In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within.
Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?
In Blinkwe meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of “blink”: the election of Warren Harding; “New Coke”; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police.
Blinkreveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of “thin-slicing”-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.
Jan (verified owner) –
We have probably gifted 3 or more copies of this to friends. Some of it’s findings/revelations/opinions are extraordinary and, at the same time, completely understandable. A good read repeatedly.
Brent Slatas (verified owner) –
If you like Malcolm’s style of writing you’ll enjoy all the insights he brings to light. He is a great storyteller regardless of the subject matter.
Carroll Thronesbery (verified owner) –
I read Khaneman’ s Thinking Fast and Slow before this one. They have somewhat similar content, Khaneman presented more scientific detail. Gladwell presented a more journalistic, dramatic and engaging set of lessons. Both are great reads!
Reading Fan (verified owner) –
`Blink’ is about the mysterious two seconds it takes to develop a first impression and how surprising the impression often is, given our known preferences and tendencies. Malcolm Gladwell got the idea for this book after he had let his hair grow long on a whim, and found he was getting speeding tickets for the first time in his life. He wondered why the cops all of a sudden had an impression of him that wasn’t there before. He became curious: where do first impressions come from anyway?
Adam Branson (verified owner) –
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Lance C. Hibbeler (verified owner) –
Malcolm Gladwell, adored by the masses and mocked by the academy, has set out to explore human cognition and decision making in his book “Blink,” despite the fact that he is a historian by training and a journalist by trade. The premise of this book is that we humans have two speeds when it comes to decision making: “really fast” and “regular.” We are all familiar with regular- pause and think, employ logic, maybe even write stuff down on paper, and eventually come to a rational conclusion. Really fast, or as Gladwell calls it, blinking or ‘thin-slicing’, happens in much shorter times, ranging from milliseconds to know if a tennis serve will go awry, to mere minutes to know if a marriage will survive the next 20 years. The ability to accurately use the faster method is discussed by Gladwell, who provides several very entertaining and well-written stories detailing the split-second decisions that can be made, such as telling that a piece of art is a fake by just a quick glimpse, rather than expensive and lengthy laboratory tests. There is also a dark side to this method of decision-making, and in several very entertaining and well-written stories, Gladwell shows how white men turn into evil misogynistic racists when making split-second decisions. Take it or leave it, but Gladwell is an extremely talented and engaging storyteller. There is a lot of redundancy within and across chapters, and I estimate the book could be maybe 100 pages lighter.