A Whole New Mind By Daniel Pink Book Summary

Are you a left-brainer or a right-brainer?

What does it mean exactly, and for today, which one is beneficial for you, according to Daniel H. Pink, the author of the book A Whole New Mind?

So, I have studied the book “A Whole New Mind” by, and after studying the it, I am writing this summary, first, I will ask you 9 questions to test whether you are right or left-brained. Then we will know how Right brained people have more advantages.

I’ll tell you everything, but first, let’s start with a game through which we’ll learn whether you’re a right-brainer or a left-brainer.

Are You Left or Right Brain Person

I’ll ask you nine questions; you’ve got to choose one option! And will tell you in the end how you can get to know that you are a left-brainer or right-brainer.

Now, let’s start with the questions!

Q1. I would prefer

A. solving a puzzle/maths problem B. drawing/playing music

Q2. It’s easier for me to remember people by their

A. Name B. Face

Q3. Which thumb is on the top?

A. Right one B. The left one

Q4. Which question style do you like more?

A. Objective questions (true/ false) B. Subjective questions (long answers)

Q5. In both of them, which leg is on the top?

A. Right leg B. Left leg!

Q6. What do you focus on when you listen to a new song?

A. Lyrics B. Melody (music)

Q7. Do you have a good imagination?

A. No B. Yes

Q8. In the video you are watching, is she rolling?

Options are-:

A.Clockwise B. Anti-clockwise

Q9. How do you judge a thing?

A. Logically B. Emotionally

In all of them, which options do you have, most A or B?

Test Conclusion

If you’re A score is more, in comparison to B, then you are left brainer! That means you are logical, analytical, and a planner who loves to be precise!

But if you have more scores in B, that means you are a right-brainer, more creative, empathetic, and artistic person who can watch the whole picture.

Left Brain Vs. Right Brain

Author Daniel H. Pink says there are two types of people in this world! Two types of thinkers. The first is left-directed thinkers, and the other is right-directed thinkers!

According to brain dominance theory, both brainer think differently! As I’ve told you earlier, who is more creative, empathetic, and artistic?

Whereas L-directed thinkers are more logical and analytical, and the number is driven, There is some logic behind all these things!

I can say this because there are 50 years of neuroscience studies behind it!

In the 1950s, there was a person named Roger Belcourt; Who experimented in detail on patients with epilepsy! He learned that the right side of the brain is more important than the left-sided one!

This means these lawyers, accountants, and engineers generally are L-directed thinkers, which is essential, but R-directed thinkers are more critical than this.

In today’s time, they have more edge! How?

Why Right-Braines Have More Edge?

There is the concept of 3A’s in the book, 3 big reasons, which he calls AAA.

The author says that right-brainers have more edge than left-brainers in today’s world, current businesses, and the world economy career.

The good part is that all 9 questions that I asked in that game if you feel that you are a logical person and you don’t have an edge, then no issue!

I’m about to share 6 abilities in the further script, on which, if you focus, you can polish your creative surface.

But first, let’s understand why Daniel H Pink is saying this: right-brainers have more edge than left-brainers!

3A’s

As I have told you, 3A’s are the reasons, which I’ll tell you one by one! Daniel H Pink has shared everything I’m sharing with you in his book, ‘A Whole New Mind’, which is quite a good book!

Let’s come to those three reasons! In 3As,

1. Automation

Automation means those things which require less human involvement or no involvement!

The author says nowadays; all jobs are in danger! For example, if you’ve to file for a divorce, whom you’ll need? Lawyers, right?

The left brain activity of Lawyers is quite good! They are good with papers and documentation! But…

A big but! Do you know there is a website named completecase.com? Here you are given the area to put your details, where you have to put the reason for the divorce!

While sitting at home, the lawyer will charge $150; he reviews the paper, stamp it, and gives it to you! And… documents reach your ex-partner’s house! He/she signs the paper!

And your process ends! Documents get uploaded! And you are divorced! This thing got done for $150.

But if it were offline, it would require around $300 in the USA.

But the same work gets done in $100-$150. Which option will people choose?

Online is a more straightforward process, cheap, or a long process, expensive!

The author says AI will gradually take the maximum work requiring logical thinking; robots!

2. Abundance

Once Daniel was taking a seminar where he asked the audience, raise your hands if you have a car! Then he asked, “Raise two hands if you have two cars!” Stand up if you have three cars! Don’t raise your hands if you don’t have a car!

You know, when he did this exercise, there was no one who didn’t have a car! Many people raised two hands! Not just seminar, if we talk about stats, the number of cars is more than license holders in the USA.

This means drivers are more than cars! This is called Abundance!

Let’s see one more example!

The storage industry of America, where people put their extra stuff! That industry is about $39.5 Billion.

That means they have so much extra stuff they are spending too much just to keep! It’s happening in the whole world!

Those poor are very poor, and those with money have a lot of money! They have a lot of money! They have extra things!

So, if you go as a businessman or go for work, those who have abundance have money.

An era of abundance is going on! There are two consequences because of abundance! To understand the first consequence,

let me ask you a question.

1. Abundant market

Michael Graves is a person who is a great architect and designer.

He designed a toilet brush and put his signature on it! After it, you know what happened, Michael Graves’s toilet brushes were sold more than others! Why?

Toilet brushes do the same thing! If we see logically, it does just one work: cleaning the toilet.

But when Michael Graves put a little creativity into it and did a certain level of advancement, by using his creativity, by giving it specific color and design, which looked good to people, his brushes were sold more!

His product become more sellable! Such a market where there were lots of abundant brushes selling!

There is one more example of a fly swatter.

A french designer, fly swatter, which is used to kill flies, designed it.

Usually, fly swatters are sold for $5.

But the one made by a French designer was selling for $14.

And people were buying it! Why? The reason is that he designed it creatively, which looked good! You can say this is one more reason behind the advantage of right-brainers.

2. An Abundance Gap

If you see the chart of American GDP, from 1956 to 2006, America had become three-time prosperous, which is quite a good thing, right?

And as we all people think, more money means more happiness, but it was not like this! The University of Michigan did a lot of research! They researched by asking many simple questions like, are you happy?

And by this, they saw, the chart of American GDP was increasing from time to time, but the chart of happiness and satisfaction was always flat!

It means there was no improvement in it! So, if you see books like ‘Think like a Monk’, ‘A monk who sold his Ferrari’, or meditation courses, all these purpose-driven things are quite famous in America!

Because of all these things, they find meaning and purpose in life! Otherwise, most people think we’ve earned a lot now, but what’s next?

In all these things, right-brainers get the edge! Because they can think creatively and focus on purpose, not just money!

3. Asia

Author Daniel H. Pink says I met six people in India! Some were working for North American companies, some for Canada, some for Germany, and some for America!

Here, the strange thing was that no one had any computer science degree.

But still, they were earning $25,000 yearly! That is around 51 lakhs in India! Timothy Ferriss has also told in his book how he did his company’s work at cheap rates by outsourcing his work to Indian people!

They love to do work with Indian people! They work hard with honesty, and in the USA, where that money is underpaid, it is overpaid here!

One more reason is Indians and Asian countries people like India. For example, 437million people in India are getting educated and can work for others in the coming time; US people will keep outsourcing left brain works to them.

Because it is cheap for them, and Indians benefit from it! Due to this, it will be more like this; they will have to become right-brainer and do things creatively!

If something is happening in America, it starts happening in India too! Being creative is important in this competitive era!

So, before choosing your career, ask yourself 3 questions according to these 3As.

Q1. The work that I’m doing, anyone can do at cheap rates, from my country or the other one

Q2. Can computers or AI do my work by replacing them?

Q3 Which thing are you selling in this era of abundance, which will be in demand

These are the three reasons why the author said right-brainers have the edge.

If left brainer came in your test, don’t worry!

6 Ways to Activate Your Right Brain

I’m going to tell you 6 ways; if you focus, you can bring out your creative self and use the right side brain more, by making yourself creative, by making yourself right-brainer, you can say!

1. Focus On Design

In 2016, General Motors faced a significant loss! At that time, in their annual general meeting, to recover their losses of billions of dollars, president Robert Lutz said, General Motors can’t be profitable from the left side only!

Being logical, we can’t be profitable! We should leave a significant impact on the arts and entertainment business through our design.

This is if we take one more example of one of the biggest companies, Apple.

Steve Jobs used to focus on logical functions and features, but along with it, you can say the thing he was most focused on was design, simplicity, and creativity.

iPod, all these things were quite logical but were more creative.

Due to this, they were able to sell it, and people loved it! And the same thing, the CEO of P&G says, I don’t think anyone considers us a design company because they are a washing powder company!

But still, they say, we are focused on designing purchasing experience.

Designing communication experience, Designing user experience, I mean, it’s all design.

You should also focus on this thing!

2. Story

Once Daniel Pink went to buy wine in a shop! There were a lot of options available there! When he took the first bottle of wine, a nose was made on it!

That was making no sense! So, he put that bottle! And then took another bottle of wine, on which a lot of technical stuff was written like chemical components etc.

Then he pickets the third bottle of wine on which something was written!

Two brothers build this wine company! My first brother is Alex, who is a wine importer!

And the second one is Eric, who was a tattoo artist! Both of them have started a wine company, which is a kind of homage, to their mother, in a non-serious way, who isn’t in this world now!

She died because of Cancer! And the company they have built is for a good cause! They will donate 50cent for every bottle they sell,

A breast cancer research foundation! Moreover, they also said there, Since 2002, when they started Big Tattoo wines, they have given more than $8,50,000 to charity!

Which wine would Daniel have chosen out of these three?

Obviously, he chose the third one! Because stories are very powerful! It can make anything very attractive!

If you use it wisely! So, you must learn the skill of storytelling! I can teach you this thing to some extent if you are interested in becoming a content creator and learning storytelling and content writing!

3. Symphony

You must have read this thing many times through my article that you should focus on only one thing.

Obviously, if you need results in one field, you must focus on one thing! And along with it, if you want to be creative, to should know how to see the big picture!

And this is what Daniel says! He says that made millionaires are four times more dyslexic than ordinary people!

Like Charles, Richard Brandson, Ingvar Kamprad, and David Neeleman, all were dyslexic. They used to see things from different perspectives.

For example, let me play a game with you! One image has come on your screen or FedEx.

You tell me, leaving these alphabets, what can you see in this image? Able to see any signs?

Most people will focus on FedEx. F-E-D-E-X.

Basically, they are focusing on one thing! And are not seeing the big picture.

Those who see differently, creatively, they’ll see an arrow there! They will see an arrow between E and X.

It’s called seeing the big picture!

Another example is this news! It’ll seem like just a news logo to most people!

But if you see creatively, you’ll a peacock there! So, if you start seeing the big picture, and see things from different perspectives, for this, book reading can help you a lot.

Because different authors write these from different perspectives!

4. Empathy

In today’s time, it’s important to keep empathy! Yes, technical things can be outsourced, but being empathetic can’t be outsourced!

To run a successful business, you have to wear customer’s shoes! It’s important to see from their perspective! It’s important everywhere, not just in business.

For example, Jefferson scale of physician empathy, according to JSPE, the patients of empathetic doctors get cured easily compared to unempathetic doctors! So, you must have to work on your empathy!

5. Play

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy

Basically, it means playing and having fun with friends is important in every sector! It’ll help you in staying creative! Otherwise, your life will become monotonous and boring! So, do this also!

The author shares an example of this when he visited India; he saw a group of ladies in the early morning who were doing laughter therapy! You must have seen people laugh in the morning! It seemed fascinating to him!

They meet and laugh for no reason! And the exciting thing is that an Indian doctor started it.

Then he understood that laughing causes many physiological and psychological benefits.

6. Understanding Meaning

To make any business highly successful, there should be a strong meaning behind that business.

Having a purpose is necessary! Simon Sinek, author of the book ‘Start with Why‘ says, CEO of Whole Foods, by giving an example of John Mickley, who says making a profit is necessary for any business to make it hit. Whole Foods also focuses on making a profit.

But along with it, the thing we focus on more is ‘To improve health and well-being of everyone on the planet, through higher quality of foods and nutrition.

Obviously, we can’t do this thing if we aren’t profitable! So, we focus on profit also!

But remember one thing, in this world, most people live to eat, but many people don’t live just to eat!

Maximum people do businesses to make money, but not every business is for making money, and shouldn’t be either! So, they also focus on a higher purpose!

Due to this, you can say Whole Foods can be such a big company worth $13.7 Billion. The reason is that they have a strong reason, vital purpose, and strong meaning, which drives them to do work and give products to their customers.

To revise, 3 reasons why right-brainers have an advantage over left-brainers!

• Automation: Mostly things are going on automation!

• Abundance: because those who have money usually have things in abundance. Then, if you have to rise to shine, it’s necessary to be creative!

• Asia: There are many such people, who want to earn money, and don’t get scared of tedious, repetitive work! And they will do it!

I hope you liked the book summary of the book A Whole New Mind, if you want to know more about this book, I would definitely recommend you to purchase it from Amazon.