Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | Malcolm Gladwell

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | Malcolm Gladwell | INTERESTING BUT NOT ESSENTIAL

books:

Blink: The Power o...

	Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Malcolm Gladwell Back Bay Books, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 957 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

A Bit Long-Winded, But Worth It

Blink has changed the way I think about decision-making. From an early age we are discouraged from making "snap" decisions, we are not taught to develop our natural instincts. While some snap decisions can be mistakes, if we tune up our "gut" feelings, it may be possible to make excellent decisions based on limited information and time constraints. Gladwell calls this "thin-slicing" and make no mistake about it - it is a SKILL that must be cultivated.

In a nutshell, thin-slicing is defined as "the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviors based on very narrow slices of experience." The most fascinating part to me is just that - as a human being, we do have this capability. If you're like me, you do a significant amount of second-guessing, and that is where the trouble starts. We have the instincts inside of us, our brains are powerful tools - more powerful than the most sophisticated computer, they tell us, right? So why do we not trust ourselves?

To be honest, the book started out great with some fascinating examples of thin-slicing and adaptive unconscious (the part of the brain that leaps to conclusions and is capable of making very quick decisions based on very little information). Towards the end I felt like it was just the same information over and over again. I got the gist of it all in the first couple of chapters. Many reviewers here indicated that it could have been an article instead of a book, but I understand why it is a book: Books are taken seriously, are reviewed, are cited, and are easy to find after publication.

Blink is worth the read, even if you only skim a few parts, if only to get you thinking differently about the way we make decisions.

for more information click here

INTERESTING BUT NOT ESSENTIAL

Mr. Gladwell is very talented. He certainly did his homework on this one. At the end of the book though I was left wondering, "Okay...so what is the conclusion?" The book came to a rather abrupt ending and I couldn't tell if the author was for or against snap judgments.

My biggest disappointment is that there was no warning regarding explicit language. I was listening to this work on CD with my young daughters in the car when all of a sudden he starts using profane words in an effort to quote others. Was it necessary to include such language?

for more information click here

Mediocre at best

Gladwell is a writer for the New Yorker so it's not surprising that this entire book could have been summed up in an article. Gladwell basically says we should follow our instinct and concludes at the end that we shouldn't be judgemental at the same time. Wow, what insight! He gives some interesting examples which are what I enjoyed. It's a quick read though so you won't waste too much time even though the book is a little drawn out.

agree with the reviewer who said this book was "mediocre"

Like the reviewer who posted just before me, I also thought the book could have made an excellent article. You can certainly skip around in this book and get the point of it. I forced myself to read the whole book even though I lost interest maybe halfway or 2/3 of the way through because the author seemed to be just supporting his main idea with more and more examples. I thought I should force myself to read the whole book in case I missed some amazing new insights, but there was nothing new in it. I enjoyed the examples though, which is why I give this book 3 stars. All in all it was truly mediocre at best.

for more information click here