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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Hardcover)
by Malcolm Gladwell
| Category:
Non-fiction, Decision-making, Psychology |
| Market price: ¥ 268.00
MSL price:
¥ 258.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Written in a forthright and conversational style, this book is an enlightening piece of work providing insight into the human brain. |
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Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pub. in: January, 2005
ISBN: 0316172324
Pages: 288
Measurements: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00572
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- Awards & Credential -
A bestseller by the author of The Tipping Point, Blink ranked #83 in books on Amazon.com as of November 28, 2006. |
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- MSL Picks -
How can we decide something and how fast? This book explores this topic.
The best thing about this book for me is in revealing how our prejudice miscolors the accuracy of the decisions we make. Gladwell provides some telling examples from associative thinking type questionaires that expose our subconscious assumptions about skin color or gender that threaten making better choices than those we would make burdened with false assumptions.
Blink overall is a fascinating book. Decisions made in a hurry can obviously be ace compared to compiling piles of data and analyzing them in non-intuitive, statistical formats. The major buzzword in this book is "Thin slicing". Rather than having a whole cake of info on something as a basis on which to make a hopefully correct decision, how thin a slice would you need to arrive at the same conclusion. The answer is surprisingly very thin indeed.
Things like a tone of voice can, according to this book prove just as decisive if not more than the content of any speech.
Vast and exciting examples of decision making are explored: Simulated wars; police shooting the wrong man/men; judging art work for authenticity; assessing couples breaking up on the basis of their conversations; looking at facial expressions and even the "Pepsi challenge" and selling cars. The themes are explored in an exciting fashion.
Gladwell reveals a lot about himself and illuminates many areas - helping us to focus on how we can train our faculties to make snap judgments whereas at the same time being wary of making decisions under stress or with wrongful assumptions about people in general.
Gladwell conveys the problems inherent in making snap judgments that can be plain wrong. He does not expand too much on this - I suppose this is why many of us are reluctant to make too many snap judgments (on important matters), because this could be just too risky. However this book does help you to avoid any risks, especially if you like a small gamble.
I read this book so fast and think it will be helpful and boost the confidence of any interested reader. It is not a long book to read. Please be warned that you should not make blink decisions and think of it as a virtue - it would be nice if you can spot your perfect partner in a blink, but would he/she agree? The fact of the matter is we continuously make snap decisions that are not especially consequential or even when we do make momentous decisions that are good, it may rely on a good deal of subconscious input. As an example, I looked at this book for less than 10 seconds before buying it, and I'm glad I did. (From quoting Sarakani, UK)
Target readers:
General readers
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Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He was formerly a business and science reporter at the Washington Post.
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From the Publisher:
How do we make decisions - good and bad - and why are some people so much better at it than others? That’s the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in the follow-up to his huge bestseller, The Tipping Point. Utilizing case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the shooting of Amadou Diallo, Gladwell reveals that what we think of as decisions made in the blink of an eye are much more complicated than assumed. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, he shows how the difference between good decision-making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but on the few particular details on which we focus. Leaping boldly from example to example, displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Gladwell reveals how we can become better decision makers - in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life. The result is a book that is surprising and transforming. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.
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| View all 10 comments |
Donna Seaman, Booklist (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
Gladwell writes about subtle yet crucial behavioral phenomena with lucidity and contagious enthusiasm. His first book, The Tipping Point (2000), became a surprise best-seller. Here he brilliantly illuminates an aspect of our mental lives that we utterly rely on yet rarely analyze, namely our ability to make snap decisions or quick judgments. Adept at bridging the gap between everyday experience and cutting-edge science, Gladwell maps the "adaptive unconscious," the facet of mind that enables us to determine things in the blink of an eye. He then cites many intriguing examples, such as art experts spontaneously recognizing forgeries; sports prodigies; and psychologist John Gottman's uncanny ability to divine the future of marriages by watching videos of couples in conversation. Such feats are based on a form of rapid cognition called "thin-slicing," during which our unconscious "draws conclusions based on very narrow 'slices' of experience." But there is a "dark side of blink," which Gladwell illuminates by analyzing the many ways in which our instincts can be thwarted, and by presenting fascinating, sometimes harrowing, accounts of skewed market research, surprising war-game results, and emergency-room diagnoses and police work gone tragically wrong. Unconscious knowledge is not the proverbial light bulb, he observes, but rather a flickering candle. Gladwell's groundbreaking explication of a key aspect of human nature is enlightening, provocative, and great fun to read. |
Baker (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
It is absolutely amazing how much we take for granted about our abilities as human beings with an amazing brain and its capabilities. I think that I read this book in one night. I was drawn in by the stories and the science and experiments that offer support to the ideals that Gladwell writes about. This book really made me think about not thinking about everything (excuse the pun). I learned a lot about the unconscious mind and have learned to apply some of the ideals of this book to my life. |
Ping Lim (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
This book questions if believing in scientific research or gut instinct is the right thing to do. The author talks candidly about his new Afro hairdo which brings him unwanted attention from the law, which questions if subconsciousness stereotypes our ethnicity. Blink questions if incidents such as Rodney King bashing by the police or the shooting of Diallo in front of his house are due to racism or due to our mind not functioning rationally when we have very little time space to spare. Subsequently, he questions if those "temporary insanity" is equivalent to people who has autism. Then, there are also discussions about food, drinks, and music tasting and how focus groups would have gotten them so wrong. The author continues to add that people know what they know when they like or dislike something but when they are told to justify why they like or dislike certain things, that's when things get pear-shaped. Does that mean just because we aren't able to justify things constructively, those results are proved less useful? We also then question if gut instinct is in fact a constructive symptom at the first place? There are also many illustrations about face reading, body reading and the author endeavors to justify that if we hone in our critical assessments of those subtle clues, maybe, we are able to "educate" our subconscious to discern certain situations and circumstances which ordinary people aren't able to pick up. This book is foremost thought-provoking and entices me to see things from a new dimension, or shall I say, a new paradigm shift. It's entertaining and highly enjoyable to read. Avid readers would appreciate that the author works with David Remnick who himself has written a few best sellers himself. |
An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
Blink is a revolutionary new way of looking at the way we view the world. We live in a world that teaches us to analyze things. A world that says in order to achieve, hard work is required, research is necessary before conclusions can be drawn. This book provides an alternative perspective. You can know a lot of information about a situation in a blink of an eye.
Malcolm Gladwell presents the concept of "thin slicing"; the act of filtering through a large amount of information to arrive at the truth. This book changes the way we understand all the decisions we make. The way we think is something that we have been taught but to truly be in the moment and see what is actually happening is a gift that this books offers.
Another book that I highly recommend is How to Create a Magical Relationship? by Ariel and Shya Kane. This book shows you ways to truly live in the moment. When you are in the moment you are available to see what is happening in any situation. When you are out of the moment your thoughts distract you from the moment which causes you to miss opportunities that you say you want. This book is great because no matter where you are in your life, it is always the perfect place to start to live in the moment. |
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