Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Malcolm GladwellEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-01-11
ISBN: 0316172324
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316172325
- 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: Great Page Turner
Summary: 5 Stars
Malcolm Gladwell, a staff writer for The New Yorker and former business and science reporter for the Washington Post, synthesizes the complex topic of conscious and unconscious decision making in Blink. In this work, Gladwell dissects how people think and how their exterior provides valuable and often scientific explanations to their thought process. In short, he states that it is a book about "thinking without thinking." Using numerous examples of recent research in the fields of psychology, military warfare, behavioral sciences, and other relevant areas, Gladwell highlights these examples to advance the thesis that we often have the ability to make a correct decision in the blink of an eye.
* First impressions are often correct: In the opening chapter, Gladwell outlines the details of an ostensibly genuine and rare Kuoss statue. He talks of the pain staking labor that the J. Paul Getty museum went through to establish the bona fides of this artifact. After more than a year, the museum curators, the forensic specialists and others, verified that the statue was genuine. Unfortunately, as Gladwell notes, they were wrong. After the first Kuoss statue experts came to view the Kuoss (this was over a year after the museum had purchased and verified the statue's authenticity), they made instantaneous, and startling, remarks that the statue "looked like new" or "had a mirror like image." These comments were not taken lightly by the museum, and after further review it was determined that the statue was a fake. Gladwell makes the point that the forensic and museum experts did not determine the authenticity of the statue after a year of analysis and research, and the statue experts made the correct determination in less than a minute. This example sets the tone for Blink, as the following chapters discuss why the Kuoss experts were able to unlock and trust their first thoughts - even though the statue was ostensibly proven to be genuine.
* Unlocking the unconscious: Using a series of research examples from psychological experiments, Gladwell details some interesting facts about how we determine "snap" decisions. In essence, the snap decision is based on a set of pre-conceived and established notions that one has developed over the course of their lifetime. For instance, one of Gladwell's research examples exposes word and action correlations. The test, developed by Anthony Greenwald and others, was called the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In short, a series of words (both positive and negative) were given to a tester - with another set of words and/or pictures of individuals of different races. The tester was instructed to make associations by matching the differing word sets. Essentially, the quicker that a tester made an association, the higher the correlation between the word sets. For example, the results showed that there was a racial bias in almost all the testers. They would have negative correlations between a person of a certain race and the word "good." The results were a bit disturbing, as they showed "that our unconscious attitudes may be incompatible with our stated conscious values." According to Gladwell, this is the "Warren Harding" error, as the former president was a tall and handsome person, but lacked any tangible political savvy to hold the highest office in the United States. U.S. Citizens associated a strong president with his physical attributes and not his political qualifications. This sort of bias still exists today, as illustrated with the IAT. To further this conclusion, Gladwell note that most research illustrates that those in positions of power, in this case CEOS, are overwhelmingly tall white men - the medium, he explains, was just a shade under six feet. This "dark side" of thin slicing, according to Gladwell, is responsible for our biases and discriminations in decisions making.
* The science behind quick decision making: Gladwell uses many examples in his latter chapters to solidify that people are hard-wired to make snap judgments. These decisions are the product of training and experience, notes Gladwell. The more you have of each, the more apt and adapted you will be to make the correct decision in a snap. For instance, a military war game strategy highlights this technique. Gladwell outlines the details of a 2002 War Game exercise that details the military tactics of two teams: red and blue. Both teams were not evenly matched, as the blue team enjoyed superior tactics and technology - not to mention the best analysts and military strategists. The red team had fewer resources, and the commander was meant to represent a rogue commander in the Middle East. USMC General Paul Van Riper, or "Rip," as he was called by many, was chosen as the commander. A military officer who had a reputation for making good decisions in stressful situations, he proved to be an exceptional commander in Vietnam and his future endeavors. So the stage was set, Rip was up against the greatest war game team in modern day history. To make a long story short, Rip defeated the Blue team in less than one day. The blue team had assumed that Rip would use the latest technology for communications such as cell phones and satellites. But this was an incorrect assumption; Rip was able to sink the majority of the Blue Team's naval forces by using old signal communications. For instance, the Blue Team did not calculate that he would use light signals to land and launch his fighter planes. The point of this example was to illustrate that high stress experiences and training allowed Rip to make snap decisions that would defeat those who lacked those experiences and training. In this case, the Blue team lacked a Commander with the aforementioned attributes. In other words, all the expertise and technical advances could not replace the keen snap judgment of Rip. In similar examples, Gladwell illustrated that experienced stock brokers and police officers are able to make snap judgments in a blink of an eye. Mainly, their training and their experiences allow them to make the right split second decisions.
Good judgment is at the core of leadership and management, and this work outlines "how we think without thinking." On top of the important and somewhat novel thesis, it is an interesting story of the latest revelations in psychological research that illuminates the thought process. Blink is a page turner and a book that keeps your attention.
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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