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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
I found this book to be very interesting and one of those books that you don't want to put down. Malcolm Gladwell introduces us to a thinking technique he calls "thin slicing", which allows us to make decisions very quickly. As he describes it, thin slicing is the ability or method of paying attention to just a few, key factors, versus weighting multiple variables when making a decision. This is not a how-to book but rather a collection of stories and examples Gladwell has organized that demonstrate thin slicing and it's bets and worst. The stories and examples are fun to read and thought provoking. I found myself analyzing my thinking while reading several of the stories. My only disappointment with the book, and the reason I rated it good instead of excellent is that it doesn't provide any how-to. The examples are great but it would be nice to provide one chapter at the end with tips, exercises, or something that will help you learn to "thin slice".Read full review
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking The Entertainment Critic Book Review By James Myers BLINK: THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT THINKING-By Malcolm Gladwell Published by Back Bay Books, Little, Brown and Company, and Hachette Book Group USA 296 Pages ISBN: 978-0-316-01066-5(Pb) (Four Star Rating)**** “I think we are innately suspicious of … rapid cognition. We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it. When doctors are faced with a difficult diagnosis, they order more tests, and when we are uncertain about what we hear, we ask for a second opinion. And what do we tell our children? Haste makes waste. Look before you leap. Stop and think. Don’t judge a book by its cover. We believe that we are always better off gathering as much information as possible and spending as much time as possible in deliberation. We really only trust conscious decision making. But there are moments, particularly in times of stress, when haste does not make waste, when our snap judgments and first impressions can offer a much better means of making sense of the world. The first task of Blink is to convince you of a simple fact; decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.” Blink is a brilliant, new and insightful book written by Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer for the New Yorker, former business and science reporter at the Washington Post, and author of another #1 best seller, The Tipping Point. The premise of Blink is that rapid cognition thought that occurs in the blink of any eye, are powerful and important conclusions that we come to, that should not be ignored, but embraced. In other words, under some circumstances we can trust our snap judgments, better than we can trust more deliberate, conscious, balanced thought. Mr. Gladwell teaches us that sometimes when we are under stress and pressure, our snap judgments serve us better that more conscious, analyzed thought. Human beings have what Gladwell refers to as “the power of thin slicing” which means that human beings have the ability to make sense of situations based upon the thinnest slice of experience. Blink is also a study of when our instincts betray us and why. For example the Getty museum purchased a statute that was supposedly constructed in ancient Greece. They studied it for 14 months with scientific tests and complicated chemical analysis and came to the conclusion that it was authentic. A few experts that constantly evaluated objects of antiquity glanced at it and based on their experience without performing tests, felt that it was fake. Getty purchased the statute for $10 Million Dollars. After many years and much study, Getty finally came to the conclusion that the experts, who just glanced at the statute and sensed that something was off, were right. The statute was a phony. The scientists with their machines were wrong, the art experts with their hunches and experience were right. Gladwell teaches us that our unconscious may be a powerful force, but it is not infallible. Certain variables can cause our rapid cognition to go awry, and what we need to do is identify those and understand them. We can learn when to listen to our snap judgments and when we should not. Gladwell demonstrates in the book that our snap judgments and first impressions can be educated and controlled. We can actualRead full review
You don’t need to read this review. You’ve already made up your mind about the book Blink. You’ve received enough inputs from sources that you trust or don’t trust that your subconscious has already decided whether or not Blink is a good book. If this review agrees with your subconscious, you’ll agree with the review. If this review disagrees with your subconscious, you will attribute my opinions on this book to my incompetence. Why and how did you come to make such a hasty judgement on this book ? “Blink” seeks to answer those questions. In this latest book, Gladwell (of “Tipping Point” fame) explores “thin slicing”, the theory that we only need a tiny bit of information or exposure to something to make a decision. The genius of Gladwell is that he examines how common people use thin slicing, usually unaware of the fact that they are thin slicing, and that he also examines subject matter experts using thin slicing to practice their chosen art with remarkable accuracy. Some examples of common people unknowingly thin slicing include speed daters who make remarkably sound choices about dating partners and police officers who, in “Matrix” like fashion, slow down time in the heat of a gunfight to make amazing decisions. Great examples of experts who practice thin slicing include the ability of a marriage counselor to determine whether a marriage will succeed or fail with 95% accuracy….based on 30 seconds of conversation between spouses. It’s a fascinating book that has the potential to change the way you think about your own thoughts and interpret the actions and reactions of those you interact with.Read full review
This is a typical Malcolm Gladwell book - a good, coherent, layman explanation of the research carried out in the functioning of our brain. In brief, we make conscious well-thought out decisions and unconscious, rapid decisions. The book talks about the power of the latter (and hence the title "blink") through several examples. The content is great and the writing is easy to follow. I would strongly recommend this book.
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