You might be judge Alito, or you might be a couch potato. But all of you out there might find it helpful to read A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, Al Gore's former chief speechwriter, the guy who also wrote Free Agent Nation.
Like all faddish books, the book proposes nothing short of a revolution about the way we conceptualize our work in the near future. Abundance, Automation, Asia(in no particular order), the authors claims, are taking away all the left-brain white collar jobs. The future belongs to those R-Directed people. The future belongs to people who has highly developed senses of design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.
The author seems to suggest that the information age will also come to pass just like its predecessor, the industrial age, and still further, the agricultural age. And then follows the conceptual age will eliminate quite a number of jobs. This might sound alarmist, but think of what Bill Ford has done to families and families of workers who used to think that Ford means security.
However, terms like the information age, conceptual age are innately problematic. If you are 20 this year, you cannot be 19 like last year. Information age, conceputal age, etc do not work this way. People use these metaphorically, but still, they mislead. These ages are rather waves of development. Or rather, to use the author's own term, it is a symphony of various sectors at play at all ages.
This being said, you might still find the book insightful. You can always take the views with a grain of salt, and you don't have to accept any of its conclusions, but these six senses really help you to see things that unfold before you in ways you never see before. It's the Joshua's tree epiphany.
Yesterday, I heard a talk on the radio. A guy called in to the radio host, and the host asks: "What do you do for a living?" The guy answers:"I an instructional designer designing training materials for the corporate setting." The host snapped:"I am sorry for you."
I am sorry for the host too, for carrying his old mind.