Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Non-Fiction: Social Sciences. Hardback from Little, Brown and Company (Time Warner Book Group). Published in 2005. 469 pages. On loan from the Cascade Branch of the Kent District Library.

I had heard some of the things Gladwell discusses in the book - for example that taller men get paid more or that having the right looks and bearing can make you presidential material even if you are a political flop. But there was a lot of intriguing material that I had not heard before - like sometimes it's better not to over analyze or that sometimes our snap decisions are based on our subconscious and that the associations behind them would appall us. He gives lots of examples of how his theories play out in real life. I was quite amazed at how many people had done research on this area and I'm certainly interested in testing his assertions to see if I can find examples.

I discovered that there is a book called Think! out there that is a response to this book. Anyone read it?

Publisher's summary:
In his landmark best seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant, in the blink of an eye, that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work, in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing", filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology and displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Blink changes the way you understand every decision you make. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.

Online book shopping:
Powell's: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
amazon.co.uk: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
amazon.com: Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Audible.com: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking