Week One: Article Two

1)      I found many things interesting about Daniel Pink’s article entitled Revenge of the Right Brain.  For one, I completely agree with Mr. Pink that there has been a shift or should be a shift of focus in our society in relationship to the workforce, how one obtains a job, and where we should focus our energies moving forward.  In the past, many people would put all of their focus into studying hard in school, and then pursuing a career based off of their stronger subject areas.  You were evaluated on your ability to acquire and apply knowledge learned in the classroom.  As Mr. Pink states, “this was the path to professional success and personal fulfillment.”  Now there has been more of a shift towards creativeness, artistry, empathy, and seeing the big picture amongst other things.  The left-side of our brains dominated our thinking and drove our career paths.  Now though, the right-side of brains are not taking a back seat so to speak to the left-sides of our brains. 

As Mr. Pink alludes to, changes in society have caused this shift to take place in our brains and by looking at the examples he used of Asia, automation, and abundance, it helped open my eyes.  Many Americans have and/or will lose their jobs to men and women overseas, because they do not require as much money to do left-brain work such as American tax returns, help lines for most of our electronic and technical equipment, etc.  Outsourcing has been on the rise and will continue to be on the rise.  Americans in the workforce are also being replaced by computer applications and technological advances.  If a computer can do something quick and easy, Americans will use it.  The problem with this though is that these programs are replacing people’s jobs.  For example, many people think to themselves, “why should I hire an accountant to do my taxes for a large sum of money, when I can do it myself with TurboTax?”  Finally, most people buy, buy, buy in our society without even blinking.  With quick swipe credit and debit cards, online shopping, and other marketing ideas, buying a new television or piece of furniture is only a swipe or click away.  What has this led to: a society that is overloaded with a lot of junk.  We have an abundance of everything.  We as consumers have many wants, needs, preferences and this has turned into a major problem.  Many times the more expensive product is purchased just because it has some designer’s name on it.  This is all the right side of our brains subliminally demanding beauty, and emotion.  I found this article to be interesting for one because I agree with Daniel Pink.  He made several points that made me say to myself, “he is exactly right.”  We as Americans are moving (if we haven’t already) into a society that needs us and is calling upon us to use both sides of our brains more than ever.  Many people are scratching their heads as to why so many people are without jobs, hurting for money, or struggling to survive.  Reading Daniel Pink’s article helped me see some of the reasons why this is occurring and what we need to do in order to succeed in the future: Look to the right side of the brain!

2)      The only questions I really would have about this article are that I am very curious on the research that is out there regarding brain function and how it plays a role in our lives.  Obviously Mr. Pink hit on the point that researchers have found out which sides of the brain handle which responsibilities/functions, but I would love to know the statistics/percentages as to which side is used more, in what circumstances, etc.  Mr. Pink used only a couple statistics to backup his backup his thoughts/opinions, but I have questions on the validity of his arguments without seeing the research to back it up.  I want to know what percentage of jobs use more functions of the left-side of the brain everyday compared to right-side of the brain functions.  I also want to know exactly the evolution of creative expression.  Are there more jobs out there that require creativeness, or jobs where emotion is extremely important in the decision making process now as compared to ten, twenty, or even thirty years ago?

3)   I don’t have any recommendations for what the author should change about an article they wrote, because this is his thoughts and opinions and he is entitled to his beliefs on the current state of our society and how he sees the future of our society.  Although I might try to include more statistics to backup my argument/opinions, once again this article is just how he sees our society changing.  Whenever I read an article, story, or book, after I finish, I develop my own thoughts and opinions.  Sometimes I completely agree, while other times I completely disagree with what the author has to say.  Sometimes I agree with some points of the article, while other times I agree with little to no points of the article. In my opinion this is what is so great about reading and reacting.  One of the great parts of our society is that everyone is entitled to their own set of opinions and beliefs.  For the most part in this article I completely agree with what Daniel Pink had to say: We as Americans are losing jobs to foreigners and have to make some changes in how we educate our children/society moving forward.  We are a society that feeds off of abundance.  Most people I know have what they want, but way more than what they need.  Finally, technology rules how we live our lives now, and instead of denying that, we need to embrace this and understand it is reality.  Computers can do many things better and faster than humans can, so it is up to us to find ways to use the right side of our brains, because we will have to rely on the right side more than ever.