Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by: Malcolm Gladwell
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Amazon.com Review:
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
Product Description:
In his #1 bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. In BLINK, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within.How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? That's the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in BLINK. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, examining case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the New Coke, Gladwell shows how the difference between good decision making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but rather with the few particular details on which we focus.BLINK displays all of the brilliance that has made Malcolm Gladwell's journalism so popular and his books such perennial bestsellers as it reveals how all of us can become better decision makers--in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life.
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
Product Description:
In his #1 bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. In BLINK, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within.How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? That's the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in BLINK. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, examining case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the New Coke, Gladwell shows how the difference between good decision making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but rather with the few particular details on which we focus.BLINK displays all of the brilliance that has made Malcolm Gladwell's journalism so popular and his books such perennial bestsellers as it reveals how all of us can become better decision makers--in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Entertaining but often confusing if you think too hard about it
Although I found "blink" engrossing, Gladwell's talent as a writer often lets him get away with murder.The distinctions he makes sometimes seem arbitrary, particularly if one takes just a little more than 2 seconds to mull things over.Some of his extrapolations not only seem unjustified but mislead.For example, in his discussion of malpractice, Gladwell urges his patients to find their doctors "wanting" if they appear not to be listening or talking down.But the research on which Gladwell ... Read More
Rating: 
- Great storytelling
I really love a good story, and the stories in this book were fascinating, especially since you weren't sure where each one was going.So much food for thought-- you may just read it in a few days, but spend weeks thinking about it (or telling your husband about it over and over...).Great!
Rating: - pretty much goes nowhere
I found this a tremendously interesting read:during two days or so it took me to read it, I really couldn't put it down.(A teacher, I put my students to work doing a bunch of soul-crushing busy work so I could finish reading it during classtime.)
It's full of great anecdotes, and Gladwell has a lucid and engaging style.
The problem is this:as far as what Gladwell's actually saying, his observations don't sum to much.
The basic thesis -- as I'm sure you ... Read More
Rating: 
- BLink and you'll fall asleep..
Blink! what seemed like a fascinating subject pulled me in and then after 100 pages I put it down. Just like that, in a flash of a moment or a blink, I decided I can't finish this book. Might have made a fascinating magazine article in New Yorker magazine but like that magazine this book just started boring me. Blink.
Rating: 
- Blink and maybe you'll miss this one
The basic idea is interesting and held my attention for a while, but eventuallylost my interest.
- Entertaining but often confusing if you think too hard about itAlthough I found "blink" engrossing, Gladwell's talent as a writer often lets him get away with murder.The distinctions he makes sometimes seem arbitrary, particularly if one takes just a little more than 2 seconds to mull things over.Some of his extrapolations not only seem unjustified but mislead.For example, in his discussion of malpractice, Gladwell urges his patients to find their doctors "wanting" if they appear not to be listening or talking down.But the research on which Gladwell ... Read More
- Great storytellingI really love a good story, and the stories in this book were fascinating, especially since you weren't sure where each one was going.So much food for thought-- you may just read it in a few days, but spend weeks thinking about it (or telling your husband about it over and over...).Great!
- pretty much goes nowhereI found this a tremendously interesting read:during two days or so it took me to read it, I really couldn't put it down.(A teacher, I put my students to work doing a bunch of soul-crushing busy work so I could finish reading it during classtime.)
It's full of great anecdotes, and Gladwell has a lucid and engaging style.
The problem is this:as far as what Gladwell's actually saying, his observations don't sum to much.
The basic thesis -- as I'm sure you ... Read More
- BLink and you'll fall asleep..Blink! what seemed like a fascinating subject pulled me in and then after 100 pages I put it down. Just like that, in a flash of a moment or a blink, I decided I can't finish this book. Might have made a fascinating magazine article in New Yorker magazine but like that magazine this book just started boring me. Blink.
- Blink and maybe you'll miss this one The basic idea is interesting and held my attention for a while, but eventuallylost my interest.
