Pink's Ideas: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, Meaning

Pink started out by explaining to us the importance of being creative, and how we have gotten less creative as we grew older. Kids usually describe themselves as artists, but as they grew older, they are less likely to see themselves as one.

The importance of a good design cannot be stressed enough in a world that is gaining steam in terms of heading toward the creative works of the right-brain. Design is really everywhere and we all design something. For instance, most of us can distinguish the different types of font that we use for our computer writing. Design is important to businesses since a design that does not have a significant cannot attract buyers. Finally, design can really affect our future, since a faulty design can affect the infrastructure of our sociopolitical matters, such as during the 2000 Election.

In Chapter 5, Pink explained to us the eminence of a story in its ability to connect the teller with the listener. Fact-finding is readily an easy task, but assimilating those facts in the correct context is what actually will create an emotional impact.

Pink said that business leaders are beginning to pay attention to the value of a story in gaining attention. Business leaders are paying a lot of money just to attend a seminar by a screenwriter, Robert McKee, in order to understand its underlying structures.

Critique

I think that Pink was right to say that a story is important when it comes to creating an impact on the listener. But even the most effective story teller cannot always move the audience. For instance, when comparing political leaders, most people (and news networks) would say that John Edwards has better skills in delivering a story than either Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama. He always uses emotionally charged stories, much more than the other two candidates. Even with Edward’s skills, he wasn’t able to get the democratic nomination.

In Chapter 6, Pink explained the importance of using both our left and our right brains at the same time, which he compares it to the ability to create a musical symphony. He said that the importance of “seeing the big picture” is immeasurable; for instance, it is important to understand relationships such as the ability to utilize the concept of negatives space in drawing a picture.

Pink said that many excellent workers are those who can utilize all parts of their brains; as such they are boundary crossers. They are people who can see things metaphorically and literally. They possess knowledge in the humanities and in the technical subjects.

In Chapter 7, Pink explained the idea of empathy. He said that empathy is an act of instinct rather than a deliberate act (I guess I need to learn this). A few interesting facts in regard to empathy includes (1) computers are autistic when it comes to their ability to empathize (2) autistic people are what the author described as a highly developed male brain and (3) women have more empathy than men.

In the following chapter, Pink said that play has its roots in our ancestors. As such, many people are beginning to realize the importance of play in our daily lives. There are numerous laughing clubs around the country, and companies have in the past incorporated some notion of play in a worker’s day-to-day activities. I addition, many universities, such as Carnegie Mellon, have created degrees such as a masters degree in entertainment technology.

Pink described happiness and joyfulness by saying that the latter is unconditional. As a kid, we can be carefree and just joyfully exist, and he believes that this part of our previous past cannot be neglected.

In the last chapter, Pink described the notion of meaning in life. He said that so far several universities such as MIT have taken spirituality as something that shares a relationship with science. MIT has invited the Dali Lama for a cross analysis between science and religion/spirituality. Nowadays, universities are beginning to offer courses that allow students to study some aspects of life’s meaning.

Critique

In this chapter, I have found that it is Pink’s weakest support. He relies on several researches that reaffirm what we have already known, such as meditation can reduce a person’s heart pressure. But moreover, he gave some data, such as that “72 percent of American would welcome a conversation with their physicians about faith.” But this is not so much as that the data suggest Americans are beginning to understand the value of faith in medicine, but it only tell me that Americans are interested in holding religion as part of the fabric of our society, in general. Secondly, I have found it a little bit hard to understand his writing when he tried to explain how science would explain certain intangible aspects of life, such as meaning or happiness.