The 20th century economy was dominated by left-brain thinkers — the lawyers, accountants, engineers, and software programmers whose work relies on the linear, logical parts of their minds.

The 21st century economy is rapidly unfolding as an age of right-brain thinking, dominated by creators, artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, and visionaries. These are the people who search for meaning, identify opportunities, recognize patterns, create new ideas, and empathize with other people.

The Trends editors have been tracking this trend for more than a decade and it was echoed in Harry S. Dent Jr.’s 1995 book, The Great Jobs Ahead. However, this emerging idea is most eloquently expressed by Daniel H. Pink in his new book, A Whole New Mind. He is a very insightful analyst who made a name for himself as author of the book, Free Agent Nation, and as a contributing editor for Wired magazine. Pink contends that we are moving from the current “Information Age” to what he calls the “Conceptual Age.” This transition is driven by three enormous economic forces:

• Material abundance
• The emergence of Asia
• Availability of automation

Let’s begin with abundance. As Pink points out, the American dream during the 20th century was to own a home and a car. Today, more than two-thirds of Americans own homes, and 13 percent of U. S. homes are purchased as second homes. Similarly, there are already more cars in the U.S. than licensed drivers

As a result of this abundance, self-storage, which is a business devoted to providing a place for people to store their extra belongings, is now a $17 billion industry, larger than the film industry. Moreover, we have become so accustomed to abundance that when we run out of room, we simply throw things away. As Fast Company reported, “The United States spends more on trash bags than 90 other countries spend on everything. In other words, the receptacles of our waste cost more than all of the goods consumed by nearly of half the world’s nations.”

This abundance has largely satisfied the demand for functional material goods, and created a demand for spiritual meaning,...