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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Paperback – April 3, 2007

by Malcolm Gladwell (Author)

2,582 customer reviews

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In his landmark bestseller 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.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.

Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. --Barbara Mackoff --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Best-selling author Gladwell (The Tipping Point) has a dazzling ability to find commonality in disparate fields of study. As he displays again in this entertaining and illuminating look at how we make snap judgments—about people's intentions, the authenticity of a work of art, even military strategy—he can parse for general readers the intricacies of fascinating but little-known fields like professional food tasting (why does Coke taste different from Pepsi?). Gladwell's conclusion, after studying how people make instant decisions in a wide range of fields from psychology to police work, is that we can make better instant judgments by training our mind and senses to focus on the most relevant facts—and that less input (as long as it's the right input) is better than more. Perhaps the most stunning example he gives of this counterintuitive truth is the most expensive war game ever conducted by the Pentagon, in which a wily marine officer, playing "a rogue military commander" in the Persian Gulf and unencumbered by hierarchy, bureaucracy and too much technology, humiliated American forces whose chiefs were bogged down in matrixes, systems for decision making and information overload. But if one sets aside Gladwell's dazzle, some questions and apparent inconsistencies emerge. If doctors are given an algorithm, or formula, in which only four facts are needed to determine if a patient is having a heart attack, is that really educating the doctor's decision-making ability—or is it taking the decision out of the doctor's hands altogether and handing it over to the algorithm? Still, each case study is satisfying, and Gladwell imparts his own evident pleasure in delving into a wide range of fields and seeking an underlying truth.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product details

Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books; 1 edition (April 3, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780316010665
ISBN-13: 978-0316010665
ASIN: 0316010669
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 2,582 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Books > Business & Money > Management & Leadership > Decision-Making & Problem Solving
- #14 in Books > Business & Money > Skills > Decision Making
- #23 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Social Psychology & Interactions

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Top customer reviews

Nice modern candy stories

ByFaik Cem ARIon September 21, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Years ago I had this book in my hands one bookstore and I’ve decided that it’s not worth to read. Years later I encountered again because of being quoted in another book and I gave it a try.
Frankly I must admit that I had to quit after the few sentences of the beginning of the fifth chapter.
Nice, inspiringly seeming stories which any tabloid newsletter could publish or a grandparent would tell; nothing more.
Considering what Gladwell have achieved with Outliers, this is a real disappointment.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Perspective and react time

ByLarry S.on August 30, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I thought in the beginning it would be a expose on relying on you first thoughts as most "real" inputs for decision making. Bottom line it's about knowing what the right factors are, and recognizing which are not, to making a decision. Using your experiences, recognizing bias, and giving yourself time in the moment slow things down, to let things come to you. Great insight and eye opener. Enjoyable read!

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Blink Can Teach You When Not To

ByJohn Klawitteron April 21, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Blink is a work of intelligent teaching that, if you are willing, can teach you to trust your own instincts. There is a balance between subjective and objective decision making, and Malcolm Gladwell finds the common sense approach to finding that balance. Now this might sound like one of those guru-like 'ways to a better life'. No. Nothing like that. Just thought provoking ideas that can get you thinking about how you make decisions...and how to make them better. -- John Klawitter, writer/producer/director, author Hollywood Havoc, winner of the EPIC Author Award for Best Action-Thriller.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

ByJ. LAMAR IIon December 17, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Great read about: Rapid Cognition; the kind of thinking that happens in the blink of an eye, the adaptive unconscious. How the statue that didn’t look right. Modern assumption-the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it. How decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately. The concept of Thin slicing: Our unconscious can find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience. How John Gottman and his marriage counseling lab can predict future of marriages based on a few minutes of a couple’s videotape and the “four horsemen” - contempt, stonewalling, defensiveness, criticism, with the trump card being contempt (criticism from a higher plane) of doomed marriages. Priming ; Vic Braden and his ability to predict tennis aces, unable to find what he is thin-slicing. The dark side of thin slicing – examples, Warren Harding, Bob Golomb the car salesman, Paul Van Riper’s big victory in the Millennium Challenge exercise – the failure of analytic versus intuitive decision making from the hypothesis that you can’t lift the fog of war.
Training, rules and rehearsal allows spontaneous, split-second decisions: Spontaneity is not random! Wisdom, experience and good judgment. Rule of Improv: always accept an offer; no suggestion can be denied. Goldman Chest pain algorithm (funded by the USN for IDCs – ECG, unstable angina, fluid in the lungs, SBP<100): Less is more (at times). Kenna’s music-music that the experts like, but no one else can be exposed because the un-expert focus groups don’t like it; the fallacy of the Pepsi challenge and failure of “New Coke”, the Herman Miller chair. First impressions: a way to structure them, a vocabulary to capture them and the experience to understand them. Seven seconds in the Bronx; the death of Amadou Diallo-a mind blind moment (momentary autism-the inability to mind-read). Tomkins inspired Ekman and Friesen to prove that facial expressions show exactly what a person is thinking, Facial Action Coding System (FACS). Mind-reading and the example of autism. Ability of some people to stay calm under stress (pulse rate-to high and some people “lose” ability to make good decisions. Listening with our eyes (or not); the example of Abbie Conant, the Trombone virtuoso. The lesson of Chancellorsville, the magical and mysterious thing called judgment, wisdom acquired from a lifetime of learning and watching and doing. Lee had it, Hooker didn’t. How having information does not equal understanding.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Well written book on an important aspect of human decision-making

BySteven PetersonTOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICEon January 12, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is one among a number of recent volumes which speak to quirks in human decision-making. Each emphasizes that our brains are not ideally constructed to make rational decisions; some of these argue that rational decision-making may not be as effective as many think; some argue that the use of quick and frugal "rules of thumb" are (or are not) pretty effective. Works addressing such issues include: Tavris and Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But not by Me); Gilovich et al., Heuristics and Biases; Fine, A Mind of Its Own; Gigerenzer, Gut Feelings; Linden, The Accidental Mind. And now "Blink," by Malcolm Gladwell (author of the best seller "The Tipping Point").

The book begins with a vignette, focusing on the Getty Museum being offered the chance to purchase a particular work. The Museum used scientific methods to try to determine if the object was legit--or a phony. They decided that it was good and purchased it. However, a handful of experts, after just a quick glance at the object, concluded that it was a fraud. Later research agreed with those snap decisions.

This illustrates a key point made by Gladwell: Sometimes quick and dirty decision making is actually better in terms of outcomes than agonizing efforts at rational analysis. He points out that this is what evolutionary cognitive expert Gerd Gigerenzer calls "fast and frugal" decision making.

A number of examples are used to illustrate how well "thin slice" decision-making can work. In a war game, one side (the Red Team) used "out of the box" thinking against the other side (The Blue Team), which represented the United States. The latter team used rational decision making efforts, did after action analysis at each step, and tried, in short, to use "best practices." The leader of the Red Team worked more by "feel," allowing his subordinates to take initiative on their own. End result? The United States was defeated! Gladwell's conclusion is that thin slice, fast and frugal decision making was more effective.

He adduces any number of examples as to why quick decision making works better than rational analysis. This is firmly in the tradition of Gigerenzer and his collaborators, extolling the virtues of fast and frugal heuristics (decision making shortcuts).

However, Gladwell understands that there is also a darker side to this thin slice decision making. Stereotypes can end up guiding decision making. He wonders if this explains the disproportionate number of African-Americans who are imprisoned, if this explains why some people get better deals in negotiation with auto dealers than others, if this is why Amadou Diallo dies in a hail of gunfire from police in the Bronx. And this is the side of decision making shortcuts that Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky, and their colleagues address (see the volume earlier mentioned edited by Gilovich et al).

The final chapter is Gladwell's effort to somehow encourage the positive payoffs of the use of these quick and dirty decision making processes while minimizing the negative consequences. Convincing? I'm not so sure, but the author surely makes us think about these issues. A very well done book.

11 comment 7 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Sinsible topic

ByAmazon Customeron May 15, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Good book and well researched, but I found it a bit exhausting at the end - as if the author was trying to get to at least a minimum number of pages. Would have liked to get a chapter on practical application and developing Blink thinking as skill.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

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Most recent customer reviews

Insightful

Was expecting it to be a story but pleasantly surprised that it was very well written type of documentary. Definitely recommend.

Published 2 days ago by AK

Interesting topic; but the presentation was extremly boaring and ...

Interesting topic; but the presentation was extremly boaring and too long. I did not finish it, you can get the idea from 1 chapter.

Published 2 days ago by Bluesky Walker

Five Stars

Definately a good read.

Published 3 days ago by Paul J. Moore

Three Stars

Present for a friend, didn't read the book!

Published 3 days ago by NsgStud

this is an amazing book--makes you think and lets you look at thing ...

this is an amazing book--makes you think and lets you look at thing in a different way. Everyone should read it.

Published 5 days ago by Kindle Customer

Five Stars

reading for my daughter's school.

Published 13 days ago by Matyoka

Five Stars

It will change your perspective on data, statistics and business

Published 14 days ago by Tony Khoury

Five Stars

Glad I bought Blink - will be reading more of this author's work.

Published 15 days ago by Kristen Heitman

Loved his Outliers book but this was full of esoteric ...

Could not finish it. Loved his Outliers book but this was full of esoteric information, e.g., watch how someone moves their eyes in an au? Seriously, impossible to read.Read more

Published 18 days ago by cautious shopper

Three Stars

Never finished the book...

Published 19 days ago by Desmond Lloyd

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