Blink Book Review

Jon Young

Blink Review

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, is an informational and educational look at our hidden inherent ability to make snap decision with very little information in the blink of an eye without truly knowing we have.

Gladwell's style of writing helped the way I read and understood the facts and experiments he brought to light. He writes smoothly, as if telling a story. It's more conversational than a straight reiteration of facts and studies. The majority of the book is made up of descriptions of many different studies and experiences of different people and scientists in regard to our instant thought processes.

He demonstrates our ability to "thin slice" a problem and take only the necessary information required to make a decision based on our first impression. He talks about a study in which looking at a clip of only three minutes of a couple talking you can know with fairly accurate certainty whether or not they will still be together several years in the future. This study by Gottman was possible because of our ability to thin slice. He found that the presence of contempt was the only truly viable piece of information required to accurately judge a couple. Another demonstration of first impression decisions is when Gladwell tells the story of a famous orchestra that decided to begin having their auditions for new musicians be held behind a curtain. In this way they were judging the possible addition to their symphony based on skill alone and not what they looked like, how they acted, etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a great read, but also had a large amount of information on the subject. I recommend it highly as an informational text on our split second decisions that we do not know we make. I recommend it for those of you who have those inklings, those feelings about something you have no idea where they come from and aren't sure you should trust. This book will explain to you where they come from and help you to make an informed decision whether to trust them or not.