Daniel Pink's Whole New Mind

Dan Pink wrote the most interesting book, about what's next, and how to get there. Disruptions in the economic order have occurred so often in history, but his "big picture" analysis goes like this: Agriculture revolutionized ancient life, then the industrial revolution and mass production, then computers and knowledge workers, globalization and outsourcing. One damn thing after another, and just when you thought it was safe to go out. The next step in the evolutionary chain of events, according to Pink, is the high-concept and high-touch world of the six senses: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. His "Conceptual Age" has human beings doing art, telling stories, engaging in efforts to see the big picture and synthesizing information, relating to others, having fun and finding relevance and transcendence in our work and our world. Written in 2005-06, before the crash of our financial system and the attendant housing crisis and economic downturn, it offers a hopeful spin on the future in the light of Asian outsourcing, abundance of goods and services and automation. I'm only on page 70...more later :)