Wednesday, January 9, 2008

PLJ reflection of brain dominance test

Today, fourth hour honors English class was responsible for completing a personal assessment correlating with the amount of dominance over the corresponding brain hemisphere the remaining part executed. The results demonstrated my prevalence in left- brain thinking by some 14% (not a small statistic). Although I had expected this outcome (or a similar one), thoughts of the future suddenly filled my mind. Will I end up becoming something I’m bad at like an artist or designer against my will? Because according “A Whole New Mind” (by Daniel Pink) I might. As discussed previously, Pink incorporates three decisive terms that could mean a job as a right hemisphere thinker. Again, they are the three a’s, Automation, Abundance, and Asia. I plan to pursue a career in the engineering field (specifically dealing with aircraft) and the book specifically mentions that in other Asian countries such as Russia and India, the average wage for an aircraft engineer is approximately $650 a month in the Russian Federation and about half that in India! Will my future be claimed by a foreign competitor or worse, a computer? It’s an agonizing prospect, but one to surly unfold someday.
The globe has revolutionized to the point where computers have become more efficient and resourceful than even people comparable to the chess champion Garry Kasparov. Asia is infinitely more fit for cheap labor opportunities, and abundance has already claimed what people like me want to be. It appears that the only probable way to earn a sufficient living in the fast impending future would be to either excel unimaginably in logic and computation, or pursue a career the arts, which may not be very visible for the vast majority of people (including myself). The average man, it seems, will not achieve prosperity considering that most of us are only moderately proficient in art and logistics and not human prodigies. Automation has comparable effects if not more severe impact on job losses (for example, I referenced the self checkout lines at DIA; they eliminate the need for human operators). I wouldn’t classify myself as excessively upset right now, but I would appreciate the “help” I’ll hopefully receive in the next six chapters! I agree strongly with Pink’s book and hold most of its discussed information to be true, but I sincerely hope he is misled.

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