Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Malcolm GladwellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-03
ISBN: 0316010669
Number of pages: 296
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316010665
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Book Review: Entertaining, Provoking Intro to "Thinking Without Thinking"
Summary: 5 Stars
There are some books that are the brain equivalent of cotton candy-- satisfying but with no real nutrition. There are other books that really stretch your brain but also throw it into cramps trying to understand what the book is saying, so you end up grabbing your head shouting "ow ow ow!"
Blink is a great example of a book that really blows your mind without causing it any pain; it is an entertaining, accessible introduction to a fascinating but little known field of research known by various names such as "adaptive unconscious" "thin-slicing" or as the author likes to put it "thinking without thinking" (see, simple words, no brain cramp there!).
What is he talking about here? Simply put, most of us divide our brains into two functional parts, the part that does things like control our muscles and breathing (unconscious) and the part that composes poems, makes mathematical calculations, and decides where to go on vacation (conscious).
However, our brains have a third distinct type of function: subconscious processing. Every second we are awake our brains are compiling huge amounts of data that our senses are feeding us, then making complex decisions about that data instantaneously and continuously, then feeding those decisions to us subconsciously. We don't even realize this is happening-- it's often what we call "our gut" or "intuition," but in reality it is an incredibly sophisticated and powerful processing ability that is beyond anything that a computer can do.
Gladwell uses a variety of entertaining, thought-provoking, and sometimes alarming examples of both anecodote and detailed research to open our minds to what our "adaptive unconscious" is doing for us every day. For instance, one research project he mentions in the introduction found that,
"A person watching a silent two-second video clip of a teacher he or she has never met will reach conclusions about how good that teacher is that are very similar to those of a student who has sat in the teacher's class for an entire semester. That's the power of our adaptive unconscious."
So, what does the book cover? Gladwell himself outlines three major tasks that he wanted the book to accomplish:
First task: decisions made very quickly (through our subconscious processing abilities) can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.
Second task: That we can learn about how this subconscious processing works and when it can be trusted and when to be wary of it.
Third task: that "our snap judgements and first impressions can be educated and controlled... as we can teach ourselves to think logically and deliberately (better), we can also teach ourselves to make better snap judgments. The power of knowing, in that first two seconds, is not a gift given magically to a fortunate few. It is an ability that we can all cultivate for ourselves."
Along the way, the reader is intrigued and entertained by a wide variety of little known research facts about human behavior and thinking. There is the marriage researcher who can predict divorce with 95% accuracy years before it happens by only listening to a couple have a conversation for a few minutes. How does he do it? By focusing on the ratio of conscious and subconscious positive to negative emotion expressed (a ratio any worse than 5:1 positive:negative is bad, and any expression of true contempt is a death knell).
Then there is the online test you can take to show whether you have a subconscious prejudice against blacks (80% of whites and even 50% of blacks do). And how you can influence how patient a test subject will be by having them read sentences that have words like "patient" in them before they have to wait on someone. And his interview with a lady who can separate the taste of Oreos into ninety separate components (eleven of which are critical, we are told!). And the team that has calculated every possible anatomic facial expression, what they mean, how some cannot be faken or hidden, and even that the mere act of forming some facial expressions trigger the autonomic nervous system on a subconscious level (in other words, smiling really can make us feel happy!).
So, by the time you turn the last page, how well does Gladwell succeed on each of his three tasks? For task #1, he does great. Time after time he convincingly shows the power and the wonder of our subconscious processing, and how often it is superior to what we normally think of as "thinking." I gained a great deal more respect for the incredible things that my brain does and what an incredible creation of God it is.
What about the second task, to understand how this works and when to trust it? This is much harder, because we are just beginning to do serious research on the nature and extent of our subconscious processing. He gives a few good examples of where our "gut" doesn't do a good job, such as when evaluating people by stereotypes such as height or race, or having to make certain decisions in rapid high stress situations. But that's really just the tip of the iceberg regarding the limitations of our subconscious.
Unfortunately, with the third task (to make better "snap judgements") no book can deal definitively, because generally you have to thoroughlly understand how and why something is going wrong to correct it, and our limited understanding of our preconscious really hampers our ability to proactively improve and correct it.
All in all, this is an enormously fascinating and entertaining book that is both an important and a fun read for anyone. To better understand both the power, extent, and limitation of how we "think without thinking" is of value to all of us. Unconditionally recommended.
Summary of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
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 Blink we 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.
Blink reveals 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.
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
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