It’s so rare a book can be so fascinating in so many different ways.
If you haven’t read the book: Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, run, don’t walk to your local bookstore or Amazon and buy a copy right now, it’s worth every penny.
I was initially exposed to Malcolm Gladwell’s writing reading his article archive on his website
He was a staff writer for New Yorker. Most of his articles are about things that one would rarely find interesting on the surface, but the deeper one digs, the more fascinating it becomes. Most his articles deals with “things of interest”, for lack of better words. He wrote articles on Ketchup, Peronality Tests, Prescription Drugs, Obesity (my favorite), and a host of other seeming unrelated topics. However, each one of these topics share a common thread, a deeper look reveals much more than what’s on the surface.
I had a minor degree in Psychology from my university days, and his extensive use of psychological testing data to explain things resonate deeply within me .
In Blink, Malcolm explores again a host of topics touching on such diverse topics as authentication of art-pieces; speed dating; war games; “thin slicing”; “Warren Harding Error”; the subconcious mind; racial profiling etc..
But this book mostly is about making snap decisions. There are other books on the topic of intuitive decision making, one of my favorite is Gary Klein’s Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions which covers the topic in much more detail.
However, what makes Gladwell’s book a great read is the fact that it’s a hodgepodge of all these information, which are seemingly unrelated. It leave the readers to connect the dots, or not to, depend on the reader’s ability and willingness to analyze.
The first time I read through the book was when it just came out. One of my colleagues highly recommended it to me (thanks Agnes), so I went ahead and got both of Gladwell’s books, the other one being The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
I originally thought Blink was a great read, but light, so I finished it in couple of days. It didn’t make a big impression on me, kind of like fast food, it satisfies while you are eating it, but easily forgettable.
I picked up the audiobook of Blink couple of weeks ago, and started to listen to it this week. I found the audiobook format is a great way to go through this book, the reason being that when I was reading it on paper, since the stories were so interesting, I was rushing through them, trying to get to the next ones all the time. However, when listening to the audiobook, the pace was set by the narrator (which in this case was the author himself), I was forced to think and reflect during those pauses between sections. I also benefitted from reading it previously now that the connections between the stories come up so much easier.
For those of you who read the book but didn’t think too well of it, I urge you to read it again, this time more slowly, or get a copy of the audiobook.
Overall, I give Blink a 8 out of 10.
Happy reading everyone.