Thoughts on Daniel Pink's "A Whole New Mind"

It seems difficult to fathom that there was a time when scientists thought one side of the brain was dominant or superior to the other, but Pink's "A Whole New Mind" makes a good case that the left brain has historically received an unfair share of the praise, while the right brain has been relegated to a supporting role. He uses recent research and examples to bring the right brain into its rightful role as the equal of the left brain, as the originator of big-picture thinking, creativity, synthesis, design, empathy, and a host of other concepts without which the left brain's systematic processing of facts would be useless.
The importance of the right brain aside, it was interesting to consider the right-brain concepts that the author identified as being particularly important in the new millennium, such as design, play, story, symphony, and empathy. The class split into groups and each group developed a presentation on one topic; my group did "empathy." Thinking about the empathy chapter in detail, I considered empathy in terms of how we can use it as instructional designers. I believe an awareness of the end-users' feelings can only help us as we attempt to design effective instructional solutions for them. It is not enough for us to consider what they should know, but also empathize with their motivations, feelings about the topic, and desires for instructional techniques. Instructional design, in my opinion, should begin with considering students' learning modalities and multiple intelligences (my current focus in my own research and projects,) which I now realize fits well in Pink's 21st-Century concept of right-brained "empathy". Instructional design, individually customized for the student, is my new favorite "Whole New Mind", 21st-century concept.