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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
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Sales rank 2,415
Customers rating (based on 1050 reviews)
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How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? Thats 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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| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company | | Release date | 01/2005 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
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 Surprisingly good
Are you interested in how the mind works? Do you ever wonder why people do what they do? Do you like reading short case studies of interesting historical events? Do you have to make quick decisions under pressure? Are you interested in music, art, politics, or psychology? If your answer is yes to any of the above, this book is for you!
This book was recommended to me by one of my professors in my MSW program. I have been wanting to read it since then and just barely picked it up from the library. Because I had high expectations, I was worried that I would be let down. I am happy to report that I was not!
This book is well organized as the author takes you through various case studies and research experiments. The logic was easy of me to follow and his style of writing kept me entertained. More than once I stopped in the middle of a chapter to write down a term, person, or website to look up online. This is a book I could enjoy reading over and over again. Indeed, for me to fully grasp the concepts, I plan to re-read it when I have more time to ponder the ideas and someone to discuss it with. This would make an excellent choice for a book club.
 Tipping Point It Ain't
I didn't care for this book much--certainly not as much as I did the author's previous Tipping Point. This one seemed no more than a bunch of magazine articles strung together, with no over-arching vision or even a unifying thesis.
Ostensibly, it's about the power of the unconscious in judgment. But there's no Freud in there (neither Siggie nor Anna) except an interesting quote that a reader of the first edition sent him that Gladwell stuffed into the "Afterward." There's also no Butler (who wrote several books on unconscious memory--including one entitled Unconscious Memory) and no William James, who discusses the nature and power of unconscious thought very interestingly in Varieties of Religious Experience as well as in his massive Psychology. In fact, Gladwell doesn't seem very widely read in this subject at all: he just goes the interviewer route here, talking to loosely connected "experts" from a wide variety of fields (from battle strategy to auditioning violinists) and then making a half-hearted effort to pull their comments together--all with no any cohesive theory.
Sometimes the "blink judgment" is desirable (as when a tennis pro can tell when a server will double fault on his next serve or when an art historian can tell a fraud immediately with little or no examination). At other times it may only result in discrimination against female musicians or black pedestrians. But Gladwell knows neither when it should be trusted, nor how it knows what he thinks it sometimes knows. These are issues that have been studied for the last couple of hundred years, yet Gladwell doesn't cite a single source in his book and doesn't seem to have read a very much on the topic.
But well, why should he? It reads quickly and is a best-seller anyways. Besides, Gladwell's got his next golden goose to think about....
 We know more than we think we do
My waking eyes have been opened to what my subconscious has already seen . . . This book brought to light the fact that our subconscious operates at a much faster speed than our conscious minds and that it's our conscious that often trips us up during problem solving. I think this notion aligns perfectly with suggestions promoted many leaders such as, "go with your heart," and "trust your instincts." Overall, I thought is was a great read!
thanks for great service
We received the book as promised in 2 days and it was in great condition.
I will never think the same way again
Nevermind the armchair critics, the nitpicking ninnies, and the wannabe eggheads who pooh-pooh this book. "Blink" is a powerful book. It is comprises a spectrum of anecdotes about how people think before they start "thinking." Gladwell has taken a narrow psychological topic and turned it into a thrilling page-turner. Most important, "Blink" has changed the way that I think. Few books do that.
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