BLINK: by Malcolm Gladwell

'BLINK: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking' ..sounds like an interesting book; anyone read it..??

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Best-selling author Gladwell has a dazzling ability to find commonality in disparate fields of study. As he displays again in this entertaining and illuminating look at how we make snap judgments?about people's intentions, the authenticity of a work of art, even military strategy?he can parse for general readers the intricacies of fascinating but little-known fields like professional food tasting (why does Coke taste different from Pepsi?). Gladwell's conclusion, after studying how people make instant decisions in a wide range of fields from psychology to police work, is that we can make better instant judgments by training our mind and senses to focus on the most relevant facts?and that less input (as long as it's the right input) is better than more. Perhaps the most stunning example he gives of this counterintuitive truth is the most expensive war game ever conducted by the Pentagon, in which a wily marine officer, playing "a rogue military commander" in the Persian Gulf and unencumbered by hierarchy, bureaucracy and too much technology, humiliated American forces whose chiefs were bogged down in matrixes, systems for decision making and information overload.

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.

source: amazon

Thanks for the feedback, guys.. 🙂

Blink is half-read on my shelf. I read the relationship one and thats it.

I think Gladwell is a bit of a genius, but I read 'Outliers', and I feel that although he presents his facts well, ties them up without any seeming loose ends and creates a phenomenal hypothesis that explains so many things, I think he didn't do enough research. It's a pop psychology thing. There's a part on birthdays of rugby? players and you will know that Gladwell doesn't know his astrology. The big guys are born in the beginning of the year not by divine intervention, but because of human invention - a cut off for acceptance into school teams.

I wish Gladwell took that brill mind of his and dug deeper instead of making superficial connections that doesn't explain many things beyond an interest level.

I read it and liked it. It sort of boosts up the hypothesis that we're just using 10% of our brains consciously but since our brain is like a supercomputer, it can make sense of various bits of information in an instant. Basically, it's about honing intuition because that's the output. We just often can't put our finger on it -- the underlying reasons for that gut feel -- because we often think in linear, logical terms (very slow) when our brain has made sense of it all already.

It's a good read and very informative. I'd read it again if I had the time.

I still haven't read this. Will make a note of doing so.

I normally can't stand Gladwell. Not very helpful but there you go.