Thinking without thinking! (Blink - Malcolm Gladwell)

Member Name: gpollock

Product:	Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
Date:	23/04/09 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting and thought provoking

Disadvantages: Some explanations a bit long winded

Blink, written by Malcolm Gladwell is a book about using your intuition and making snap judgements. Sometimes these intuitive snap judgements can pay off with positive results but on other occasions it shows how you do need to be careful when making these snap decisions as sometimes the wrong conclusions can be reached with devastating consequences.

In the book, Malcolm Gladwell gives plenty of examples, backed up by scientific research and experiments to describe these moments when a person 'knows' something without knowing why. For example, he goes into detail on how an art expert can look at a supposedly multi-million dollar sculpture and immediately spot that it's a fake when others would be fooled or when a marriage analyst knows within minutes whether or not a couple will stay together.

The book raises issues around subconscious prejudices and how split second decisions, mixed with a variety of factors and influences can result in disasterous consequences, for example the police officers on patrol in a notoriously dodgy part of Brooklyn in New York made the wrong snap decision based on their summing up of the victim, the circumstances and their already in built beliefs.

I found the book pretty interesting. There were a few occasions that I found some of the explanations tended to become slightly long winded and a little complex, whereas other explanations I found really interesting and has certainly made me think slightly differently about certain situations. The examples I have mentioned above such as the art expert recognising fakes or the police officers making the wrong decision are I suppose not typical examples that the majority of people can relate personally to but there are plenty of other examples provided throughout the book which most people can relate to in their every day lives and it certainly gets you thinking about how you could possibly put some of these ideas into practice a bit yourself or how already on occasions in the past you may have intuitively had that 'knowing' feeling.

Blink is an easy enough book to read. There is a lot of detail but not so much that you get bogged down or lost in. The book is split into seven fairly even chapters, many of which split into sub-sections which helps keep the momentum going and at 254 pages in total it doesn't take too long to get through.

Overall, I think it's a good book and certainly worth reading - i probably haven't done it enough justice in this review as it is slightly hard to get all the ideas across without basically giving away all the theories and explanations in the book!

Summary: Interesting book discussion the power of intuitive snap decision making