A Whole New Mind

“Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age” is Daniel H. Pink’s subtitle of his book titled, A Whole New Mind (NY: Riverhead Books, 2005). What we are moving away from – the Information Age – is a world focused on logical, linear, computer-like capabilities. What we are moving towards – the Conceptual Age – is a world focused on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities. This book is yet another of the many books that have heralded an ongoing “paradigm shift” in our midst.

So what else is new?

The newness of A Whole New Mind, at least for lovers of music, is the author’s listing of “Symphony” as one of the six essential aptitudes – what he terms “the six senses” – that will increasingly facilitate professional success and personal satisfaction. Pink’s other five senses are Design, Story, Empathy, Play, and Meaning.

Chapter Six, “Symphony” (pp. 125-141) details this sense. “Symphony, as I call this aptitude, is the ability to put together the pieces. It is the capacity to synthesize rather than to analyze; to see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields; to detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific answers; and to invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair.” The author believes that symphonic thinking is best modeled by “composers and conductors whose jobs involve corralling a diverse group of notes, instruments, and performers and producing a unified and pleasing sound.”

Following each chapter devoted to one of Pink’s six senses, is a section titled, “Portfolio.” These sections have specific activities and exercises to help develop each sense. In the Portfolio section for Symphony, the author suggests listening to symphonies (no surprise here) and recommends five: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mozart’s Symphony No. 35, Mahler’s 4th Symphony in G. Major, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 in G Major. He also suggests, among other books, William Benson’s Beethoven’s Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture.

How we go about educating our young people in the midst of this paradigm shift so many writers have documented is a challenging question for all schools today. How we go about re-educating ourselves as out of school adults who also live, move, and have our existence in this paradigm shifting world is yet another challenging question.

A Whole New Mind with its emphasis on Symphony as one of the six basic skills necessary to thrive in the world of today and tomorrow is more music to our ears.

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