Tag: Daniel Pink

Latest Read: The Power of Regret

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 13, 2022

The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward
by Daniel H. Pink. This was indeed an interesting learning experience. I have previously read his bestsellers A Whole New Mind, Drive, and When. Daniel is truly a great writer.

For this book Daniel actually launched two research projects, The American Regret Project and The World Regret Survey that collected the regrets of more than 20,000 people from the US and around the world. Pink then categorized these regrets into four core areas—foundation, boldness, moral, and connection regrets—and in the process has shown us what a life well-lived looks like by comparison.

Daniel is certainly establishes why regret is so misunderstood. He writes how how we can learn to use regret to our advantage. In addition, he shares the most common regrets people have. Finally, he teaches us how to become productive when confronting regret.

So, should you regret saying “I have no regrets” to family, friends, and co-workers? Instead, Daniel begins the book with people from across the globe sharing their stories of getting a “no regrets” tattoo for everyone to see. Yet maybe we should think twice about that tattoo as he reveals the tattoo removal industry is a very lucrative profession since the removal costs as much as ten times more than getting inked in the first place.

However, Daniel also addresses issues we confront when we do not handle regret correctly. These misfirings can certainly end up contributing to poor decision making.

Tags Daniel Pink, Regret

Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Drive

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date July 8, 2020

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. This is another enjoyable read and consider myself a fan of Dan’s writing. I very much enjoyed reading When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing and A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

Drive’s core message is effective motivation is not by money, the old carrot and stick approach. Rather Dan asserts the true secret to achieving high performance is our own human need to control our lives. Many current business systems built long ago around the carrot-and-stick motivation does more harm than good as it turns out.

Dan shows in other words how science leads the way based upon three essential elements: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. For some reason my acronym for this PAM in reverse….but it works for me.

Above all, Drive outlines that Autonomy is our desire to direct our own lives. Mastery is our urge to be even better at something that matters to us. Purpose is our desire work in the service of something bigger than ourselves.

Motivation 3.0, the upgrade from current 2.0 (as defined by Dan) is necessary for the smooth functioning of twenty-first-century business. success in v.3.0 also requires Type I behavior: “which concerns itself less with the external rewards an activity brings and more with the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself.” He elaborates that for both professional and personal success we need to move ourselves and our co-workers from Type X to Type I.

Tags Daniel Pink, decision making, motivation, science of timing

Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: When

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date May 30, 2020

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink. This was a very enjoyable read. So enjoyable that I restarted chapter one immediately after finishing the book. And then again, a third read. Maybe this is no surprise. I read in 2007 his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future and it was also very enjoyable.

In this book Pink provides a lot of scientific data (big data) that provides insights to our lives. This is so broadly appealing that everyone should read this book. Basically Pink shares that we all have a unique hidden patterns. This really impacts our work performance, studies, exercise and even our mood throughout the day.

Pink breaks our day into three periods: Peak, Trough, and Recovery. A morning Peak is when we apply thinking tasks. A Trough sees a decline in the mid-afternoon. This is best for simple tasks. Finally Recovery reenergizes us in the early evening to be creative.

At the same time Pink acknowledges our personality fits into one of three buckets. These circadian rhythms are Lark (morning person), an Owl (evening person), or a middle Third Bird. These rhythms will change over time. While in college I was definitely an owl, programming into the wee hours of the morning. Owls have their rhythms in reverse: recovery, trough and peak.

Tags Daniel Pink, decision making, science of timing, time, when

Design Education Globalization Reading Technology

Latest read: A Whole New Mind

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date July 14, 2007
1 Comment on Latest read: A Whole New Mind

Daniel Pink’s second book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future is a great, easy read for everyone. In today’s very competitive business market, college or non-profit Dan’s new views on tapping creative minds will ensure success moving forward.

There are several examples of how business must change in order to not just compete…but survive in today’s globalized economy.

It was somewhat refreshing to basically see Tom Friedman‘s influence from The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century stitched into Pink’s writing. And he could not be more accurate.

GM’s well publicized struggles continue. But their struggle is not against Japan. They have new competition on the automobile producing block…from India and China.

Why? Well lets start with the fact that both India and China can begin building state of the art robotic assembly plants with cheaper labor resulting in India producing brand new cars for only $2,500.

This actually points to another Friedman reference from The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization where we learned only a small handful of humans produce Lexus cars…robots do the rest. So India and China can move past the hurdle of long standing contract, benefit and retirement costs bogging down GM to win the race to sell their products on the American marketplace.

Tags A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink, Design, learning, right-brain, trends