touch with the right side of your brain. I get the feeling that his target demographic is computer programmers and the upper management of tech companies.

He launched into his arguments by throwing around statistics; such and such million dollars are spent on design, design is important, we live in an age of abundance, so good design is what sells, therefore an MFA is the new MBA. I already started to feel skeptical. If you’re a designer, you probably already have a solid background in art. If you are not a designer, learning to draw is not likely to make you into one. Saying that because good design is important, learning art will help you get ahead is like saying that since the best college athletes get full scholarships, if you learn to throw a ball your tuition will be cheaper. Its logic did not convince me.

Much of the other examples seemed too specific to be useful. He talks about how empathy is important to doctors, which is great, if you’re a doctor, but most of us aren’t. (no advice on how to be less empathic, which is what I want, so I can avoid cringing when people crack their knuckles near me.) He also gives an example of a model highschool, where the kids have an art based curriculum that encourages their creative sides to flourish. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m getting a little tired of non-educators talking about “what’s wrong with our schools.” Again, if you’re an educator, this might be useful [doubt it, cough cough], but how many of us are?

By part two, I was solidly feeling that I didn’t like this book, and I tried to figure out why.

My left brain says that it’s because he started out by making an argument (see above), failed to convince me of this argument, and then proceeded to talk about different topics that had little to do with the original argument. My left brain wanted a neat, logical progression from hypothesis to proof, to summary. Not that that’s the only kind of book I like. I adored Malcolm Gladwell’s books, which did not strive to prove anything, but instead used well-researched essays to elaborate on a theme. Pink’s book spends a little time trying (unsuccessfully) to prove his hypothesis, and then devolves into “how to make your life fulfilling.” Nothing wrong with a book on how to give your life meaning, but that’s not the kind of book it promises to be. It struck me as weird that, at the tail end of a section on using labyrinths as meditiation, he segued directly into “if you can’t get in touch with this side of life, you’re going to get left behind” jargon. Huh? It’s like saying “money isn’t important, family is, and people who don’t remember that aren’t going to earn as much in their paychecks.”

My right brain says I just didn’t trust the guy’s authority. Because I didn’t think he proved his first proposition, my mistrust snowballed with every bizarre suggestion he made. He thinks that you should subscribe to good design magazines, and he reads the titles and urls so you can, I dunno, write them down while you’re driving or at the gym or wherever you happen to be listening to the audiobook. Does reading design magazines make you a better designer? Or does it just make you into a know-it-all who thinks good design is easy? He suggests you make a journal of good designs, and will “be amazed” at how your own capacity for recognizing good design has improved. Really? Has he tried this? Maybe he has. Maybe he’s tried everything he suggests, but I didn’t believe it.

His advice struck me a lot like the advice in the book (which he lauds) DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN, which was inflicted on me when I was an art student in high school. Some people love this book, and if you’re one of them, good for you. It takes people whose art ability is at a zero, and makes them draw at a five. It also takes people whose art ability is at a seven, and makes them draw at a five. It’s like training wheels for a bicycle. If you can’t do it at all, it helps you do it a little. If you’re trying to shave a few minutes off your 100 mile time, training wheels are a pain in the ass. Maybe that’s why I didn’t like this book, because I’m left brained in that I’m not late for things, I’m organized, I think logically, I’m verbal. But I also draw, paint, sculpt, create stories, garden, and am more empathic than I would like to be. Maybe his advice seems facile and fatuous because I don’t need it. Maybe there are people who need his training wheels, who think that having story parties or laughter clubs or the other odd suggestions are more than just a way to waste time and mark yourself as a weirdo. Maybe you’re not expected to actually do them. Maybe they’re like Martha Stewart craft suggestions, where the reader and author are indulging in the fantasy that the reader is the kind of person who is willing and able to spend $800 dollars in imported roses and 14 hours to create a wreath to decorate a child’s bassinet to make your christening party perfect. Maybe Pink’s suggestions are just what they seemed to be: half-assed, un-tested woo-woo ideas that no one, least of all the author, would really try.

Or that could be my cynical left-brain talking.

Pink has read a lot of good books; I know, because I’ve read a lot of the same ones he’s read. But he seems like he’s used high quality ingredients to come up with a mediocre dish. He had the ingredients for a “how to find meaning through beauty and spirituality” and instead tried to make it a business guide on how not to be unemployed when computers or Indians do your job. I recommend this for people who want to peruse a bibilography for better books to read.

*A note on the audioversion. Pink read this himself. He’s not a trained speaker, and there were parts where his speech slowed down to the point of sounding stilted, but that didn’t really get in the way. I liked that when he did quotes, he started out by changing his cadence just enough to let you know that there was a different speaker, but then he went back to a normal speaking tone. I thought he missed a wonderful opportunity, during one section when he was talking about Mahler and Beethoven, to include a clip of music. It would have added a lot more than the insipid intro music did. I got really irritated with his insistence on reading out urls. I especially disliked that he felt he had to read “DOUBLE YOU DOUBLE YOU DOUBLE YOU” before every one. Does anyone even need that anymore?

View all my reviews