Dan Pink - The scientific secrets of perfect timing, the new world of work and a bestselling author’s advice to writers [#2] The Ideas Lab Podcast

Dan Pink – The scientific secrets of perfect timing, the new world of work and a bestselling author’s advice to writers

Dan Pink is author of 6 New York Times bestsellers and has been named one of the top 15 business thinkers in the world. It’s a particular treat for me to speak with Dan because his early books like Free Agent Nation and A whole new mind inspired my first book Screw Work Let’s Play. And his most recent book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing is absolutely fascinating too.

We cover a lot of ground in this interview from what time you should get up in the morning in order to be productive to the totally different skills you need to stay valuable in the 21st century to how to write a New York Times bestseller I hope you enjoy it.

Before venturing out on his own 20 years ago, Dan worked in several positions in politics and government, including serving as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore.

Daniel H. Pink is the author of six provocative books — including his newest, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, which has spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list.

ALL EPISODES

Episode Highlights:

On daily routine –

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes you healthy, wealthy and wise…….. Nope.”

“You gotta be able to do something that is hard to outsource and hard to automate and that requires a very different set of skills and it’s skill that in many countries, I think especially here in the United States, that we haven’t taken seriously enough, things like empathy, things like artistic sensibility, symphonic, big-picture thinking.”

“If I can’t write 20, 30 pages about what this book is about, why it’s interesting, why no one has done it yet, why I’m the right person to do it, why there’s an audience for it out there, it’s probably not a very good book.”

“I think one of the keys is to say, “Who is not going to read this book?” And that helps you narrow who your audience is.”

“You gotta write something you’re proud of and you have to work your butt off making it great.”

“Writing a book, it’s like akin to getting married, not just going out on a few dates and so your standards have to be much, much higher.”

Bio:

Daniel H. Pink, former speechwriter for Bill Clinton, is the author of six provocative books. His newest, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, has spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list. His other books include the long-running New York Times bestseller A Whole New Mind and the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into 38 languages. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and their three children.

Topics covered:

The changing demand for skills – Stand out or become a statistic.
Hot on your heels – the rise of competition from the East.
Your daily routine – the new science.
Are you a Lark or Owl? Have we got productivity advice all wrong?
Myths of efficiency & routine – deconstructed.
Developing book ideas – What does a bestselling author ask themselves before writing a new book?
What Dan is thinking about writing about next