Super Summary for Section 1

Super Summary for Section 1 of A Whole New Mind

Chapter 1 focuses in on the differences between our brain’s hemispheres. It goes through a series of explanations for how each side handles the same input or situations. There are four key areas that the author centers around:

1. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body.
2. The left hemisphere is sequential, and the right hemisphere is simultaneous.
3. The left hemisphere specializes in text, and the right hemisphere specializes in context.
4. The left hemisphere analyzes the details, and the right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture.

This quote identifies the Savior vs. Saboteur Mentalities of right brain and left brain thinking:

“Many popular writers have written that the right hemisphere is key to expanding human thought, surviving trauma, healing autism and more. It’s going to save us. It’s the seat of creativity, of the soul, and even to great casserole ideas.”

This quote sums up in a poetic way the differences between the hemispheres:

“…even the most powerful computers in the world can’t recognize a face with anywhere close to the speed and accuracy of my toddler son. Think of the sequential/simultaneous difference like this: the right hemisphere is the picture; the left hemisphere is the thousand words.” p. 19

Chapter 2 – Abundance, Asia and Automation: social and economic forces.

This chapter focuses on the shift that is happening as more and more emphasis is being put on the skills of right hemisphere thinking over the long dominating left hemisphere ways of looking at the world and success in the world.

Abundance: Whoa – here is a quote worth contemplating – “The Unites States spends more on trash bags than 90 countries spend on EVERYTHING. In other words, the receptacles of our waste cost more than all of the goods consumed by over half of the world’s nations.”

Our left brains have made us rich. Businesses have moved from providing for the “needs” of consumers to providing for the “wants” and also not only “wants” but wants that are beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. We are living in a time when the standard middle class have few needs that aren’t being met, yet human satisfaction is still low. This has accelerated humans’ search for meaning and beauty in the world.

Asia: Outsourcing has become a huge issue due to the ability to purchase goods and services from countries in Asia at a fraction of the cost of producing them ourselves. “One in four IT jobs will be offshored by 2010.” This is forcing our knowledge workers to develop skills that cannot be produced overseas.
Automation: The stories of John Henry (super-human physical laborer) and Garry Kasparov (super-human chess player of our time) give examples of how things once thought to be only reached by a select few are now being surpassed by machines. This has forced professionals to develop aptitudes that computers can’t do better.

Chapter 3 – Explains High Concept and High Touch

The main characters in our present day and days to come are the “creators” and “empathizers,” two very distinct right brained skills. We have moved from and economy built on people’s backs to and economy built on people’s left brains to an economy emerging that is built on people’s right brains. In other words, the services and products that will keep our economy going are those that are “high concept,” meaning artistic and novel as well as “high touch,” meaning the ability to empathize and understand the subtleties of human interactions.

As new generations are entering the university setting, a shift has taken place. The Master’s of Fine Arts has become the new hot area of study. The shift is from IQ to EQ for success in the world. There is also a shift to more devotion to meaning and transcendence – in other words, the quality of life. “Meaning” has become the new “Money” in this Conceptual Age.
Design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning are the new 6 senses.

Introduction to the 6 Senses – these will increasingly guide our lives and shape our world.