The Six Senses

Definition

Pink breaks "high concept, high touch" into six specific, learnable aptitudes, each framed as an addition rather than a replacement: "Not just function but also DESIGN. Not just argument but also STORY. Not just focus but also SYMPHONY. Not just logic but also EMPATHY. Not just seriousness but also PLAY. Not just accumulation but also MEANING." He calls these "the six senses" and devotes one chapter to each, arguing they are ordinary human capacities — present in "cave-person ancestors" telling stories and demonstrating empathy around the fire — that atrophied under the Information Age's emphasis on analytic thinking and now need deliberate practice to rebuild.

In the Book

The taxonomy is laid out explicitly in "Introducing the Six Senses" between Part One and Part Two, immediately after the three-question test (can it be done cheaper overseas, faster by a computer, is it wanted in an age of abundance) establishes why these aptitudes now matter economically. Each of the six gets its own chapter with a worked example: Design as "utility enhanced by significance" (the Michael Graves toilet brush, Target's designer housewares); Story as "context enriched by emotion" (the pop quiz where readers forget a lost-wages statistic but remember the Kasparov story); Symphony as synthesis via the boundary crosser, inventor, and metaphor maker (Pink's own five-day right-brain drawing course); Empathy via contagious yawning as a "primitive empathic mechanism"; Play; and Meaning. Each chapter closes with a "Portfolio" of exercises meant to rebuild the given aptitude.

Why It Matters

A taxonomy of specific, nameable aptitudes is more actionable than a vague call to "be more creative" or "be more human" — it gives six separate axes an individual, team, or curriculum can audit and deliberately train, each with its own worked mechanism (utility+significance for design, context+emotion for story, synthesis for symphony) rather than one undifferentiated blob called "soft skills."