Shelby Charette

August 30, 2015

Robinson

VISU1311

Creativity Blog #2: High Concept High Touch

Throughout Daniel H. Pink’s writing, he expresses the significance and difference of both L-Directed thinking and R-Directed thinking. L-Directed thinking, refers to a more logic-based, and emotionless side of thought, while R-Directed thinking is a more empathetic, creative, and emotional way of thought. Throughout Daniel H. Pink’s analysis of the evolution of society from uniform thought, like from the Agricultural age, to today’s Conceptual age, a more broad and artistic approach to thinking; Pink shows the intensifying use of R-Directed Thinking that is being used today, along with the changes it is creating in society.

The importance of the R-Directed thinking is not only being used primarily by artists, but is being currently implemented in places such as medical schools, to broaden the way of thinking and stray from a uniform point of view and be used to find alternate solutions to issues. The population of the “creatives” is booming (Pink, 56). The subcultural creative thinkers are allowing businesses to expand, jobs to be created, and industries to bloom.  Most products on the market today are mainly made to appeal to the aesthetic and useful side that consumers want. Therefore, the L-Directed thinkers and R-Directed thinkers in this case, work together to create a product that is useful, productive, and revolutionary (L-Directed), while the R-Directed thinkers make the product visually striking to appeal more to their target audience.

The use of R-Directed thinking being implemented into standardized testing could very well benefit the creative thinkers of the future. Pink states that only about 4-10% of IQ actually is related to your career (Pink, 58), yet standardized tests mainly focus on logic based questions, to evaluate the effectiveness of the L-Directed thinker. Our generations are evolving their processes to thinking, becoming more abstract than logic based, therefore the sooner we help implement creative thinking into learning than the more successful the next generations will become.

Ultimately, the influence this thought process has on our society today is monumental. It is changing almost everything we know; from jobs, to industries, and just the overall concept of thought. This R-Directed thought process is opening up opportunities for all creative thinkers.