Goodreads | Linda's review

Linda's review

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40102.Blink_The_Power_of_Thinking_Without_Thinking?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1169387189m/40102.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40102.Blink_The_Power_of_Thinking_Without_Thinking?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1439.Malcolm_Gladwell">Malcolm Gladwell</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18136955?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
 
 	After reading the introduction (The Statue That Didn’t Look Right), I realized that my visceral ability plays an important and significant role in my life that I was once unconscious about. I feel I am like Federico Zeri and Evelyn Harrison. Zeri is an Italian art historian who served on the Getty’s board of trustees. After taking a look at the kuros, he felt something about the kuros seemed wrong to him. Harrison had a hunch feeling after her first initial glance at the kuros. Just when the museum went in seek for scientists; I felt the need for that as well. Was the kuros fake? Like the members of the museum, I needed source of evidence and statistic to correct what I was thinking and adjust to the right idea. I would need some sort of analytical data to assure myself of what my initial reaction had told me. 
 In the end, it took a few second for Zeri and Harrison to determine the status of the kuros while it took the scientists a few months to find the same exact result. Now that is when we have to trust our natural instinct. 
 When it talked about “Don’t judge a book by its cover” (Gladwell 13), I realized so many of us have heard of that-whether it came from our teachers, parents, or even friends, yet we are unconscious the second we look at that book and starts our initial judgment of the book by its cover. When we are unconscious, we are not aware of our behavior and mind of thinking that in order not to judge a book by its cover, we need to step back and take the time to tell ourselves constantly not to do it. 
 As for myself, I know that although my teachers are always telling me not to judge a book by its cover, I can not stop resisting to their advice. Now here is my question. Can unconscious mind be broken? Can it be broken through numerous years of practice? 
 	I believe our unconscious rapid cognition plays both the positive and negative aspect in our lives. The positive aspect is that it helps us be aware of the dangers ahead of us and what we should be doing to protect ourselves ahead of time. 
 When I took the I-A-T test, it showed me my result, which was that I was a racist because I was considered a moderate in categorizing the European American as Good and African American as Bad. But how can I not?! I felt it was easier to envelope to the idea that European Americans were considered Good and African American were considered as Bad because I felt I need not take so long. The only way I can think of African Americans as Good is if I take a while to adjust to that idea that every race is good would take several seconds and that would ruin my real result. 
 I felt like I was Harry Daugherty at the time I was taking the test. When my unconsciousness mind and body took over, I was only judging someone based on what I saw and reacting by hitting either the “g” or “h” button. Daugherty at his first glance at Harding, “was instantly overwhelmed by what he saw…his head, features, shoulders, and torso had a size that attracted attention” (Gladwell 72-3) and thought-Wouldn’t that make a great President? It turned out that Harding was not an intelligent man and as a result, the presidency did not turned out to be stable. The United States government became corrupted. This showed that our unconscious rapid cognition can something be negative. 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/418785?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Linda's review
rating:
bookshelves: junioryearadvisoryreadingnovels

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

After reading the introduction (The Statue That Didn’t Look Right), I realized that my visceral ability plays an important and significant role in my life that I was once unconscious about. I feel I am like Federico Zeri and Evelyn Harrison. Zeri is an Italian art historian who served on the Getty’s board of trustees. After taking a look at the kuros, he felt something about the kuros seemed wrong to him. Harrison had a hunch feeling after her first initial glance at the kuros. Just when the museum went in seek for scientists; I felt the need for that as well. Was the kuros fake? Like the members of the museum, I needed source of evidence and statistic to correct what I was thinking and adjust to the right idea. I would need some sort of analytical data to assure myself of what my initial reaction had told me.
In the end, it took a few second for Zeri and Harrison to determine the status of the kuros while it took the scientists a few months to find th...more Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

After reading the introduction (The Statue That Didn’t Look Right), I realized that my visceral ability plays an important and significant role in my life that I was once unconscious about. I feel I am like Federico Zeri and Evelyn Harrison. Zeri is an Italian art historian who served on the Getty’s board of trustees. After taking a look at the kuros, he felt something about the kuros seemed wrong to him. Harrison had a hunch feeling after her first initial glance at the kuros. Just when the museum went in seek for scientists; I felt the need for that as well. Was the kuros fake? Like the members of the museum, I needed source of evidence and statistic to correct what I was thinking and adjust to the right idea. I would need some sort of analytical data to assure myself of what my initial reaction had told me.
In the end, it took a few second for Zeri and Harrison to determine the status of the kuros while it took the scientists a few months to find the same exact result. Now that is when we have to trust our natural instinct.
When it talked about “Don’t judge a book by its cover” (Gladwell 13), I realized so many of us have heard of that-whether it came from our teachers, parents, or even friends, yet we are unconscious the second we look at that book and starts our initial judgment of the book by its cover. When we are unconscious, we are not aware of our behavior and mind of thinking that in order not to judge a book by its cover, we need to step back and take the time to tell ourselves constantly not to do it.
As for myself, I know that although my teachers are always telling me not to judge a book by its cover, I can not stop resisting to their advice. Now here is my question. Can unconscious mind be broken? Can it be broken through numerous years of practice?
I believe our unconscious rapid cognition plays both the positive and negative aspect in our lives. The positive aspect is that it helps us be aware of the dangers ahead of us and what we should be doing to protect ourselves ahead of time.
When I took the I-A-T test, it showed me my result, which was that I was a racist because I was considered a moderate in categorizing the European American as Good and African American as Bad. But how can I not?! I felt it was easier to envelope to the idea that European Americans were considered Good and African American were considered as Bad because I felt I need not take so long. The only way I can think of African Americans as Good is if I take a while to adjust to that idea that every race is good would take several seconds and that would ruin my real result.
I felt like I was Harry Daugherty at the time I was taking the test. When my unconsciousness mind and body took over, I was only judging someone based on what I saw and reacting by hitting either the “g” or “h” button. Daugherty at his first glance at Harding, “was instantly overwhelmed by what he saw…his head, features, shoulders, and torso had a size that attracted attention” (Gladwell 72-3) and thought-Wouldn’t that make a great President? It turned out that Harding was not an intelligent man and as a result, the presidency did not turned out to be stable. The United States government became corrupted. This showed that our unconscious rapid cognition can something be negative.
...less

Like this review? yes flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Linda's books »