<p>"In many professions, what used to matter most were abilities associated with the left side of the brain: linear, sequential, spreadsheet kind of faculties. Those still matter, but they’re not enough.</p>
<p>What’s important now are the characteristics of the brain’s right hemisphere: artistry, empathy, inventiveness, big-picture thinking. These skills have become first among equals in a whole range of business fields…</p>
<p>[What’s a right brain ability we should all develop?] I’d say “design.” Design is the ability to create something that has significance as well as usefulness. Even hospitals are bringing in designers to redo waiting rooms.</p>
<p>A young designer in New York re-created the prescription bottle because she noticed that her grandparents were getting their medications confused. She put the medicine’s name in large type at the top instead of the doctor’s name, and Grandpa gets a green band on his medicine bottle and Grandma gets a yellow band so they can see the difference more clearly. That’s an example of how design can literally save lives…"
[Why</a> right-brainers will rule this century - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/05/07/o.Oprah.Interviews.Daniel.Pink/index.html]Why”>Why right-brainers will rule this century - CNN.com)</p>
<p>thanks for sharing that. The brain is one amazing organ…</p>
<p>While the article might be valid in its discussions of skills that are relevant to success, it’s playing into the right-brain left-brain myth. </p>
<p>[BFC:</a> Brain Mythology](<a href=“http://bfc.positscience.com/brain/brain_mythology.php]BFC:”>http://bfc.positscience.com/brain/brain_mythology.php)</p>
<p>"Brain Myth #2: A person’s personality displays a right-brain or left-brain dominance.
Fact: The two sides are intricately co-dependent.
This myth holds that a right-brain person is generally creative, intuitive, artsy, while a left-brain person is more of a problem-solver, more linear, logical. The myth arose from genuine science, but new imaging technology has shown that the brain is more interdependent than once thought.</p>
<p>The myth probably took root in the 1800s, when scientists discovered that an injury to one side of the brain often caused a loss of specific abilities. For example, spatial abilities seemed to reside in the right side of the brain, with language in the left. The myth gained ground in the 1960s, when scientists studied epilepsy patients who had surgery to sever the connection between the two hemispheres. These researchers showed that when they couldn’t communicate, the two sides of the brain could be unaware of one another—and even respond differently to stimuli. For example, when one patient was asked what he wanted to do, his left brain responded with “draftsman” but his right brain with “automobile racer.”</p>
<p>But more recently, brain scan technology has revealed that the hemispheres’ roles are not quite so cut-and-dried as once thought. The two hemispheres are in fact highly complementary. For example, language processing, once believed to be left- hemisphere-only, is now understood to take place in both hemispheres: the left side processes grammar and pronunciation while the right processes intonation. Similarly, experiments have shown that the right hemisphere does not work in isolation with regard to spatial ability: the right hemisphere seems to deal with a general sense of space, while the left hemisphere deals with objects in specific locations.</p>
<p>What remains true is that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa. What this means is that an injury to the left side of the brain (such as a left-hemisphere stroke) can cause damage to the other side of the body (such as right-leg paralysis). "</p>
<p>Bummer, I will never rule the world, but it is nice to know that my offspring will :)</p>
<p>I read Daniel Pink’s book (A Whole New Mind) last summer and LOVED it. It has changed my teaching career permanently. I highly recommend everyone read this, whether you tend more toward right- or left-braining learning or expression. I wish I would have known he was on Oprah; I would have DVR’d… darn.</p>
<p>Ahh, if only…</p>
<p>Back when I first started working, I saw many different things that could be improved. Created a device using at hand supplies. The idea worked well, others used the method. Found out later, about 5 years or so, someone patented the idea and made a small fortune.</p>
<p>Being right-brained was a real problem for me in grade school. Left brainers with good memory totally ruled. Teachers (mostly left brainers?) couldn’t recognize creativity and downgraded assignments that did not precisely follow their instructions.</p>
<p>How are things different today? Who asks for examples of creativity in a job interview? Where on a transcript is information on a student’s creativity or imagination? My kid got a few Ds from one English teacher just this last term for not following what the teacher thought she conveyed about the assignment. I couldn’t see anything wrong with the approach my kid took on the assignment, based on what she was told. Reminded me of the giant F (the size of your fist) I got on a Jr. year HS paper. I listened like a lawyer for potential pitfalls in that assignment. Teacher said she wanted creativity, but what I came up with was apparently so far out that she asked if it was a joke. It seems to me that right brainers still take lumps.</p>
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<p><em>Thank you</em>. You said it before I did. :)</p>
<p>(And yet, people seem to be ignoring your point.)</p>
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<p>I don’t know what job interviews you’ve been going to, but when I interviewed for jobs as a senior, every interview that I did required on-the-fly design/problem-solving.</p>
<p>Reading the article, some parts of it are kind of silly, as is most of the pop writing I’ve seen on this sort of topic. The idea that software, for instance, doesn’t require creativity and design, is just ignorant. Same for engineering. And the whole either/or way that people tend to look at this is a ridiculous oversimplification.</p>
<p>Edited to add: Oh hey, I just noticed that this guy is not a neuroscientist or psychologist, but a former speechwriter. Does he actually have, you know, any real training in how the brain/mind work? I see that he has a degree from Northwestern, but not what his major was.</p>
<p>"Your left brain is logical, linear, by-the-numbers; the right side is creative, artistic, empathetic. "–from the article.</p>
<p>False. This is not true. The two hemispheres work often in synchrony for most tasks.
The right brain/left brain thing is part of pop psychology rather than legitimate science(and legit psychology). It is probably valid to say that some individuals are more focused in certain areas than others, but it’s not as if we can divide the population into two groups. While there is right-brain lateralization, it’s nowhere near as clean-cut into the idea of linear thinking vs. creativity and it cannot be simplified like that. The right-brain lateralization is actually rather boring in the framework of pop psychology (though fascinating to us who study cognition and the brain) and in general you need both to function “normally”. For example, one of the curious trends in aging is increased activation in both sides and less lateralization as one enters old age. One of the current theories explains this as a compensatory action. Decreased connectivity between the two hemispheres(and other regions of the brain) as one ages has been implicated in a variety of cognitive deficits experienced in old age. </p>
<p>“Reading the article, some parts of it are kind of silly, as is most of the pop writing I’ve seen on this sort of topic. The idea that software, for instance, doesn’t require creativity and design, is just ignorant. Same for engineering. And the whole either/or way that people tend to look at this is a ridiculous oversimplification.”</p>
<p>Agreed! A LOT of creativity and design is involved in computer science and engineering. Design is part of the battle between major companies. Also, once you get into higher levels of this field, you need a lot of creativity to innovate and this field is about innovation. Elegant solutions are difficult to reach without creativity and a mind for design. Those who are poor in design will probably reach inelegant solutions and not make it very far in industry. The perception that areas such as computer science and engineering are purely “logical” is false. There’s a great deal of logic and analysis needed in these fields, yes, but you’ve got to enmesh them with creativity and design to make it beyond introductory courses. </p>
<p>The author’s point about the importance of creativity rather than pure numbers-crunching might be correct, but he’s put it in a framework that is invalid. </p>
<p>Grade school, admittingly, does not emphasize a lot of creativity. But it’s not favoring “left-brainers”–seeing as how ‘left-brainers’ are a myth. Grade school also doesn’t really prepare one all that much for fields such as computer science and engineering.</p>
<p>Edited to add: He got a B.A. in Linguistics and got a law degree and has been a speechwriter. ??? What? I have more formal training in cognition than he seems to. This is silly.</p>
<p>Another point: most people who are working in team setting know that mnagers of such teams looking at different ability/skills to make team a success. It is good to have combo of, for example, analytical brains and others who are more into learning and using precedence / experience / procedures. Our team was even “informally” tested for both to see if we are in balance. Good manager will have a balanced team.</p>