A Whole New Mind

"A Whole New Mind" takes one reasonable idea and then panders and blathers for six hours about it. This is a book that should have been a tweet. It's a shame because this could have been an interesting book - the question of "what do humans do when machines start doing everything" is an important and fascinating question. And I'm not even sure that Daniel Pink is wrong (although he does fail to address how automation generally increases the socioeconomic divide as winner-take-all profits flow to a small number of winners). But his presentation is condescending and - even worse - uninspired. His examples are either trite (outsourcing!), mundane (suburban shopping malls), or totally out in left field (laughter clubs in Mumbai).

Here's the takeaway so that you don't need to waste your time on this book:

• Abundance, Automation, and Asia are eliminating lots of routine work
• The "High Concept / High Touch" skills of Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning will become increasingly important.