Book Review of "BLINK"
About the author
Malcom Gladwell is multi-faceted – an author, journalist, cultural commentator and intellectual adventurer. He was born in 1963 in
With a degree in history he stepped in to the world of journalism as a science writer with Washington Post. Since 1996, he has been a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine. He has written on varied topics. His first book “"The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference," (2000) was a best seller. In 2005, he came out with his second book “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking"
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
As management students, we have been taught to analyze the facts and figures before we arrived at a solution. But one thing that is always reiterated is that decision making involves intuition. Managers take decision at the flick of a second, but there are decisions that are backed with evidence and research work.
The book is about the influence of the much talked about “intuition” in decision making, when it is right and when it can be a disaster. In technical terms, the author calls it rapid cognition.
The brain actively picks up information from the surroundings and processes it. The accumulated information is the data mine which we harvest when we take decisions or make snap judgments. We are not able to tell why we make these judgments; we call it the “gut feel”. The author engrosses the reader with plenty of anecdotes and research work done in psychology on rapid cognition.
How many of are aware that if a particular part of the brain is damaged we can’t make snap judgments? Or the fact that a person can have a defect called which impairs him of understanding nonverbal clues.
Through out the book the author suggests only one thing, don’t ignore rapid cognition, it may be harmful at times but there are means and ways to overcome. Interestingly, the author mentions the flipside of rapid cognition and how we can overcome it.
The book begins with an anecdote in an art museum, when the surveyors fail to identify the fake Greek statue but the art experts do it in a blink. He proceeds with how a psychologist can predict divorce of a couple when then converse or the experienced tennis player who can predict a double fault before it would occur. So how would you decide on a speed date in six minutes? This all is possible because of the data mine we have in store inside us and we use it to recognize the input required to decide something. The author calls it thin slicing. But you ask anyone to justify their intuition, they fall short of words or their rational mind will answer in disapproval of the snap judgment.
This brings us to two questions – how good are snap judgments and are the loads of money spent on market research and analysis waste? To answer these, the author runs through a series of anecdotes and research findings, from experiences of a wartime veteran to experiences of food tasters to market research executives to psychologists studying facial expressions. But what do we derive?
- Too much of information is bad, emphasizing that “paralysis of analysis” can occur. Best of the judgments were made with few appropriate details.
- Don’t ask a first timer or a person making a snap judgment to rationalize his decision, you will get different results
- Some decisions are best made by experts, because they have been able to collate information about the tasks like food tasters.
The author also highlights how to understand the first impression of a consumer and how important it is to choose the right methodology in market research to avoid mishaps like the New Coke.
In totality it is a good read and caters to a varied section of people. The author has written in a conversationalist style and keeps the reader engrossed. Though extensive use of medical terms (facial muscles) towards the ends can make reading a little difficult for the lay person.
Labels: blink, book review, malcom gladwell
posted by Geet_Anjali @ 5:29 pm
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