A Whole New Mind – Chapter 3
High Concept, High Touch
Pink starts off chapter 3 by talking about the last 3 years: the Industrial Age, the Information Age, and the Conceptual Age. He basically showed us how we have progressed from a society of farmers to a society of factory workers to a society of knowledge workers. Back in the Industrial Age, L-Directed thinking was preferred. Now, as North America, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan evolve once again, R-Directed Thinking is beginning to achieve social and economic parity – and, in many cases , primacy. He believes that L-Directed thinking is no longer sufficient.
Pink poses three questions that we must ask ourselves to survive and work in this age:
1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
2. Can a computer do it faster?
3. Is what I’m offering in demand in an age of abundance?
He believes that to survive in a job today depends on being able to do something that overseas knowledge works can’t do cheaper, that powerful computers can’t do faster, and that satisfies one of the nonmaterial, transcendent desires of an abundant age. We now need abilities that are high concept and high touch. High 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.
A master of fine arts is the new MBA. Because of Asia, many MBA graduates are ending up being people who entered a workforce full of promise, only to see their jobs move overseas. Also, because of abundance, businesses are realizing that the only way to differentiate their goods and services in today’s overstocked marketplace is to make their offerings physically beautiful and emotionally compelling.
He then goes to talk about how IQ exams, such as the SAT, which measures L-Directed thinking, does not account for much of your future career success. More important qualities that are tougher to quantify are imagination, joyfulness, and social dexterity. High-touch abilities, the capacity for compassion, car and uplift, are becoming a key component of many occupations in the Conceptual Age.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
A Whole New Mind - Chapter 2
A Whole New Mind- Chapter 2
Abundance, Asia, and Automation
In Chapter 2, Pink discusses the three topics of his chapter: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. He said these topics are the causes of the diminished relative importance of L-Directed Thinking and the corresponding increased importance of R-Directed Thinking. With abundance, he started off talking about growing up in the seventies and shopping at a small mall with stores that featured products that were pricier than today’s products. There was also less of a selection of products. Now-a-days there is so much more selection and things are cheaper to buy. The prosperity abundance has unleashed has placed a premium on less rational, more R-Directed sensibilities – beauty, spirituality, and emotion. Businesses now must create a product that’s also beautiful, unique, and meaningful. In an age of abundance, appealing to only rational, logical, and functional needs is very insufficient. Abundance has brought beautiful things to our lives, but that bevy of material goods has not necessarily made us much happier. This prosperous country has a desire for beauty and transcendence.
When discussing his topic of Asia, he started to discuss the outsourcing of jobs from the United States to other countries over seas. In other countries, people will do the same work that could be done in the United States, just for cheaper pay. Many of today’s knowledge workers will likewise have to command a new set of aptitudes. They’ll need to do what workers abroad cannot do equally well for much less money – using R-directed abilities such as forging relationships rather than executing transactions, tackling novel challenges instead of solving routine problems, and synthesizing the big picture rather than analyzing a single component.
Last century, machines proved they could replace human backs. This century, new technologies are proving they can replace human left brains. Any job that depends on routines – that can be reduced to a set of rules, or broken down into a set of repeatable steps – is at risk. Automation is also changing the work or many doctors. Computers can process the binary logic of decision trees with swiftness and accuracy humans can’t begin to approach. A similar pattern is unfolding in the legal profession. Dozens of inexpensive information and advice services are reshaping law practice.
Basically, these three topics are more in favor of R-Directed Thinking. There is a huge abundance of products out there now that help individuals search for meaning. Also, Asia is now performing large amounts of L-directed work at lower costs. Also, automation has begun to affect this generation’s white-collar workers by requiring L-directed professionals to develop aptitudes that computers can’t do better, faster, or cheaper.
Abundance, Asia, and Automation
In Chapter 2, Pink discusses the three topics of his chapter: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. He said these topics are the causes of the diminished relative importance of L-Directed Thinking and the corresponding increased importance of R-Directed Thinking. With abundance, he started off talking about growing up in the seventies and shopping at a small mall with stores that featured products that were pricier than today’s products. There was also less of a selection of products. Now-a-days there is so much more selection and things are cheaper to buy. The prosperity abundance has unleashed has placed a premium on less rational, more R-Directed sensibilities – beauty, spirituality, and emotion. Businesses now must create a product that’s also beautiful, unique, and meaningful. In an age of abundance, appealing to only rational, logical, and functional needs is very insufficient. Abundance has brought beautiful things to our lives, but that bevy of material goods has not necessarily made us much happier. This prosperous country has a desire for beauty and transcendence.
When discussing his topic of Asia, he started to discuss the outsourcing of jobs from the United States to other countries over seas. In other countries, people will do the same work that could be done in the United States, just for cheaper pay. Many of today’s knowledge workers will likewise have to command a new set of aptitudes. They’ll need to do what workers abroad cannot do equally well for much less money – using R-directed abilities such as forging relationships rather than executing transactions, tackling novel challenges instead of solving routine problems, and synthesizing the big picture rather than analyzing a single component.
Last century, machines proved they could replace human backs. This century, new technologies are proving they can replace human left brains. Any job that depends on routines – that can be reduced to a set of rules, or broken down into a set of repeatable steps – is at risk. Automation is also changing the work or many doctors. Computers can process the binary logic of decision trees with swiftness and accuracy humans can’t begin to approach. A similar pattern is unfolding in the legal profession. Dozens of inexpensive information and advice services are reshaping law practice.
Basically, these three topics are more in favor of R-Directed Thinking. There is a huge abundance of products out there now that help individuals search for meaning. Also, Asia is now performing large amounts of L-directed work at lower costs. Also, automation has begun to affect this generation’s white-collar workers by requiring L-directed professionals to develop aptitudes that computers can’t do better, faster, or cheaper.
A Whole New Mind - Chapter 1
A Whole New Mind – Chapter 1
Right Brain Rising
Daniel H. Pink starts off his first chapter of the book by describing his experience getting an MRI. He says that he is volunteering to be part of a control group for a project at the National Institute of Mental Health, outside Washington D.C. The study involves capturing images of brains at rest and at work. His first task was to choose certain pictures that showed the same emotion. Then the researchers showed him forty-eight color photos and he has to decide if the scene takes place inside or outside.
He then goes on to discuss the brain. In history, the left side of the brain was always superior to the right side. Caltech professor Roger W. Sperry studied brains and discovered that, “the so-called subordinate or minor hemisphere, which we had formerly supposed to be illiterate and mentally retarded and thought by some authorities to not even be conscious, was found to be in fact the superior cerebral member when it came to performing certain kinds of mental tasks.” Basically the right hemisphere wasn’t inferior to the left, just different.
After discussing misconceptions about the brain, he goes on to discuss “the real stuff.” The left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body. Basically if you have a stroke on the left hemisphere of your brain, your right side won’t function and vise versa. The left hemisphere is sequential and the right hemisphere is simultaneous. The left hemisphere excels at processing sounds and symbols in sequence. The right side of the brain has the ability to interpret things simultaneously. The left hemisphere specializes in text and the right hemisphere specializes in context. The left hemisphere handles what is said and the right hemisphere focuses on how it is said. The left hemisphere analyzes the details and the right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture. The left hemisphere participates in the analysis of information and the right hemisphere is specialized for synthesis. It is particularly good at putting isolated elements together to perceive things as a whole.
Pink says that humans somehow seem naturally inclined to see life in contrasting pairs, i.e. east versus west. Yet, in most realms we usually don’t have to pick sides and it’s dangerous if we do. In our brains, both sides work together. Our culture has put left hemisphere thinking higher than right. Pink says it is changing. It is an inspiring change.
Right Brain Rising
Daniel H. Pink starts off his first chapter of the book by describing his experience getting an MRI. He says that he is volunteering to be part of a control group for a project at the National Institute of Mental Health, outside Washington D.C. The study involves capturing images of brains at rest and at work. His first task was to choose certain pictures that showed the same emotion. Then the researchers showed him forty-eight color photos and he has to decide if the scene takes place inside or outside.
He then goes on to discuss the brain. In history, the left side of the brain was always superior to the right side. Caltech professor Roger W. Sperry studied brains and discovered that, “the so-called subordinate or minor hemisphere, which we had formerly supposed to be illiterate and mentally retarded and thought by some authorities to not even be conscious, was found to be in fact the superior cerebral member when it came to performing certain kinds of mental tasks.” Basically the right hemisphere wasn’t inferior to the left, just different.
After discussing misconceptions about the brain, he goes on to discuss “the real stuff.” The left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body. Basically if you have a stroke on the left hemisphere of your brain, your right side won’t function and vise versa. The left hemisphere is sequential and the right hemisphere is simultaneous. The left hemisphere excels at processing sounds and symbols in sequence. The right side of the brain has the ability to interpret things simultaneously. The left hemisphere specializes in text and the right hemisphere specializes in context. The left hemisphere handles what is said and the right hemisphere focuses on how it is said. The left hemisphere analyzes the details and the right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture. The left hemisphere participates in the analysis of information and the right hemisphere is specialized for synthesis. It is particularly good at putting isolated elements together to perceive things as a whole.
Pink says that humans somehow seem naturally inclined to see life in contrasting pairs, i.e. east versus west. Yet, in most realms we usually don’t have to pick sides and it’s dangerous if we do. In our brains, both sides work together. Our culture has put left hemisphere thinking higher than right. Pink says it is changing. It is an inspiring change.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Neovox
For my neovox article, I was thinking of doing it on facebook/myspace. They are websites that I commly use and it would be easy for me to write about if I have had experience with using it.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
'IM-speak' infiltrating classrooms
I found this article from MSNBC.com for another class, but I think it can relate to ours as well. This article discusses how students are creating new errors in their essays due to internet talk. Junior high and high school teachers say they all nationwide see a trend that is bothersome to them. These words are so common in their life now that they can't remember when not to use them. It is a subconscience act. One specific educator, David Warlick of Raleigh, N.C., sees the instant messengers as a phenomenon that should be celebrated. He claims that teachers should credit their students with inventing a new language ideal for communicating in a high-tech world. I don't know how many teachers would agree with him, but he gives an opinion on the other side of the argument. The article says that most students realize by the time they get to college not to use this type of talk. When discussing this article in my Issues in Digital Culture class, my teacher says she still finds some mistakes using IM talk in papers.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Smart Mobs - Chapter 7
Smart Mobs – Chapter 7
In chapter 7, Rheingold discusses the impact of technology used in groups of people. “On January 20, 2001, President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines became the first head of state in history to lose power to a smart mob. More than 1 million Manila residents mobilized and coordinated by waves of text messages…” This momentous occurrence of bringing down the government without firing the shot is not the only time it has happened. There have been other instances where technology got people together to take down a government. SMS messaging is free and wire line telephone service costs more than mobile phones. In a country where 40 percent of the population lives on 1 dollar a day, text messaging makes sense and is much cheaper. Filipinos started to text jokes, rumors, and chain letters. The significance of “netwar” was also discussed. “Netwar” is an emerging mode of conflict in which the protagonists-ranging from terrorist and criminal organizations on the dark side, to militant social activists on the bright side-use network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and technology attuned to the information age. This chapter also discussed these special programs on mobile phones that you sign up on the internet and enter in your information and then if someone else signed up is within a few feet of you, you can choose to let them find you. It helps new people to meet. You are also able from other online services to join groups that text messages you of information that you are interested in. Rheingold discussed how he joined nyc text alert and they alerted him when a plane crashed. Rheingold ends the chapter by saying, “Smart mobs are an unpredictable but at least partially describable emergent property that I see surfacing as more people use mobile telephones, more chips communicate with each other, more computers know where they are located, more technology becomes wearable, more people start using these new media to invent new forms of sex, commerce, entertainment, communion, and, as always, conflict.”
In chapter 7, Rheingold discusses the impact of technology used in groups of people. “On January 20, 2001, President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines became the first head of state in history to lose power to a smart mob. More than 1 million Manila residents mobilized and coordinated by waves of text messages…” This momentous occurrence of bringing down the government without firing the shot is not the only time it has happened. There have been other instances where technology got people together to take down a government. SMS messaging is free and wire line telephone service costs more than mobile phones. In a country where 40 percent of the population lives on 1 dollar a day, text messaging makes sense and is much cheaper. Filipinos started to text jokes, rumors, and chain letters. The significance of “netwar” was also discussed. “Netwar” is an emerging mode of conflict in which the protagonists-ranging from terrorist and criminal organizations on the dark side, to militant social activists on the bright side-use network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and technology attuned to the information age. This chapter also discussed these special programs on mobile phones that you sign up on the internet and enter in your information and then if someone else signed up is within a few feet of you, you can choose to let them find you. It helps new people to meet. You are also able from other online services to join groups that text messages you of information that you are interested in. Rheingold discussed how he joined nyc text alert and they alerted him when a plane crashed. Rheingold ends the chapter by saying, “Smart mobs are an unpredictable but at least partially describable emergent property that I see surfacing as more people use mobile telephones, more chips communicate with each other, more computers know where they are located, more technology becomes wearable, more people start using these new media to invent new forms of sex, commerce, entertainment, communion, and, as always, conflict.”
Monday, February 5, 2007
Smart Mobs - Chapter 6
Smart Mobs – Chapter 6
In chapter 6, Rheingold discussed wireless networks and the politics that goes along with it. The best way to find public wireless Internet access in a new city these days is to go where expensive coffee is served. Rheingold also talked about how recent technical and regulatory events have made it possible for citizens to share wireless Internet access today at speeds higher than expected. New technologies and social contracts make it possible for a small amount of people to do what used to require huge corporate monopolies. Wireless technologies are a cost-effective way to bring high-speed Internet services to the connection between people’s PCs or mobile devices and the fast fiber optic networks that pump data around the world at what are known as “broadband speeds.” Wireless is the best way to bring the majority of the world’s population online. The first phase of the Internet that was owned by someone who charged for access to and it is not required for wireless. Everyone owns the airwaves. “Whether or not wireless Internet access becomes a profitable business, the success of WiFi as a tool within industries was assured when Federal Express Corporation stared equipping its delivery fleet with WiFi networks that transmit encrypted broadband data when a truck nears a terminal and senses a hotspot. UPS is also deploying 802.11b wireless LANs in all its distribution centers worldwide.” There is although the health concern with wireless Internet access that is the radio frequency radiation. The radios operate on the same frequencies as microwave ovens, and a powerful access point emits as much radiation as a microwave oven. WiFi security, radiation, and interference problems might be solvable, or WiFi might be a dead end or transitional technology. Although, when it comes to wireless communications, politics is as important as technology. Who will have control over the use of the cloud of personal information smart mob technologies transmit, as mobile and pervasive communications evolve and merge? In each of the converging technologies that constitute smart mobs, issues of control remain to be resolved.
In chapter 6, Rheingold discussed wireless networks and the politics that goes along with it. The best way to find public wireless Internet access in a new city these days is to go where expensive coffee is served. Rheingold also talked about how recent technical and regulatory events have made it possible for citizens to share wireless Internet access today at speeds higher than expected. New technologies and social contracts make it possible for a small amount of people to do what used to require huge corporate monopolies. Wireless technologies are a cost-effective way to bring high-speed Internet services to the connection between people’s PCs or mobile devices and the fast fiber optic networks that pump data around the world at what are known as “broadband speeds.” Wireless is the best way to bring the majority of the world’s population online. The first phase of the Internet that was owned by someone who charged for access to and it is not required for wireless. Everyone owns the airwaves. “Whether or not wireless Internet access becomes a profitable business, the success of WiFi as a tool within industries was assured when Federal Express Corporation stared equipping its delivery fleet with WiFi networks that transmit encrypted broadband data when a truck nears a terminal and senses a hotspot. UPS is also deploying 802.11b wireless LANs in all its distribution centers worldwide.” There is although the health concern with wireless Internet access that is the radio frequency radiation. The radios operate on the same frequencies as microwave ovens, and a powerful access point emits as much radiation as a microwave oven. WiFi security, radiation, and interference problems might be solvable, or WiFi might be a dead end or transitional technology. Although, when it comes to wireless communications, politics is as important as technology. Who will have control over the use of the cloud of personal information smart mob technologies transmit, as mobile and pervasive communications evolve and merge? In each of the converging technologies that constitute smart mobs, issues of control remain to be resolved.
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