Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell

List Price: ~~$15.99~~
Our Price: $5.99
You Save: $10.00 (63%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.99 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Compare Prices for Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2007-04-03
ISBN: 0316010669
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Back Bay Books

Book Reviews of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Book Review: Facinating
Summary: 5 Stars

While I'm a bit surprised to find that many people didn't care for this book, I found it fascinating. I had no idea that there was so much going on in our brains that was subconscious. Knowing that the shape of an ice-cream container changes the way a person enjoys the product or why Pepsi wins the sip contest over Coke may not change my life, but the fact that there are reasons that can be measured and explained intrigued me to no end. And the items that related to race were both scary and very sobering. I've listened to this book on audio several times and enjoy it every time.

Write your own review

All Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Customer Reviews

Summary of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

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

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

Decision-Making & Problem Solving Books

Book Subjects

Most talked about in A few of my Favorite Books!

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials) Image

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)
by Robert B. Cialdini
Collins; Published: 2007-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: ~~$17.95~~

How to Win Friends & Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
Pocket; Published: 1998-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops: ~~$14.00~~

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means
by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
Plume; Published: 2003-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: ~~$15.00~~

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay Books; Published: 2007-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops: ~~$15.99~~

The World Is Flat
by Thomas Friedman
Penguin Books Ltd (UK); Published: 2007-07-31; Paperback; Book

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
W. W. Norton; Published: 2005-07-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops: ~~$24.95~~

$The Equation for Excellence: How to Make Your Child Excel at Math Image$ The Equation for Excellence: How to Make Your Child Excel at Math
by Arvin Vohra
Roland Media Distribution; Published: 2008-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99

The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
by Howard Bloom
Atlantic Monthly Press; Published: 1997-03-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.14
Price in other shops: ~~$16.00~~

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay Books; Published: 2002-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.80
Price in other shops: ~~$14.95~~

Similar Books and other products

The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story
by Alex R. Larzelere
US Naval Institute Press; Published: 2003-06-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.21
Price in other shops: ~~$37.50~~

Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf: First Commandant of the Coast Guard (Library of Naval Biography) Image

Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf: First Commandant of the Coast Guard (Library of Naval Biography)
by C. Douglas Kroll
US Naval Institute Press; Published: 2002-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.43
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
by Thomas L. Friedman
Picador; Published: 2007-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.88
Price in other shops: ~~$16.00~~

Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye
by Michael R. LeGault
Threshold Editions; Published: 2006-10-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops: ~~$14.00~~

Stumbling on Happiness
by Daniel Gilbert
Vintage; Published: 2007-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: ~~$14.95~~

On Bullshit
by Harry G. Frankfurt
Princeton University Press; Published: 2005-01-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.30
Price in other shops: ~~$9.95~~

Crimes Against Logic
by Jamie Whyte
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2004-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops: ~~$12.95~~

The Wisdom of Crowds
by James Surowiecki
Anchor; Published: 2005-08-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: ~~$14.95~~

Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
William Morrow; Published: 2006-10-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.72
Price in other shops: ~~$27.95~~

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay Books; Published: 2002-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops: ~~$14.95~~