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.
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Why do I enjoy Malcolm Gladwell’s books? Easy answer—they give me food for thought. There’s a chapter in “blink” titled Seven Seconds In The Bronx (chapter six) where Gladwell goes in to detail about a tragic shooting in the Bronx of an innocent man shot down with 41 shots by a total of four police. What they thought was a gun was, in fact, a wallet. Last year I heard Gladwell speak about his book “David & Goliath” and found him to be an interesting character/speaker. I recommend all of Gladwell’s books!
I love Gladwell’s writing. It feels like an effortless conversation with a person as fascinated with the world as I feel like I am. His dissection of minute details to come to an uncommon solution keeps the reader guessing. All in all, it makes you think about the world, particularly cause and effect in a slightly new way, which ain’t easy to do.
Great stories woven into the facts to make the points come to life. Really enjoyed reading it, even read it multiple times.
What happens in a blink of the eye?
This book breaks down all the decisions that we make or are made about us in just a moment. It is typical Malcolm Gladwell- complex science explained in an entertaining easy to understand way.
Interesting
I’ve been sitting on this book for a while and I wish hadn’t because it’s a fascinating look at instinct or to give it its technical name “thin slicing.” The book covers how we judge something in fractions of a second and how that can be to our benefit or our detriment. I enjoyed every minute of it.
A side note, as someone who is dyslexic, I wonder how the results would change in some of the tests carried out in the book, especially when it comes to “priming.” Although simple tests, I didn’t see the patterns or could complete the tests so I wasn’t sure how well people with processing issues would fall prey to priming.
So much to think about! Malcolm does a fantastic job explaining how our subconscious evaluates with out is even knowing
Masterly crafted with real life experiences
if you have to make decisions ,get this book. you will get more ,perhaps, than you want about decision making,but, you should be able to quit second guessing yourself. a godsend all on its own.
Blink puts in question the very phenomena of analysis before decision making and insists that on some occasion we just take a decision in a blink depending on what knowledge we have previously gathered. Very interesting examples and stories. Gladwell really seals the book with an engaging narrative.
It was an easy read, however, the point of it was unappealing. It was not interesting at all.
Thought provoking. I quote this book often.
I picked it up on a “blink” of my own. Fascinating book and visionary.
I haven’t read it in years but still think of a lot of MG’s anecdotes and have it on my list read again list!
Fascinating