A Responce to 'A Whole New Mind'

For my LATI program I have read the first three chapters of Daniel H. Pink's book A Whole New Mind.

To briefly summarize:
The book is a statement by Pink that the days of valuing strictly Left-brained, or highly technical, skills is over. He postulates that because of economic changes, Americans today must excessive creativity, empathy, and other more creative thinking processes to be competitive in the job market today.

Pinks book also includes fun creativity challenges that illustrate what kind of creative thinking he believes will be important in the new Right brained economy. I just might try a few of his suggestions like browsing magazines I would not normally look at to get a different perspective of what someone with very different interests from my own might be reading/thinking/buying etc.

Three questions I would ask Pink about the first three chapters of his book are:

1. Right Brain Rising: I am not sure about some of the technical aspects of Pinks 'right brain / left brain' dichotomy. He himself states that it is more of a label than the fact that creative and empathetic tasks/thoughts come just from the right Brian but I wonder if Pink would consider a different label for this concept of creativity and synthesis vs. more logic and numbers based thinking and what would such labels be?

2. Automation, Abundance and Asia: I wonder if Pink has taken into account in this chapter the growing government positions in Homeland Security, and defence. Chemists are in as much demand in this country today as ever, and their demand in government and defence contracting cannot be shipped over seas for security reasons. I may be overly sensitive to this issue because of the proximity of a prominent government testing and research base in my area, but I believe that there are many highly technical 'L-brained' jobs that will never be farmed out to the A's. My question to Pink is, do you think we produce enough graduates with a high enough technical skill set to fulfill these positions now? I don't and I wonder if we do not already tend to prize 'R-brained skills over L in many instances of education in the US.

3. High Concept, High Touch: As for this chapter, I wonder how Pink proposes we should teach something like creativity and humor. While it is possible to nurture artistic and other such abilities it is generally considered that they are in-born. How would Pink challenge that assumption and suggest we teach R-brained skills to those who are highly L-brained and seek to gain some of the skills that be believes are becoming more essential in today's economy.

As for the impact of Automation, Abundance and Asia on libraries, I believe that these changes increase the need and use of libraries as apposed to decreasing them. As LATI has taught me, one of the most important jobs a librarian has is finding out what question the patron REALLY needs to ask. Sometimes a person does not even know themselves. That kind of work requires empathy and creativity. Our positions are local community positions so they cannot be affected by Asia, and no mater how abundant resources are, the library will always be able to provide a greater selection and set of resources than a person would be able to buy on their own, or would use enough to warrant buying. While the way we deliver this information/entertainment may shift and change, libraries seem to be the kind of place the new right mindedness Pink champions can flourish.

-M