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 Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking :: 0316172324
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| Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea. Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. --Barbara Mackoff Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
when i first picked up this book it didn't suck me in. i left it after a couple of chapters. what caused me to pick it back up was hearing Malcolm speak a couple times through some of the propaganda machines that reach me. he seemed to be such a free-flowing thinker--not at all the pace i read non-fiction. after HEARing him communicate i was much more excited to read him and the reading was much more enjoyable.
other reviewers have expressed that they were disappointed with the book largely because it is little beyond a collection of truisms. i would have say that this is the reason i enjoyed this book. Molcolm presents a heuristic book of truisms that are viewed from many different angles. almost without exception, when explaining a case study detailing a new heuristic, he will reference one or two of his previous examples for more and more insight that compounds throughout the book. a brilliant man once told me "Statistics don't lie. Liars use statistics." this book's information is much more proverbial than statistical.
the FIRST chapter took my thoughts to my newly engaged cousin: will it last? apparently, some people could tell if they listened to less than a minute of the fiancees' conversation.
the SECOND chapter pops in my head when i'm watching sporting events because of the olympic-sprinters-priming story.
the THIRD chapter is a good explanation of why a 6-foot-3 lad of 25 yrs. has been mildly successful and is soon to be fitted with a set of braces (me).
the FOURTH chapter explains why i love my macro-managing boss ("...allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves constantly.....enables rapid cognition." pg. 119).
the FIFTH chapter reinforces my beliefs about pop radio (it's crap).
and the SIXTH was the chapter that i liked the most. i have read a couple books about body language, but this was my first taste into face-reading. (you just thought you could control the look on your face). Malcolm alludes that face-reading is (or is the closest known thing to) mind-reading and the inability to mind-read is autism. (don't worry you can mind-read too, even if you don't know you can. humans are unbelievable at it. perhaps knowing about it makes you better, eh?)
help control your TEMPORARY AUTISM (among other mind-hurdles) and read this book! this book provides a valuable overview of the mysterious black box. and all of us will benefit from a further understanding of it's inner workings.
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Author: Guest
When I read "Blink" I found myself tearing through it in long spurts, driven by intense interest in the author's discussion of how we make snap judgments in light of the variety of circumstances life throws our way. Definitely a book I will recommend to friends.
BLINK was a fun read that made the case we all need to know when to trust our "thin-slicer"-our capacity to make instant judgments-but we also need to sharpen its edge more keenly with experience and education. Gladwell's second entry into the aren't-our-brains-amazing genre (The Tipping Point, 2000)and his great strength continues to lie in his storytelling which is what makes this book fun and interesting. All these stories are nicely written and most inform and entertain at the same time, but they don't add up to anything terribly profound, despite the author's enthusiasm.
I agree with others here who recommended the "Emotional Intelligence Quickbook" as well. It turned out to be a good match for the book with fascinating research. Plus, it let me test my EQ online which was neat. You might want to try them both.
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Author: Guest
I read this book by way of sitting behind someone on a plane who was reading it at an angle.
Quick! Answer the following: Does the book investigate or even attempt to describe or explain this "special" ability, or does it just throw out some examples to support predetermined beliefs?
If you guessed the latter, correct! And, bonus points if you used your special abilities to come to the solution (in this case, those "special abilities" are the reasoning abilities of your brain, which are unique to us humans).
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Author: Guest
Gladwell begins with a story about a supposed Greek statue that some experts, using scientific testing, could not detect as a fruad, while others were immediately suspicious. (So, some people look at the forest for immediate clues, before examining the trees in detail.)
Another example involved a single tennis expert with an uncanny knack of foretelling when someone was about to double-fault. (The bad news is that he could not relate how this was done. Thus, what this proves is beyound me.)
Still another revolved around an officer playing a "rogue MidEast commander" vs. the regular Army. Anyone who has been in government knows that it moves at glacial speed, and can easily be outdone by much smaller groups with a modicum of intelligence and speed (eg. Lockheed's "Skunk Works," and Burt Rutan's "space ship."). So the rogue officer's success is hardly suprising.
To say that quick decisions - based on a few KEY VARIABLES - is better than studied analyses that include a multitude of minor issues is hardly surprising either.
Finally, readers need to keep in mind that there will always be statistical abberations - eg. someone who correctly predicts the flip of a coin 50 times in a row. However, that does not prove that they have any special talent, and they are just as likely to be wrong as right on the next toss.
Similarly, finding snap judgements superior to supposedly sophisticated statistical models does not necessarily support a conclusion supporting snap judgements - many statistical models are poorly specified and have embarrasingly large errors.
Not worth reading.
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Author: Guest
I don't know. I haven't spent 20 years analyzing behavior like some tennis expert, military expert or social psychologist.
However, it is a fun read and a quick read and it's a good place to start thinking about the psychology of decision making.
The Main Point: The human unconscious tries very hard to find patterns. Sometimes these patterns result in wonderful success. Sometimes they result in miserable failure. However, if we find a good pattern, our mind can do amazing things.
People criticize him for arguing with himself. They also criticize him for presenting an unbalanced presentation. He's really more of a story teller than a theorist. Buy this if you want a series of good and interesting stories.
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