From an interview with Daniel Pink, former chief speechwriter for Al Gore.
"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,"
Read the whole interview here.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Are right brained thinkers going to create clean coal, develop hydrogen cars, create new medications, ect?...The major issues facing this country are not solved by right brained thinkers. They may be made better implemented or designed, but not solved.
In my opinion, you cannot have one without the other...but this country will never outsource over 50% of its left brained requirements...no way!
There is no doubt the value of creativity. I think about how Steve Jobs audited a calligraphy course in college. He never expected it to be of any value, he just appreciated the artistry. Years later, while developing the Macintosh, he incorporated calligraphy fonts into is word documents. The start of computer graphics design started with a right brained experience in a left brained person. I find that fascinating.
I agree with you, in an ideal world you cant have one without the other and these things must be balanced. I think what the article is saying is that for the longest time these things have not been balanced, and in the near future we may see this flip around. It's of no doubt that so called left brained thinkers crunching numbers at some hedge fund or investment bank for well over 6 figure salaries are going to find themselves out of work cause some 20 year old in India can do their job at a fraction of the price - from India - and in some cases probably even better than them.
Are right brained thinkers going to create clean coal, develop hydrogen cars, create new medications, etc? Yes, they are, but certainly in concert with left brain thinkers.
"this country will never outsource over 50% of its left brained requirements" - dont be so sure of that. Stranger things have happened.
Another thing to consider is that right now there are more artists than ever (At least now that people have such specialized careers -- there was probably a time in human history when everybody was an artist to some degree).
And right now we are in the middle of a housing crises with cities like Detroit and Cleveland in really bad shape. For the first time, artists are coming in to blighted neighborhoods and are building value that they will actually own. The previous model was that artists move in and fix up downtrodden neighborhoods, but price themselves out in the process. But with such cheap housing prices and so many foreclosures, the future will be different because this time many artists will own their homes and get to be the financial beneficiaries of all their hard work.
See this article from the Wall Street Journal for evidence.
From that WSJ article:
"The worse things get, the more creative you have to become."
Amen to that.
Post a Comment