We are complex beings whose abilities go far beyond logic, language-use and analytical thinking, important as these are. We are imaginative, responsive to others and enraptured by beauty.

We delight in art, play and laughter, and we search for self-knowledge, unifying values and an understanding of the puzzling universe in which we find ourselves. Each day we engage in countless dealings with our fellows - creatures like ourselves, with similarly complex abilities and needs.

In A Whole New Mind, the author successfully conveys this complexity. He argues that Western societies are leaving behind the Information Age, based on acquired knowledge and logical analysis, and entering a new and challenging Conceptual Age. Knowledge and logic remain important, but largely only in combination with skills that relate more closely to the aesthetic, empathising and interpersonal elements of our nature. In the world of work, adding value to products increasingly means adding an extra layer of beauty, charm or appeal.

The book's title borrows from the well-known perception that the left cerebral hemisphere is the centre of analytic and linguistic intelligence, while the more intuitive and creative thinking takes place in the right hemisphere. Pink does not want us to abandon left-thinking, but he does advise us to develop our full range of cognitive potentials. In the Conceptual Age, even left-brained workers, such as lawyers, computer programmers and accountants, must adopt a 'whole mind' approach to their lives and careers.

Why has this become so vital? Pink offers three reasons. First, many Westerners' jobs can now be performed by workers overseas, with the financial incentive of a handy cost saving. For example, India is producing huge numbers of computer professionals who are prepared to work far more cheaply than their Western counterparts, so on-shore workers need to offer something more. Second, computers can now perform many high-level analytical tasks. Information workers are no longer immune to the possibility that their jobs - or elements of them - may be assigned to machines. Third, in a society of material abundance, consumers are looking for products that offer pleasures which transcend narrow ideas of functional utility.

Pink is not interested in where this is heading long term or what we owe all the many people of the world who are missing out on the material abundance he describes. Instead, his book is an unashamed self-help manual for people who live in affluent Western societies and aspire to career success in the new Conceptual Age. His key advice is to develop our abilities in six areas that may not be obvious to left-brained, Information Age people: design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.

A Whole New Mind is an exercise in pop psychology, but an impressive one. Pink displays admirable scholarship, writes in an easy style, and has ideas for self-improvement that might be worth a try.