In reading Daniel Pink’s “High Concept, High Touch,” I feel a direct connection with the information presented and a recently compromised struggle that I personally faced. This excerpt explains that in a new American age of progression, deemed the “Conceptual Age,” artistic and “right-brained” skills have begun to be much higher valued than that of high IQs and strong logical skill sets. When I first got accepted to St. Edwards in 2014, I was a senior in high school who was taking 4 (out of 7 total) classes that centered around art and visual expression. However, when I enrolled to St. Edwards, I classified myself as a criminal justice major.

This reading illuminates on the common misconception or slight miscalculation that high IQs and prestigious major classifications/degrees are essentially the key to the American dream and a successful lifestyle. With technology advancing, mixed with the constant global contest to make as much money as possible, jobs that are highly revolved around intelligence are being replaced by computers. Likewise, jobs that are predominantly high-paying in the US, are being offered to workers overseas who, with less freedom and privilege than most Americans, are willing to do for much cheaper. When I came to St. Edwards, I decided to place myself in the school of business, with plans to become a lawyer, not because I had always been passionate about fighting injustices through the system, but because I saw that my lawyer family members were highly successful and pretty well off. This, combined with the overall stigmatization of a “starving artist” and a “worthless art degree,” I decided that I would go where I felt a job would be secured. However, after reading this passage, I feel that my conclusions were almost directly opposite the truth. I feel a hell of a lot better about the fact that I chose happiness and expression over a corrupt, racially biased system that promotes injustice, thus deciding to change my major this semester.

I find a comfort in the idea that artists are the future, almost literally. I’m quite complacent with the fact that I’m a naturally talented, artistically-inclined individual with aspirations of high creativity. Pink’s explanation of proof behind his claim of a rising “high touch, high concept” era brings peace of mind to someone who has, her whole life, been influenced into thinking her skills were not actually skills of fruitful use. And I’m more than positive that in some way, Pink wanted to provide a feeling of relief to artists and expressionists every where, if not also attempting to speed up the process in which “high touch and high concept” abilities and careers become more widely understood and socially accepted.