thinkers50 ranked thinker

DANIEL PINK

Recognized expert on the science of motivation, the science of timing, and the business zeitgeist; writes and creates at the intersection of work, psychology, and society.

01. ranked thinker

Ranked #9 in 2021.

Previous positions: #6 (2019), #11 (2017), #10 (2015), #13 (2013), and #29 (2011).

02. SHORTLISTED

Thinkers50 2019 Talent Award.

Thinkers50 2013 Best Book Award.

02. FAST FACT

Author of the first American “manga” comic-style business book.

ideas

Pink’s provocative ideas draw on research in behavioural and social sciences. He examines the mismatch between what science knows, and what business does. His work on human motivation explains that the secret to high performance is not monetary reward, but the need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things. His theory on timing is not that it is an art, but a science, and we can use the hidden patterns of the day to build the ideal schedule. The “when”, he argues, is just as important as the “why” and the “what”, when we make decisions.

Nationality

American

BIO

Pink has hosted a National Geographic Television series about social science, studied the comic industry in Tokyo, and served from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter for US Vice President Al Gore. He has been a contributing editor at Fast Company and Wired, as well as a business columnist for The Sunday Telegraph.

Content

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (Riverhead, 2018); To Sell is Human (Riverhead, 2013); Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Riverhead, 2011); The Adventures of Johnny Bunko (Riverhead, 2008); A Whole New Mind (Riverhead, 2006); Free Agent Nation (Grand Central Publishing, 2002).

website

danpink.com

Twitter

@DanielPink

Media Picks

VERDICT

“Dan Pink is required reading. He captured the entrepreneurial zeitgeist with his first book Free Agent Nation and continues to chronicle the changing business landscape like no other.”

Stuart Crainer & Des Dearlove, Thinkers50.