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In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell offers his account of humanity's seemingly instantaneous judgment in critical situations. The book features a series of fascinating anecdotal case studies, skilled interweavings of psychological experiments, explanations, and unexpected connections which have become part of Gladwell's writing style since Tipping Point. At the outset of Blink, he illustrates how incredibly complex decisions are often made in the matter of seconds: experts on Greek art, who had no vested interest in judging a rare 6th-century sculpture of a youth as authentic, sensed immediately that it was fake. But Gladwell points out that if expertise, or mere accumulated experiences sufficed, humans could unerringly trust these decisions made as rapidly as the blink of an eye, but, as he illustrates through several counterpuntal stories, such blinks can also be deceptive. It should be noted that he seems to stretch some of his examples to conform to his blink-of-an-eye theory. Gladwell is an impressive synthesizer and is, in that sense, a model for both teachers and students. Because of his skills as a journalist, the book is accurate and informative -- complete with numerous anecdotes. Blink is a satisfying and informative read, but not as scholarly as some might have you believe.Read full review
Some great 'aha' moments and quick read. Gladwell uses great examples and a lot of back up data including websites to confirm his thesis. Decisions due to your first few seconds to the pitfalls of when your intuition can be blind sighted. Key to the thoughts for me was the relevance of listening to your gut and acting on your impressions does have value and is based in man's DNA for survival. Often second guessing ourselves or over analyzing issues leads to inaction and acceptance. Recognizing what can harm you or a 'toxic' boss or relationship sooner than rationalizing 'bad for you behaviors' is epic to survive in the corporate world rift with undermining basic instincts that can lead to greater success. I have attended top level executive meetings for two major US Comapnies where Gladwell spent two hours a week in ignoring gut needs and expounding on over analyzing to the point of inaction and worse continue the game with their staff so all are spinning wheels to no avail. Those companies are not successful. Corporate America should make this book a read for any executives struggling with today's economy to get back to the first impression and swift action to market or acknowlege sooner to trust the front line employees more that are hands on doing the work that is no longer creating progress for the very company that puts food on their table. I have seen the last five years of my current company unable to decide about who should be the CIO (five in five years)not to mention to CEO's. I don't feel crazy anymore for thinking how idiotic over thinking Executives plan their strategies for their goal only to wordsmith it to the point of indecision once again then fire that Executive team and bring in a new group only to have them repeat the same mistakes allover again without the expertise and gut interpretaions of employees that can give the new team the insight that what they are proposing already failed in the past. So I recommend this read for all Executives and embrace it with open minds and then pass the book down through the ranks and empower their employees to help with their first take and move the companies forward.Read full review
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I love Malcolm Gladwell's style of writing, some parts you can skim over and still get the jist of the point, but the power of our unconscious thinking in rapid cognition decision-making is brought forward by Gladwell throughout the book by various easy to relate to examples. I find myself constantly trying to bring my unconscious mind into combination with my conscious mind by thinking of ways to thin-slice decisions on expert intuition instead of loading my conscious down with such an overly abundant amount of information that I lose sight of what I was trying to accomplish in the first place. Nice, easy read. Thumbs up!!
I love Malcolm Gladwell books. His writing style combines a unique and great mixture of down-to-earth explanations of heady themes with easy to understand words and explanations. Books like his (including the previous release "Tipping Point") really help average readers who aren't intellectuals understand some pretty intense and 'hard to wrap your head around' psychological, statistical and historical trends that just happen to affect almost all of us at some time or another in our lives. This material is a fascinating and quick read and you'll find that it is filled with so many facts that you'll be telling your co-workers, friends and family about so many different and interesting things that you've learned by reading it. I highly recommend this book.
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