blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown & Company, NY: 2005)

Sub-titled: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking


This is a wonderful and fascinating little book. It explores the decisions that we make in the blink of an eye - and seeks to compare those with the decisions that we make after careful consideration and deliberation.

Apparently there are 'pros' and 'cons' with both methods - the trick may perhaps lie in using the right one for the right circumstance. That being said, the 'science' here is still rather 'exploratory' at this stage.

The author of the book is a journalist and as such, the book is published for a general audience and is quite easy-reading (breezy rather than academic).

Highly recommended for those with a taste for thinking about thinking.

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[I]Remember what the dormouse said, 'feed your head'. [/I]

I just finished reading this book and also found it fascinating (and an easy read). I agree that each method can be useful in certain circumstances. Unfortunately, as in some of the books examples, time doesn't always allow us to choose which method to use.

Not only does it explore the split-second decisions we actually make, but also the perceptions we unconsciously make in the blink of an eye.

It shows, also, how some personal perceptions (particularly stereotypes) can be changed. The results are quite startling when it takes a look at the 'gender-career' and the 'race' parts of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Only if these stereotypes are recognized honestly, can one take a step back, think about where the perceived idea came from, and try to rethink them.

Very interesting look at all kinds of instant reasoning, including - "I don't know how I know, I just do".

It is a book everybody should read. I just finished the last page yesterday. It is very easy to read and yet gives so much insight on the way the minds works. It explores what we call "intuition" but also unveils how much we are influenced in our rational jugements AND in our snap judgements by unconscious ideas.

For example, we all know we are influenced by prejudices, but to that extent ?

I was fascinated by the last chapter - how the appraisal of music played behind a blind screen and played without screen, seeing the player in flesh, may be different.
Since the blind screen was introduced in the 1980s the number of women playing in orchestras has increased fivefold. Before that there was an entrenched belief (based on solid reasoning) that women could not play as well as men : they were weaker, could not blow as hard etc. This was "fact". The consequence of this "fact" was that a women "seen" playing always got a lower rating than a man seen playing. That rating, however, changed as soon as the blind screen was introduced and judges were asked to trust their ears ONLY without knowing the sex of the person on stage.

Amazing.

But there are plenty of amazing little stories in this book from shooting cops to short CEOs (CEOs are always tall, above 6 feet, strange isn't it ?) over how it is better to know LESS to make right decisions than to know TOO MUCH.
In this book there are good lessons to take from USpolers

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[I][B][COLOR="Red"]The End Is Near, but first, this commercial.[/COLOR][/B][/I]

WOW! Two replies to one of my book recommendations! None of my other book recommendation threads here earned even so much as a single post.

I was dispairing of the reading level of my fellow posters. Alas, it is good to see that one's efforts are not always in vain

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[I]Remember what the dormouse said, 'feed your head'. [/I]