Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
Blink is a book about rapid cognition; what it is, how it works, how we can use and control to our advantage and the perils of relying on it improperly. The book is written in an easy to read style. It is written as a series of stories about people that used or were affected by the use (or misuse) of rapid cognition.
Gladwell shows how decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately. Also demonstrated is the counterintuitive idea that more information can lead to poorer decision making. He teaches that although we are often not aware of them, our snap judgments and first impressions can be educated and controlled. Once we understand how our minds work in creating these early judgments, we can learn to control these judgments by controlling the environment in which these judgments are made.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Malcolm was in Kansas City to discuss this book. He writes very much like he speaks, in a very easy, conversational style. In my opinion, this book is a very worthy read and I definetly recommend it.
Notes
“Thin-slicing” refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience.
Concept of priming
Paul Van Riper – the war games story, too much information can be detrimental. Also the chest pain diagnosis example
“…truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.” The fruits of deliberate analysis can set the stage for rapid cognition. i.e. doing lots of research led to the chest pain diagnosis logarithm.
In good decision making frugality matters. When we thin-slice, our brain edits out information in order to get to the patterns that allow us to make snap decisions. Gladwell posits that we get in trouble when this process of editing is disrupted.
If you get too caught up in the production of information, you drown in the data.
Thin-slicing without context. Aeron chair – when something is new must be careful to distinguish discomfort from dislike.
…experience and passion fundamentally change the nature of our first impressions.
Speed in decision making – priming – more susceptible
Seven seconds in the Bronx
We can control the environment in which rapid cognition takes place, the we can control rapid cognition.
The role of experience