false 2140 0316172324 9780316172325 884 119 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1160527103m/2140.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2140.Blink_The_Power_of_Thinking_Without_Thinking 1439 Malcolm Gladwell 88303 11547 Wow, what an engaging book. I am just tearing through this thing! 0 2009-01-14T11:31:33-08:00 267602 236 2009-01-14T11:31:33-08:00 0 2009-01-11T16:08:42-08:00 256991 74 2009-01-11T16:08:42-08:00 4 0 false Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 16:08:10 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 19:16:40 -0800 2009
Gladwell's premise in Blink is that we all take in and process far more information that we are actually aware of. There are lots of very subtle and complicated clues that, while we cannot articulate how or why we pick them up, the end result is a lightning-fast conclusion that you just can't get with conventional scrutiny.

I thought Gladwell made some really good decisions about the stories and research he picked to exemplify his ideas. Although some stories definitely felt like they had a bit of a slant and/or agenda to them (not that I'm agreeing or disagreeing just saying I picked up on it), they were intriguing stories nonetheless.

One fault with Blink (that I'm sure others have pointed out) is it's lack of a 'punchline'. That is, although the last section of the book is given the subtitle "The Lessons of Blink", I didn't really feel Blink 'taught' any lessons, in the sense that it guided the reader to change something about the way they think (or even how to go about doing it). And although this might seem a little nitpicky, the lack of citation indexes in the Notes sections made it a little tough to do follow-up research.

Overall, I was really pleased with Blink. The idea that the mind can be trained to absorb lots of information quickly and process it on a subconscious level is one that has always fascinated me, and I'm glad to see that there are others who share my interest.]]>