I was at a new art class (no, really!) on Saturday courtesy of Central St Martins. As an exercise to energise the right-side of the brain, the teacher had us draw contours of a figure looking at him and not at the paper. A bit like touch-typing, I imagine! (My results were, shall we say, indescribable)! The process did get me thinking (so it must have worked) as I wondered whether perhaps the Web2.0 approach could be described as a ‘right-brain’ activity, whereas the previous approach was more ‘left-brain’.
Left-brain thinking being more logical, linear, maths & science. Right-side thinking being more creative, artistic, empathic. The ‘techies’ who set up websites and mastered HTML and other clever stuff may have come from the Left. Once the access to creating new media opened up, the Right folk have taken over.
I havent read Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” but read his interview with Oprah!. He argues that traditional white-collar jobs will be outsourced to less expensive overseas workers, particularly in Asia. He thinks that the transformational abilities such as empathy and creativity cant be outsourced. In his book he lists six Right brain skills and how we can develop and use them. He says in the interview “…if we encourage people to tap the right side of their brains, we have the potential to transform our world – to make ourselves not just better off but just plain better”. There arent any comments from the ‘less expensive overseas workers’ who may be ‘left’ doing the Left brain stuff!
Recent Comments