Gladwell, Malcolm.
Blink: Thin-Slicing, Snap Judgments, and the Power of Thinking Without Thinking.
© 2004. (Non-Fiction/Psychology)

In Blink. Gladwell examines the phenomena of thinking—in particular, the thinking that seems instantaneous. We make many of our decisions in the blink of an eye, and seem to do so simply, without much consideration. But Gladwell argues that many “split-second” decisions are actually the product of more complex, subconscious knowledge and understanding. Musicians, artists, and other specialists, for example, can form accurate judgments about things in their field in seconds. Gladwell explains why this is so, and looks at the power of this ability. He also explores some of the problems with “blink” decision-making—times when our brains work too efficiently and we miss key information and make errors in our judgment.

Gladwell tackles this topic in part, he says, because “we are innately suspicious of this kid of rapid cognition…we live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it…we believe that we are always better off gathering as much information as possible and spending as much time as possible in deliberation …the first task of Blink is to convince you of a simple fact:  decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.” Gladwell’s also sets out to convince us that when rapid cognition goes awry, it does so for specific reasons, and that we can control our snap-decision making processes. “Spontaneity isn’t random,” Gladwell writes. “How good people’s decisions are under the fast-moving, high stress conditions of rapid cognition is a function of training and rules and rehearsal.”  

Throughout Blink, Gladwell offers fascinating examples of psychological experiments that show how we often think without knowing that we’re thinking—how our bodies will respond to stimuli and in essence, make decisions before we are conscious of those decisions ourselves. He also writes about how our initial inclination to think that better decisions are a product of more information is in error. Being given too many options is paralyzing, Gladwell writes, because we have too think too carefully about making a choice, and that thinking often impedes our ability to make a smart decision quickly when speed is needed.

Blink is easily one of the most interesting books I’ve read lately. Gladwell packs it with great examples and anecdotes that make his theories easy to understand and apply to everyday situations and will force you to consider how you think—and how you think about your thinking.