Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Oct 18, 2007 Matt Kosinski rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Here's Blink in a nutshell:

Split decisions can be good; better than decisions where we take a lot of time to carefully weigh our options and use scientific evidence.

Except when they're not.

Rapid cognition is an exciting and powerful way to use your brain's quick, intuitive capabilities to make stunningly accurate decisions, and can even lead you to have better success in sports, business and politics.

Except when it won't.

We should learn to trust our snap judgments, even in seemingly complex si...more

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Sep 03, 2007 Laurie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: self-help, non-fiction

The funny thing is that I don't consider myself to be a literary or intellectual snob at all but I really feel that it is not reality television, not celebrity talk shows, and not pop punk records but instead this genre of books that will be the downfall of our civilization. The studies referenced in this book are sometimes fascinating (the only one I really remember is the online racial profiling test, that blew my mind) but are usually poorly cited. At best, they must leave even the most indis...more

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Jul 17, 2007 Nina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For anyone who is thinking about reading this book, I highly recommend it. However, I also recommend reading it as a series of fascinating, well-told stories. It is really nothing more and nothing less.

One of the criticisms I heard about this book before I read it is that Gladwell lays out his theory in the first chapter, and the rest of the book is just example after example supporting his theory. I agree, however it would be a serious mistake to only read the first chapter. The pleasure of rea...more For anyone who is thinking about reading this book, I highly recommend it. However, I also recommend reading it as a series of fascinating, well-told stories. It is really nothing more and nothing less.

One of the criticisms I heard about this book before I read it is that Gladwell lays out his theory in the first chapter, and the rest of the book is just example after example supporting his theory. I agree, however it would be a serious mistake to only read the first chapter. The pleasure of reading this book is in those stories- he talks about interesting psychological experiments and unbelievable examples of where snap judgement trumped long and careful research and analysis, and where snap judgement failed because of unconscious prejudices. The problem with this book is that his argument is not cohesive.

I kept reading on and on expecting his argument to become clear, but that never happens. Instead, one story after another contradicts his original theory, and he keeps changing his mind about what that theory is. For example, a point he makes is that someone's intuition can lead to the right conclusion, while deliberate analysis by experts considering all information available can be completely off. However, in all his stories where someone made a good snap judgement, that person was an expert and was able to use his judgement under a high-stress situation precisely because of his long career of careful study or of many experiences in that situation. Another problem is that he seems to think that one can know ahead of time when to use their snap judgement or when to carefully research something and consider all information available. The problem with that part of his argument is that, in all the examples where the person's snap judgement failed, that person was not aware of his subconscious prejudices because they were, obviously, subconscious. In the afterward he wrote after the book was published, he tried to reconcile these contraditions, but it was still not convincing.

Regardless, his examples really are fascinating, and he really is a great story-teller. I think if you read this book without the expections that I had, and without trying to mentally place each example in a larger framework of what you think his argument is, you would very much enjoy it.(less)

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Aug 13, 2007 Margaret Ross rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think this book wins my prize for Most Easily Misinterpreted to Serve Personal Agendas. Gladwell gets so into the interesting details of the case he's building, he really doesn't emphasize the final conclusions of the book at all, leaving people to think that the interesting details are the whole point, which is unfortunate. But then again, I'm not 100% sure I got the whole point.

Most of the folks I know think that this book is about how a person's gut instincts can be a better read of a situa...more

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Jan 19, 2008 Carolyn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Equally as fascinating as Gladwell's other book The Tipping Point. Really makes you think, consider your decisions differently.

Quotes:
But in the end it comes down to a matter of respect, and the simplest way that respect is communicated is through tone of voice.

Of the tens of millions of American men below five foot six, a grand total of ten in my sample have reached the level of CEO, which says that being short is probably as much of a handicap to corporate success as being a woman or an Afric...more

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Apr 05, 2009 Snezan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone with an interest in human interaction

This work is worth a read, if not more than one. I hesitate to say too much, since I believe the conclusions it reaches are explored in the very beginning and will immediately inform the reader of its relevance. I don't know why that came out so long winded, the reader will find out how interested they are by the first or second chapter.

I found the book fascinating for its close look into social interactions, particularly between two people, and for explaining why i sometimes I think the way tha...more

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May 31, 2009 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: 2007-oct-to-dec-only

I would put this book in the category of "Freakonomics" and "The Tipping Point." By the same author as the latter title, Malcolm Gladwell, the purpose of this book is to weigh the advantages as well as the disadvantages of the power of the mind's ability to unconsciously leap to conclusions based on what is seen in the proverbial blink of an eye.

While I have read some negative reviews of Gladwell's book, mostly citing that he fails to inform the reader how to know when to go with your gut and w...more

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Jul 16, 2007 Sheila rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

This book was really interesting. It discusses the way in which people can "thin-slice" a situation in a matter of seconds and make a judgement. This is where pre-conceived notions such as stereotypes can affect the way we react to something under a time constraint. It's about how our unconscious mind figures things out and affects how we feel or affects our actions before we even realize what is happening. Even if you aren't a racist, you can be programmed to act as a racist by the things you a...more This book was really interesting. It discusses the way in which people can "thin-slice" a situation in a matter of seconds and make a judgement. This is where pre-conceived notions such as stereotypes can affect the way we react to something under a time constraint. It's about how our unconscious mind figures things out and affects how we feel or affects our actions before we even realize what is happening. Even if you aren't a racist, you can be programmed to act as a racist by the things you are exposed to in society. Even if you don't think you are sexist, you are more sexist than you think, due to programming. We associate things like home with mother and work with father. Examined in the book are police brutality, predictions of whether a couple will stay together (just by examining 15 min. of conversation), reading facial expressions, how one firefighter was able to thin slice a situation so quickly that he was able to save his men.

The study I found most interesting was the analysis of an autistic man. We have a part of our brain we use for facial recognition and another part we use for object recognition. The autistic man used the object part of his brain for both facial recognition and for things like recognizing that an object was a chair. The autistic man would watch a movie and not "get" the emotional things happening because he barely paid attention to faces and didn't distinguish meaning from them. A new police officer, for example, in a time of distress where his heart is racing, he just finished chasing a man in his car for an hour, will become "autistic" so to speak because he ignores all cues and shoots a man to death. All he perceives is a threat and he forgets the person. A police officer with more experience will be able to "thin slice" the situation better in a matter of seconds and avoid an unecessary shooting.

In order to be a good "thin-slicer", you probably have a lot of experience with what you are examining and it just becomes second nature. Some people are just naturally good at reading faces, predicting outcomes, and making those snap decisions that happen in the blink of an eye. Others, well, not as good! I feel that the book could use more focus, but overall, a good read.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the mysterious ways our minds work. (less)

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Oct 17, 2006 Otis Chandler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: business, nonfiction

A must read - really interesting stories about how people process things unconsciously.
- for instance, you can't hide your feeling about race from your unconscious - take the Race Test (http://www.understandingprejudice.org...). It said I (and 13% of test-takers) have a 'moderate automatic preference for European American compared to African American'. It also said 48% of test-takers have a "Strong automatic preference for White people" - crazy!
- I loved the bit about President Warren Harding...more

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May 31, 2009 Mahlon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Mahlon by: Kate McAnaney

Malcolm Gladwell has written yet another thought-provoking book. In Blink he postulates that often our first impressions or gut instincts are more likely to lead us to the the correct decision than if we spent a long time gathering information and weighing out the pros and cons of the particular situation. In other words, you should "trust your gut" In trademark Gladwell fashion he uses many entertaining stories and case studies to illustrate his points, while at the same time cautioning against...more

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May 13, 2008 Max Stone rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The general topic was how powerful our initial impressions are because we can process stuff really quick at a subconscious level in some cases.

Blink was well written and pretty entertaining. I thought the author did a good job of coming up with interesting examples of good or bad information processing and I enjoyed reading those.

However, aside from writing style and some fun examples, I thought the content was quite neatly separable into two parts:
(a) stuff that was interesting and seemed t...more The general topic was how powerful our initial impressions are because we can process stuff really quick at a subconscious level in some cases.

Blink was well written and pretty entertaining. I thought the author did a good job of coming up with interesting examples of good or bad information processing and I enjoyed reading those.

However, aside from writing style and some fun examples, I thought the content was quite neatly separable into two parts:
(a) stuff that was interesting and seemed true and which I knew already, and
(b) stuff that seemed untrue or at least incoherant and that I hadn't previously heard before. but maybe that was just my closed mind at work.

Examples of (a) were how you one's initial impression (lke in the first 5 seconds) of a teacher or an interviewee are pretty highly correlated with your opinion after an hour.

There were lots of examples of (b). Like it was weird that one of his first and favorite examples was this guy who had studied videos of couples interacting in intense detail for decades, and had created a list for how someone could score such videos to predict odds that the marriage would last. It was supposed to be an example of "blink" processing because the expert could recognize it quickly, but to me it seemed more like the opposite since (1) non-experts (including the author) all had inaccurate instinctive reactions to watching the videos, and (2) the best way to get the right answer was a mechanical scorecard -- kind of the opposite of blink.

And in general, there were examples of when you should trust your blink instinct and when that was wrong, but all the examples of when it was right or wrong seemed very post hoc (e.g. if your heart rate is over some threshold you shouldn't, but I don't think that would have come up unless he needed some explanation for why accidental police shootings occured), and he didn't really have a consistent framework for when it would be right or wrong, which made it kinda useless. and some seemed random, like the part about some musicians that musical experts liked but that did poorly in the musical equivalent of blind taste tests -- seemed likely that it was a friend of the author or some musician he liked (it was clear in the book that we should take as a given that it was a good musician and that the taste tests were wrong -- I was never quite clear why) and he was just trying to think of some way that might connect to his thesis.

I liked the description of how orchestras started doing blind auditions to avoid discrimination against women. wasn't sure that it supported his thesis, but it was interesting. that was more or less my reaction to the whole book.

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Mar 31, 2008 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: look-ma-its-educational

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really enjoyed this book - an interesting perspective on how we process informationa and what our "unconscious" tells us. My sister, the scientists, tried to read it but could not finish it, and I think the reasons for that are interesting. As a scientists, she thought the conslusions were not very startling and she wanted to know what what going on in the brian (i.e. what procees were firing) when the snap judgments were made. Since that type of information would have made me gouge my eyes ou...more

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Sep 20, 2007 MacKenzie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: bored travelers and people who think WAY too much.

so i bought this book in boston's logan airport about 10 minutes before i had to board a flight to seattle. the bookstore was limited; i didn't want to have to work to get interested. and the first 100 pages or so did the trick... until i realized that gladwell wasn't so much building an argument as telling stories about a certain topic. don't get me wrong, i finished the book. later. back in boston, on the T. and it did cover some interesting studies, or i wouldn't have done so. but i suspect t...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fascinating book! I would describe Blink as promoting self-awareness more than self-help. It's a captivating exploration of the ability of our unconscious minds to accurately(much of the time)read the world around us. The psychological studies featured offered refreshing evidence that it isn't always in our best interest to slow down and think rationally. I wouldn't base an investment strategy on Gladwell's "thin-slicing" methods, but when it comes to matters of life and death, love, trust and m...more

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Jul 22, 2007 Graham rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is pop psychology, pages and pages of narrative prose describing civil war battles, musical careers, and police chases in support of the premise that we underestimate the part of our mind that makes snap judgments.

Gladwell did some sort of research, but research in relation to psychology implies a thesis tested against authoritative sources. Assembling a series of cool stories and presenting them as case studies seems a little disingenuous.

The conclusion I reach is that OK we might benefi...more

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Apr 29, 2007 Doc Opp rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As an empirical psychologist by training, I get very annoyed at journalists who simplify things to the point that its no longer even remotely accurate. Such is the case for Blink. This is especially annoying to me, because the book describes my area of research specialization. If you're interested in a fun read, Gladwell is certainly an engaging author. If you're looking for something that accurately describes the research, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.

For example, Scott Plous's "the psychol...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Cheryl in CC NV rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Frustrating. Lots of interesting anecdotes, with analysis of each one. But no guidance on how to use what those people learned in our own lives. If we're not marriage counselors, or firefighters, or subjects of a psychology experiment, we have to go back to what we already know. Which is basically: pay attention to your hunches, but be aware of prejudices, blind spots, and other pitfalls, and figure out when to work hard to get a more thorough understanding of the subject before jumping to concl...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Paul 'Pezski' Perry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, psychology, science, read-in-2011

In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explores the phenomenon he calls 'thin slicing'; the human ability to winnow out, in fractions of a second, salient facts from a mass of information and make a decision based on them. Something most of us do all the time without giving it much conscious thought – reading the facial expressions and body language of the people with whom we interact, walking down a busy street (or a quiet street late at night), our subconscious minds processing hundreds or even thousands...more In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explores the phenomenon he calls 'thin slicing'; the human ability to winnow out, in fractions of a second, salient facts from a mass of information and make a decision based on them. Something most of us do all the time without giving it much conscious thought – reading the facial expressions and body language of the people with whom we interact, walking down a busy street (or a quiet street late at night), our subconscious minds processing hundreds or even thousands of bits of information, deciding which few are important and making a judgement based on them.

Gladwell illustrates his thesis using several extended examples. The first is relatively straight forward. In 1983 California's Getty museum was offered a 2500 year old Greek statue, a kouros, for $10 million. All the tests said it was genuine but several art experts, at first glance and without being able to say precisely why, knew it was a fake. He also tells the stories of how an ugly chair conquered the offices of the world, how we are all effected by racial conditioning, how Chicago's Cook County hospital improved diagnosis of heart attacks by removing a physician's knowledge from the process, how a commander using WWII technology defeated the combined might of the the US armed forces in the largest ever war game, and more.

The author uses two main studies to demonstrate how this process of instant assessment works. John Gottman's 'love lab', where he gets couples to talk about a subject tangentially connected with their relationship and videos the exchange to bring out the non-verbal cues, and Paul Ekman, who is an expert of facial micro-expressions that last microseconds and over which we have no control (this latter also being the model for the excellent TV show Lie To Me with Tim Roth). Gladwell builds his argument convincingly and refers back to his examples frequently for both illustration and dramatic effect. Each example he uses shows a different facet of the Blink effect but also, and this is vital, how it can go wrong in certain circumstances.

While it is quick, this subconscious ability does require a moment to work, and can be short circuited by rushing or by an overload of adrenaline. Another case study chillingly shows what can happen when our subconscious is not given the opportunity to work properly. In 1999 an unarmed, innocent man, Amadou Diallo, was shot 41 times in the entryway of his own New York apartment building, by four policemen. He shows how a lack of experience, over-hasty action and perhaps even the over-confidence of numbers allowed these policemen to fall back on crude stereotypes and allow an initial poor assessment to lead them down a tragic course of events.

While Gladwell lauds the benefits of both listening to this subconscious supercomputer and developing the skills, in backing up the studies he constantly refers to the fact that this understanding has often been achieved by the exact opposite type of mentation – deliberate, analytical evaluation of evidence. This, along with the examples given, should show the reader that there are appropriate and inappropriate areas for this sort of thinking, although I can imagine some of the readership taking away only the face-value lesson of relying on first instincts and gut feelings. I would have liked to see a chapter on the abuse of these impressions, which is after all how con artists and frauds such as psychics operate. This could have been perhaps added into the chapter on Warren G. Harding, who was elected as US president because he was tall, handsome, masculine, dignified – and is considered by historians to be one of the worst presidents in US history. I want to take nothing away from this excellent book, however. It is superbly written, making excellent use of pacing and the storylines of the examples he uses to give the book structure. Malcolm Gladwell has a great style, authoritative and engaging, and he packs a great deal of both information and analysis into what is a quick, easy and enjoyable read.(less)

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Jul 03, 2012 Jenny rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read2012, librarianship

I find this book to say very little in the end, at least, little that is useful or that I can apply. We make split-second judgements. Some people more accurately than others. This does not always mean what we think it means.

Okay....

I guess when the subtitle of a book has the words "power" and "thinking" in it ("The Power of Thinking Without Thinking"), I expect to gain something from it. Instead I feel like the author explains all the reasons why we should not be relying on snap judgements, desp...more I find this book to say very little in the end, at least, little that is useful or that I can apply. We make split-second judgements. Some people more accurately than others. This does not always mean what we think it means.

Okay....

I guess when the subtitle of a book has the words "power" and "thinking" in it ("The Power of Thinking Without Thinking"), I expect to gain something from it. Instead I feel like the author explains all the reasons why we should not be relying on snap judgements, despite the fact that some of the time, they are right. I don't find "some" to be very useful. If a person can't rely on first impressions, or what the author refers to as "thin slice" representations of performance or taste, what good is there in talking about it at all?

Then I started thinking about why I read this book in the first place. When the new president of the university where I work started, he talked extensively about Malcolm Gladwell. He referenced this book as well as Outliers. I felt like if I read them, I would understand where he was coming from, and some of the changes he has been making. I have to admit that knowing how much of a decision people make in that first moment could have an impact on how a place is marketed. Even if first impressions don't necessarily become our opinions later on, they still have the power to make a decision in a person's mind, for better or for worse.

Still, I'm not sure how you can make that work for you. Is it better to be super-sweet Pepsi that people prefer at the first sip, or more popular Coca-Cola which people are more likely to drink an entire bottle/can of, and make a repeat purchase of? I'd rather be Coke. Can you manufacture enough of a Pepsi experience and then also be Coke? That sounds dangerous to me, because I'm not sure you can be both.

"People are ignorant of the things that affect their actions, yet they rarely feel ignorant. We need to accept our ignorance and say 'I don't know' more often."

"How good people's decisions are under the fast-moving, high-stress conditions of rapid cognition is a function of training and rules and rehearsal."

Gladwell does seem to be saying that if you understand the limitations of snap-judgments, you can train yourself to try to lessen bias, prejudice, and incorrect assumptions. It seems to me that the bigger trick is understanding when and how you are doing this to begin with. Write me a book about how to do that, Mr. Gladwell.
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Mar 13, 2009 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

LOVED this book. I read "The Tipping Point" awhile ago and found both books equally fascinating. The short subject studies that the author uses are interesting, easy to follow, and compelling evidence of his "theory" or study in first impressions. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sociology, psychology, or who spends a lot of time interacting with people. You will learn how and when to trust your "gut feeling" or first impressions of people, situations, and products. A grea...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Kiri rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fascinating! I have to admit, in the first chapter I had a little knee-jerk reaction when I thought he was saying that our intuitive reactions are invariably correct. As I continued to read I appreciated his skill in outlining the complexity of his theory, and the fact that only one who is trained in a particular field can really articulate what is happening in his or her unconscious decision-making process. He also explained how that unconscious reaction can be skewed by unrelated factors, thus...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Dodoworld is currently reading it · review of another edition

Chapter 2:

Felt off balanced in this chapter due to starting with tennis players {hate tennis}.Alright , the author presents snap judgments in a quite nice way, but a serious question bears in mind ` How can I control this kinda judgments?o_O'. I totally agree with reviews here that snap judgments are more better than the longest one which might fail while applying it in a real pic.
"Primed for Action" ,however, it is more impressive how the author uses the truth of "The ventromedial Prefrontal...more Chapter 2:

Felt off balanced in this chapter due to starting with tennis players {hate tennis}.Alright , the author presents snap judgments in a quite nice way, but a serious question bears in mind ` How can I control this kinda judgments?o_O'. I totally agree with reviews here that snap judgments are more better than the longest one which might fail while applying it in a real pic.
"Primed for Action" ,however, it is more impressive how the author uses the truth of "The ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex" to enlarge his ideas towards quick judgments. I liked the idea how we sometimes stand behind the locked door and make judgments. Here is a good example when the author uses Mary's situation while changing her decisions in hurry then come back again to emphasis on her previous decision. I face this position sometime and I think "power of love" is main reason or the reason behind my locked door.
Finally , I dont enjoy this chapter :-$ as very much but I got some good points.

Chapter 3 :

I really enjoyed this chapter alot . I appreciate how the author does his best to convince us with his idea that sometimes "Snap judgments" are making troubles due to our poor experience or poor knowledge about the other 's environment. Still wondering how we really take a snap judgment to "tall" people!. I am in my wat to try "IAT" which I really hope I can take different scores to feel that Im in my way to put strong control to my snap judgment.
Through "blink in Black and White" section, I think we shall have some skills of salesman because we act in our daily life as " salesman". For instance, I find convincing my litter sisters with some ideas that we like is the hardest task because we are a little bit different. Hence, as the author said that collecting the information about the issue that I would to show it up is the first step before letting our snap judgment works on like " This sister is a such stubborn girl and I wont be able to change her mind"! . In some cases, this step assists me very much to take my sister at my line because I am talking with strong supporting sources.
On the other hand, Being a watchful itelligence person would shrink the possiblity to take snap judgment wrongly against a person or a thing. I think the author discusses the matter of black and white so far due to the nature of life that he is experienced. This means I have not touched this matter plays a crazy rule in my life because Islam calls to equality in everything as well as I used To hand down people according to what they have done than what they have gotten.
Last not least, I am one of people has worked hardly to stop my silly snap judgments because I discovered that "the Cover of book" does not reflect a real character of a person. ^_*(less)

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Dodoworld Ummmm introduction is a little bit boring. In the section of " The internal Computer", I liked how the author presents the "brain" especially " the ad...more
Jul 24, 2011 07:17am

A7med Dodo I like what you wrote and your view, you know how take the good ideas from the books really, you will see my view tonight in sha allh ^_^
Jul 24, 2011 07:17pm

Jul 22, 2011 Angela Blount rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

A fascinating read. Just when I'd promised myself I'd stay out of the psych section for a while, Blink managed to lure me back.

While the author spends the first half of the book nearly pounding you into the ground with story after story and account after account of the power of unconscious snap decisions, I could appreciate the amount of studies cited in the research. He had me convinced in half of the time he actually took to do so; that's all I'm saying. Gladwell balanced an admiration for pe...more

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Oct 21, 2009 Greg rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-non-fiction

I was really expecting more from this book. I've heard mostly good things about Gladwell, and he had a pretty interesting TED talk, and I enjoy almost anything to do with the brain, so...why not?

The book certainly brought up a lot of interesting ideas and discussed different elements that go into the snap decisions that we make every day, and is probably worth a read for many of the stories and experiments related. But for the most part this book really failed to impress. More than that though,...more I was really expecting more from this book. I've heard mostly good things about Gladwell, and he had a pretty interesting TED talk, and I enjoy almost anything to do with the brain, so...why not?

The book certainly brought up a lot of interesting ideas and discussed different elements that go into the snap decisions that we make every day, and is probably worth a read for many of the stories and experiments related. But for the most part this book really failed to impress. More than that though, it failed at being a coherent analysis of what goes on in the human brain when we make snap judgments.

Gladwell alternates between telling us to trust and accept this "mysterious phenomena" that allows us to make these unconscious snap judgments, advising against the idea that we need to slowly collect data and weigh options to make the most informed opinion and providing examples where too much thinking and information leads us astray, and warning us against the use of these snap judgments and giving examples of how they sometimes go horribly wrong. And he leaves us with no clear sense of how to use this new found information to make better decisions and judgments in our own lives. Do I trust my insights because my rational brain will fool me, or do I mistrust my instincts because of the inherent bias contained within them? If Gladwell knows he sure didn't tell me.

One example of somewhere where I think he didn't analyze the situation enough was when he talked about the Wisconsin Card Sorting task(pick cards from one of two decks, one deck tends towards bad and the other towards good outcomes). He focused solely on how the unconscious mind was aware of the pattern long before the conscious mind was aware of it when making decisions. And this was shown by the fact that sweating occurred when choosing from the "bad" deck before the subject knew why(or was even aware of it). What he fails to mention about all this is that the reason for this is because we are designed to be "risk averse". This has more to do with how we know to pick the right cards(or stay away from the bad ones) than anything else. It is not because we are making brilliant snap judgments, or that our brains have "learned" the rules before we are aware of it. From an evolutionary perspective it pays off more to learn from our mistakes than learn from our victories. Mistakes are costly. This is why bad memories are more salient than happy ones. The sweating that occurs is a physiological indicator of and means of prompting the organism to stay away.

Two other aspects of this book stuck out as major frustrations for me:

1) Gladwell spends a lot of time early on talking about the mysterious nature of our ability to thin slice(make accurate snap judgments based on very little information) and urges us to accept this. To his credit, he does attempt to demystify this somewhat later on, but not enough in my opinion. His first example is of a museum that purchased an expensive sculpture which all the data and scientists evaluated as legitimate, but which experts in the field immediately saw as a fake without being able to put into words why. This is not a mysterious phenomena. This is a result of neuronal connections in our brains and the systems of communication between areas of the brain. And it's important to remember that these people were experts. An amature would not and could not make this same snap judgment because they don't have the training to. This ability didn't come from on high, it came from synaptic change. These experts learned over time. They studied types of stone, and different styles, and everything else that goes into understanding their field. And this process created memories...synaptic change within their brains. And there exists a systems(or systems) in the brain that can make decisions based on that neuronal structure without conscious awareness. Shortcuts so to speak. But these shortcuts are a product of that nueronal structure, which is a product of that synaptic change, which is a product of the learning the individual did over time. It's misleading to call this mysterious. What's important is figuring out the underlying processes that allow this to happen.

2) Towards the end he talks about how our stress response leads us to make all sorts of bad decisions. He talks about autism and how autistic people can't mind read(don't have theories of other minds) and how this affects their interpretation of events around them and of the world in general. He compares what happens to people in stressful situations to this. That during these situations because the fight or flight response has taken over, people have tunnel vision and can no longer "read minds" and thus make all sorts of mistakes and bad decisions because they are focusing on the wrong things. My issue is that he makes a literal as opposed to metaphorical connection. He argues that during these times we become "temporarily autistic". While it's true that one aspect of our behavior becomes similar to an aspect of an autistic individuals behavior during these times, it seems like a pretty ridiculous statement to make as a broad generalization. He spends a lot of time talking about this and I don't think it does anyone any good.

In the end I think I was most disappointed by the fact that all the elements to create a good book WERE present here, and the failure is due in large part to how he puts it all together and his ability to analyze all the disparate ideas properly(ironic). Evolution has built into us shortcuts to react quickly to stimuli in our environment. Our experience, whether broadly cultural or personal, prunes, enhances, changes those built in shortcuts as we go through life. Some develop as unfair biases towards people of different races. Some develop as we become experts in a subject. Thus some can be trusted and some can't. Our brains can't tell the difference between fact and fiction, only between experience and non experience, and so it's important to be aware of what kind of decision making goes on under the surface and what factors are involved in those decisions so we can be more aware of whether to trust them or not. Other factors can affect decision making, such as our emotional state due to the physiological changes that take place during those times, and this too is important to understand because it radically alters our perception during those times. The most important thing to remember is that experience translates into instinct through synaptic change, and through work and training we can increase the effectiveness of our gut reactions and snap decisions, but due to biases and our altered states during emotional situations those instincts should not always be trusted outright. There you go Malcolm Gladwell, please feel free to use this in the next printing. No citation necessary. (less)

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Aug 22, 2009 Ed rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Pop Psychology Fans

Shelves: essays-politics-science-religion, reviewed, non-fiction

I didn't learn much from this book that I did not already know. I am beginning to suspect that Malcolm Gladwell is not writing books that uncover valuable facts that we should know, but rather is writing books that restate facts we already know but in an interesting way.

I like his anecdotal stories very much which is why I finished the book - hoping for more stories. When he lays out the facts, though, his writing is no more interesting than any other scientific author.

So, in summary, what we h...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Zinta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Where does it all go, after you are done experiencing the experience, thinking the thought, feeling the feeling? Nothing is ever lost. The subconscious is like a vast warehouse, limitless, in fact, and as Malcolm Gladwell illustrates in Blink, we access all that is stored in that warehouse with every blinking and waking moment.

Usually, we call this instant access - gut instinct. Or, the inner voice of wisdom. Instinct, however, is nothing magical or mysterious. It is simply our accumulated and s...more Where does it all go, after you are done experiencing the experience, thinking the thought, feeling the feeling? Nothing is ever lost. The subconscious is like a vast warehouse, limitless, in fact, and as Malcolm Gladwell illustrates in Blink, we access all that is stored in that warehouse with every blinking and waking moment.

Usually, we call this instant access - gut instinct. Or, the inner voice of wisdom. Instinct, however, is nothing magical or mysterious. It is simply our accumulated and stored knowledge over a lifetime. If there was ever an argument for listening to those who have some serious and well-lived years under their belts, this is it. Blink illustrates with numerous and widely varied examples how life experience, the more the better, contributes to our ability to make quick, yet sound decisions. In fact, the quicker, the better.

Blink is about what the author calls "thin slicing." He defines this process as the moment of time in which we all make snap judgments. Two seconds, two minutes ... and we make an assessment of a situation or a person or a circumstance. The fascinating thing is - these snap judgments are, more often than not, precise ones. It is when we begin to over analyze and rationalize that we tend to go awry. The trick is to allow the accumulated wisdom rise up and do its magic, trust in it.

Then again ...

Gladwell never does make a concluding statement in his book, and perhaps it is up to the reader to decide (do it quickly?), but his many fascinating examples and his reports on various studies can lead one to think these snap judgments are the way to go - or, then again, thinker beware. For all the many situations in which that moment of initial wisdom is uncannily precise, there are other times that our deeply ingrained biases muck up the clarity of that process. Gladwell cites data to illustrate how stereotypes, for instance, persist - no matter how gallant our conscious efforts to overcome them. Telling yourself you don't really think what you think simply won't work. Only exposure to experiences, or positive visualizations, will change the false ideas and images our subconscious has absorbed over time. All of which is a strong argument for "garbage in, garbage out." That is, be careful of what entertainment you choose (e.g. pornographic images, violent movies or games, etc.), because no matter how hard your conscious mind tries to guide you toward decisions and behavior that is more appropriate, your subconscious will always, but always win out.

The idea of what you present to your eye is what you will later project out to the world is a convincing one, as the author finds himself unable to beat the test on stereotypes when he has to react quickly. Only exposure to more positive images over time can change his test results and dislodge his prejudices.

Gladwell discusses this phenomena of instant response-true response in a manner of ways. How patients respond to their doctors (we sue the physician who has a lousy bedside manner, even if more skilled, but remain loyal to the physician who spends as little as three extra minutes talking with us); how facial expressions, when viewed on slowed down video, will without fail, always reveal deceit (there are facial movements that arise from our subconscious that we cannot control, and no matter how quickly we think we have our facial mask in place, there is always that instant that our faces tell the truth); the intricacies of marketing and advertisement and why the obvious ad, even when based on feedback of focus groups, may not be the effective choice; how military decisions by experienced military leaders are successful, but fail miserably when they are constrained by strategic analysis; how micro-managing in workplaces can only lead to mediocrity while suppressing creativity and innovation; how speed dating may be most effective in finding potential lifelong connections (we read about research that can pick out successful, longterm relationships in observing as little as two minutes of interaction between a couple - and no, it isn't the couple that argues that breaks apart); how our societal subconscious biases for certain physical characteristics, such as height or gender, often mislead us to make dangerously faulty snap judgments (Gladwell observes that most of our leaders are tall and male, and that our corporate world pays tall men higher salaries, factoring dollars down to the inch, regardless of intelligence or ability). On and on, in one fascinating example and study after another, Gladwell intrigues with his findings.

And you know he's right. You know it ... in your gut. But if the author doesn't make any overall conclusion from all of this fascinating data, then the reader is left to her own wiles. Experience counts more than credentials. What we expose ourselves to on a regular basis molds who we are, how we view others, what choices we make and how we behave. Biases and prejudices are far stronger than our conscious will to overcome them; we must align our environment to align our subconscious. Our deepest self forgets nothing. All we have ever done and been and seen and observed leads to who we are today and tomorrow.

All of which gives one pause. But don't pause too long. It is that initial millisecond that may matter most of all.
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Jan 06, 2009 Carolyn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was surprised to find that this book is not a discussion of our innate ability to intuit the truth of things given only small amounts of information: to come an accurate judgement of something in a "blink." A few comments from friends led me think that this was the thesis of this book. Not so.

Rather, all of the studies Gladwell describes and almost all of the various cases he cites and "experts" he interviews prove the opposite: our raw intuition is usually wrong. Those who are able to make ac...more I was surprised to find that this book is not a discussion of our innate ability to intuit the truth of things given only small amounts of information: to come an accurate judgement of something in a "blink." A few comments from friends led me think that this was the thesis of this book. Not so.

Rather, all of the studies Gladwell describes and almost all of the various cases he cites and "experts" he interviews prove the opposite: our raw intuition is usually wrong. Those who are able to make accurate snap judgements of others usually can do so as a result of long, painstaking research into which factors will predict a certain outcome, followed by rigorous training to recognize those factors. In any case, not to come to erroneous conclusions about other people requires, at a minimum, conscious self scrutiny (for example, he describes one car salesman who avoids charging black customers more than white customers, unlike most car salesmen [and who knew? but a large number of studies show that they do] only by consciously taking care not to do so), and, more optimally, by blinding ourselves entirely to the appearance of the person we are judging.

In some cases, it's impossible for even the experts to judge. The only way doctors in an ER know who is at highest risk of having a heart attack, it turns out, is for them to follow a printed algorithm which was designed based on a mathematical analysis of the factors which put patients at highest risk. Even the most experienced, senior doctor's sense of a patient's condition is a terrible guide to who is the sickest, in this case. A piece of paper taped to the wall does a better job.

I was eager to read this book because I'm interested in our tendency to overestimate our ability to make judgments of others, and there is a partial description of the some of the types of error we tend to make when we're sizing one another up. (Another fascinating book which touches on this topic--but which is unfortunately more deeply flawed in some ways than this one--is The Spirit in the Gene.)

There are a few large-ish problems Gladwell's arguments, however, and in some cases the interesting research or cases he cites actually undermine his point. Rather than acknowledge this, the author does a little bit of hand waving at times. (The doctors, for example, cannot make good judgements because they have "too much information.") This undermined my enjoyment of an otherwise engaging book. But it's a very quick read, and you're likely to be amazed at some of the very surprising insights that some ingenious researchers have recently gained into the way our brains work, and the way we think.

I'm putting it on my list to reread. I'd like to take a look at some of his primary sources, especially 1. the work of the psychologists who do the "thin slicing" of interactions between married couples, and 2. the study which revealed that being reminded that one is black at the beginning of an examination tends to have profound, adverse effects on the outcome of the examination.
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May 11, 2008 Soma rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Both "Blink" and "The Tipping Point" are nonfiction writings that deal with social structures and human tendancies and the unassuming look at these.
"Tipping" is more a look at society on a large scale. It has to do with trends: what makes something popular and who is involved in that process and why it works. This isn't a look at advertising or corporate businesses (although the does look at those, too) but rather a journey into the dynamics and parts of these trends. It's an intriguing and well...more

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May 11, 2008 Mike rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very fast read, with enough intriguing anecdotes and stray, smart claims to merit a look. But I do find it ironic that a book about the merits of snap judgment would be so aggravatingly repetitive, constantly reminding readers about anecdotes from earlier in the novel, constantly repeating its argument. (I enjoy Gladwell's essays in the New Yorker, and perhaps he just plays better in such small doses, where the emphasis is more on the well-polished narrative than on the analysis built therefro...more

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Mar 24, 2010 Ms. C. Sharp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people fascinated with the topic of intuition or first impressions

Malcolm Gladwell has written a book about the power of first impressions (aka intuition/ your gut feeling). He provides a series of anecdotes about the process of first reactions including a tale about a forged ancient Greek statue at the Getty that some experts deemed as authentic and others classified as a fake upon sight. In another anecdote, he scrutinizes a "couples lab" where psychologist John Gottman determines if a matched pair will last the test of time by studying their conversation fo...more Malcolm Gladwell has written a book about the power of first impressions (aka intuition/ your gut feeling). He provides a series of anecdotes about the process of first reactions including a tale about a forged ancient Greek statue at the Getty that some experts deemed as authentic and others classified as a fake upon sight. In another anecdote, he scrutinizes a "couples lab" where psychologist John Gottman determines if a matched pair will last the test of time by studying their conversation for 15 minutes - -he accurately predicts their fate about 90% of the time.

Gladwell coins the term "thin-slicing" to capture these small snippets in time when a human judges a situation in an instant like a first date, hiring an employee, or meeting a new colleague. Human beings tend to take a first glance and "thin-slice" what they perceive through sight or interactions with the situation or individual. Rapid fire cognition is scary to many individuals and Gladwell believes that if "we paid more attention to those fleeting moments...it would change the way wars are fought, the kinds of products we see on the shelves, the kinds of movies that get made, the way police officers are trained, the way couples are counseled...If you combine all those little changes together, you end up with a different and happier world." How profound! He is attempting to bring psychology to the masses and does so artfully, choosing his words and sharping his ideas with high-interest examples to engage the reader. Gladwell further discusses "priming," a term used to refer to subtle triggers that influence human behavior without any awareness of such changes (ex. Spain played classical music on subways and littering and vandalism decreased).

The book incited much discussion with my book club membership- - thought provoking questions and topics selected from the Blink Reading Group Guide, but membership barely scratched the surface in their debate. This book caused the group to make many connections to their own lives and world. Conversation often digressed into self-reflective wondering or observations.

Gladwell wants all readers to believe that intuition is often more reliable that reasoning and a series of data. But is that really the case? One criticism - he never addresses the brain in a scientific manner. In my own experience, I have learned (and am still learning) that I need to pay more attention to my intuition, my first gut instinct. I do not always think that "thin-slicing" is as reliable as collecting data and observations in many instances, but there is something to say about my first impressions of situations or people. I need to have more confidence about my "gut impressions" and have more faith in ME. Gladwell's book Blink substantiated that there is a certain degree of accuracy in my intuition. (less)

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5 Stars	2	20	Apr 13, 2013 11:38am
So this is required reading for High School Psychology...	5	73	Mar 09, 2013 10:03am
Not worthy of being a book.	71	762	Mar 07, 2013 02:10pm

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