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 The art of split-second thinking October 14, 2008
There are almost one thousand reviews for this book, most are positive, do I need to submit one? Yes.
The author discusses split-second thinking, or "in the blink of an eye" speed of thought. He postulates that those rapid decisions are usually better. He backs it up with many examples of decisions made with more time, more information, and more discussion that turned out wrong, when the initial decision was actually the correct one. How does this happen?
The subconscious mind processes many inputs and helps to steer our decisions. It is usually right and we need to trust it more often. I trade financial products and I have found that too much information does not give me a clearer picture of what is going to happen, especially in the short to very short term future. I don't know how many times each week while looking at the market, I get this flash of go long, or go short. I have started tracking these thoughts and they are correct almost 90% of the time. How is that possible? I don't know, but I assume my subconscious mind picks up small clues that my conscious mind misses, or needs more information to form an opinion.
The whole process is very exciting and while I can't explain the details, I can verify the results. Another book that delves deeper into the thought process and the subconscious decision-making process is Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less an excellent book, which I read a couple of years ago and I think I am ready to pull it off the shelf and give it a second read.
 Great book even if I don't agree with it... October 8, 2008
The book is based on an interesting premise and the writing style is very easy to read, it really sucks you in. I personally REALLY like Malcolm Gladwell's books/lectures/ideas -- he's defeinitely one of my favorites.
Note that after reading this book I'm not convinced that I completely agree with the fundamental arguement it's trying to make. I also didn't like it as much as Gladwell's previous book, Tipping Point. But, I don't want to sound overly critical. What I consider high quality writing isn't based upon whether or not I agree with the arguement the author is trying to make. The ideas are unique and creative and that alone is basis enough for me to give this book four stars. One last note is that you might want to look at the rebuttal to this book titled Think! (I have not read it but if you find Blink interesting you would probably also like Think!).
Intuition is No Simple Subject Matter to "Thin-Slice" - Gladwell does it Well! October 5, 2008
Gladwell (intuition/"thin-slicing"), Coleman (emotional intelligence/"limbic high-jacking"), De Bono (lateral thinking/"water logic")... Brains within brains... Thinking without thinking... Thinking about thinking... The states of non-duality and no-mind of not thinking at all and just being...
The lotus of consciousness is still flowering, it seems... The pollen of popularization is still spreading across the printing presses... And we, the readers, violently sneeze out the allergies of oblivion as we thumb through the pages of these operating manuals for our consciousness...
Excuse the late-night reviewing poetics. Seriously: be glad Gladwell writes so well - intuiton is no simple subject matter to "thin-slice."
Pavel Somov, Ph.D., Author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, Nov. 2008)
Blink - A Must Read October 2, 2008
"Blink" almost instantly made it to my shelf of favorite books of all time. I won't go into a detailed description of Gladwell's theory of thin-slicing, as other reviewers have already done this in all the detail you need to know before you decide to purchase this book (which I highly recommend you do) Instead, I'll tell you what I took away from "Blink", and why I think it's such an important read.
"Blink" is more than just a series of entertaining anecdotes that support his theory. It is a book of lessons that provide insight into our minds, and the minds of those around us. Armed with this knowledge, we are better prepared to not only understand our own decision-making process, but to see, for a blink of an eye, what others are seeing when they make decisions about us. Many of the experiments and studies he describes contain information that can be directly applied to one's life.
A good example of this is the study done in Germany that turns our idea of `feeling happy' on its head. While everyone knows that when you're happy, you smile, a team of German scientists found that it works in reverse as well. The simple act of smiling improves your mood. One could just take this interesting factoid and store it in the lumber room of your mind along with all the other trivia. I chose to make it relevant. I can't tell you how many times it's happened since reading this book that I felt angry, frustrated, impatient, or irritated in some way, and then turned my mood around just by forcing myself to smile for a little bit.
Another sub-chapter of the book ("Arguing with a Dog") describes what Gladwell calls "temporary autism", a kind of mind-blindness that occurs when one is excited or stressed to the point that the heart rate rises above 145. I found this chapter very helpful in understanding the physiological process, as my work often requires me to deal with very stressed out people. (It helped with some easily excitable friends too!)
The sub-chapter titled `The Storytelling Problem", which detailed the vast difference between what people say they want in a mate and what they are in fact attracted to, made me feel a lot better after reading it. After years of hearing women describe their "perfect man" to me, and then seeing them fall for a perfect jerk instead, I've gotten more than a little frustrated. But now I know there is a psychological reason for this insanity. I wish I could make every single woman in the country read this chapter (or at least the single women in my city!) On a similar note, I wish I could make everyone read the chapter called "The Warren G. Harding Error", which details the power of looks and our subconscious predilection for "tall, dark, and handsome" men. This chapter is especially relevant in an election year, when we are looking at our two candidates and judging them. Do we really know upon what basis we are judging? Are TRULY picking the best man for the job, or are we voting on who has made the more "presidential" first impression? As much as most people won't admit that race plays any part in their vote, mightn't it anyway, even among those people who truly DO deplore racism? Do we like a candidate because of what he or she truly stands for, or are we voting for them because they smile more often, or joke more often, or were wearing our favorite color the first time we saw them? One section of the book even describes how people can be "primed", subtly influenced to think and behave differently, at least in the short term. Are we, as voters, being "primed" by the various media? I think these are all very valid and relevant questions we need to ask ourselves.
This is what I took away from "Blink"- a deeper understanding of the decision-making process, and what factors assist or subvert it. "Paul Van Riper's Big Victory" is a portrait of a decision-making model that works. "Pepsi's Challenge" describes a situation where thin-slicing doesn't work out. "The Chair of Death" describes an interesting hiccup in the thin-slicing process, where peoples' initial reaction can be negative, not because something is genuinely bad, but simply because it is unfamiliar. And "Blink in Black and White", which not only relates the problem of automatic subconscious racial stereotyping (even of ones OWN race) but supplies a test you can do yourself, was nothing less than chilling.
OK, Gladwell is a writer, not a scientist. If you're looking for an airtight theory complete with control group testing and a detailed analysis of every possible permutation of the concept, go read a scientific journal. And, as another reviewer pointed out, he does tend to end his books with a thud rather than a conclusion. Nonetheless, I think this should be required reading in every American high school. The idea is that compelling, and the issues involved are that important.
 Not a must read book September 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Let me start by saying that each chapter in the book is very interesting, easy to read and engaging. A real page turner from this point of view.
Now, having said that, as a whole I couldn't see what was the author getting at through the book. The book starts with the premise that some people can make a snap decision about something and be right, which is interesting. But then, the book goes into chapter after chapter of examples on exemptions to this. Which at the end feels like the original premise is completely false. The only conclusion I could get is that some expert in something might be able to make a quick decision and be right, which is mostly chance alone.
So in essence I found this book to be mostly unimportant.
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