books:

	Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye Michael R. LeGault Threshold Editions, 2006 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 68 reviews view larger image
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Somewhere along the line, the Age of Reason morphed into the Age of Emotion; this systemic erosion is costing time, money, jobs, and lives in the twenty-first century, leading to less fulfilment and growing dysfunction. LeGault provides a bold, controversial, and objective analysis of the causes and solutions for some of the biggest problems facing Western culture in the 21st century. From the over- load of reality TV shows and gossip magazines that have rendered curiosity of the mind and spirit obsolete to permissive parenting and low standards that have caused an academic crisis among our children, LeGault looks at all aspects of modern lives and points to how and where it all went wrong.

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Should be read once a year

After reading this book, I can no longer watch television without feeling guilty for wasting my time. The author showed me many holes in my college education. He writes to the lay people and the college student.
In fact, I would call this an invitation to graduate school.
If you read this from cover to cover, you will watch less of the idiot box and spend less time on the computer. He ruined television for me. Nice going.......



Think Before You Blink

In light of the present housing crisis and pending recession, this book could not have been written at a better time. Obviously upset at the flawed, subjectivist logic of Malcolm Gladwell, Michael LeGault has responded in kind with this well-written book.

Essentially, LeGault believes that the reason why people in the West are in trouble is due to their inability to or unwillingness to think their actions through before deciding on their course of action.

A prime example of people not thinking their actions through until its too late is the housing slump and pending recession. If people had taken the time to think and use logic before signing on to the mortgages with which many are now in default, the so-called housing crisis and recession we are seeing would have never happened. Now, as a result of illogical behavior, the taxpayers may soon be looted to bail these people out or the lenders will be forced to freeze their actions on people in default of their mortgages.

What many people need to start doing is re-learning how to think and stop conducting themselves in a subjectivist, touchy-feely manner. Unfortunately, many times it takes things to get bad before people realize the mistakes they make. This methodology needs to change and I believe it can and will since people mostly learn from their mistakes.

This is not to say people should never take risks or that feelings are irrelevant. However, an objective, consistent, logical and well-thought out course of action is needed before taking major decisions in one's life. Logic grounded in subjectivism, which is what Gladwell advocates, is nice on paper but is lousy in practice.

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Enhance creativity and improve reasoning

"We have become a society in which the first instinct is not to think clearly, it is the protection of one's backside "(pg 29) The book explores why the use of reason is declining and the ones to blame for this.
Despite Blink being a best-seller, and having great reviews, I was never persuaded to read it. However, Think! caught my attention and I am pleased to have read it. I can't comment on the comparisons Le Gault makes to Blink, but I recommend this book to those who have and have not read Blink. Le Gault is a master of words and a clever thinker. The majority of his arguments are valid and the ones you may disagree with just open the door to insightful thinking. This book will make you feel guilty about watching TV and engaging in non-intellectual activities or "passive entertainment" as he calls it but nonetheless it will encourage you to become a critical thinker. Le Gault is definitely a conservative and expresses his right-wing views throughout the book but after all, aren't challenging views necessary to become critical thinkers?
"It is not luxury, or corruption, or invasion per se that ultimately threatens and weakens a society, but moral decline, spiritual decline, ennui, or some sort of intellectual lethargy". (pg321)

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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