A Whole New Mind

Someone let me borrow this book and I accidentally read it. A Whole New Mind is mostly a mish-mash of a lot of good ideas from a lot of smart people glossed over so superficially as to miss the point of almost all of them. The value of this book is that maybe some of the concepts could spark interest that would lead to a more in depth study.

The main idea of the book is that in this new “conceptual age” (which is what comes after the “information age”) you'll need to be creative to survive. Period.

To do that, you need, according to Dan Pink: Design, story, symphony (something like being able to mix ideas and create metaphors), empathy, play and meaning.

The book has a few case studies (including GM... fail), a few anecdotal stories from the author's life, more than a few names dropped, lots of book recommendations, a bit of brain science and a bit of economics. In other words, it follows the formula for selling pseudo-science/pop-business books to the T, and apparently it's working. I don't think Pink is insincere or ignorant, he's a smart guy who has put together a decent book, it's just more of a compilation of tips for the age than a book about an original idea.