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| Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | 
 enlarge | Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.99
You Save: £5.00 (50%)
New (25) from £3.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 247
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0141014598
EAN: 9780141014593
ASIN: 0141014598
Publication Date: February 23, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Insightful, specially if you trust your gut feelings October 14, 2006
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
This book might not be "scientific" as some reviewers complain about, but it contains a fair amount of things to think about in terms of using your intuition more often than some of us do.
In Myers-Briggs (MBTI) terms, I'm an N (intuitive), so I found the ideas quite aplicable. I should use my gut feeling more often, and some stories in this book convinced me to do so.
In an era where we don't have the luxury to gather lots of information before making a decision, books like Blink can help us become more effective, and realize how amazing the human brain is.
 Blink again, again and again October 4, 2006
21 out of 25 found this review helpful
It's been said before and I'll say it again: interesting but repetitive. And perhaps lacking in depth. Im not a phsycologist but I do have a scientific background and I found the text very basic. The anecdotes illustrate the point Mr Gladwell wants to make, but he doesnt really offer an explanation for how these snap judgements work, or even why we should be able to make them. The book is basically a collection of examples of the phenomenon rather than an exploration of it. That said, Mr Gladwell's prose is clear and easily read. It's a book for any reader who is interested in the world around them and how we interact with it, and would certainly keep you interested enough during a long flight or train journey. On the basis of this book I would probably read Mr Gladwell's other bestseller, "The Tipping Point", but only if I could borrow it from someone.
A little case of foot-shooting. September 20, 2006
6 out of 16 found this review helpful
I found this book interesting and it certainly helped to raise my awareness of the subconscious level at which some of our discriminating behaviour operates.
Like several other reviewers I found the book to start well and then become a bit repetitive.
I also realised that Gladwell was doing exactly what he was trying to make us aware of.
It was impossible to know how many of the people he talked about were black or white without actually knowing them all by name, however it was possible to work out how many were women. Very few of the people he uses to illustrate his points were women, which you may or may not feel was justified, but when I counted the references in the back of the book, 142 men are referenced against 18 women. Aside from the lack of positive images of women, women are not even being mentioned, they are hidden.
Gladwell goes to the welcome length of using both he and she in turn when talking about non-gender specific examples, but the book in my opinion reinforces the very phenomenon he is trying to make us aware of.
So you could argue that he succeeds. I would argue a case of foot-shooting.
Blinkety blink August 27, 2006
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
It's a very easy read and has some absolutely fascinating facts about how the sub-conscious mind arrives at decisions (very quickly basically). However it is not a book that stays with you very long - I read it a couple of months ago now and most of the facts that I found so amazing at the time have gone clean out of my head (perhaps it is just senility setting in). Some of the examples towards the end started to feel a little forced, and if there were any wider applications to the theory, then I'm afraid they have not stayed with me either.
 Getting rid of the wool over your eyes August 23, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
How can we decide something and how fast? This book explores this topic.
The best thing about this book for me is in revealing how our prejudice miscolours the accuracy of the decisions we make. Gladwel provides some telling examples from associative thinking type questionaires that expose our subconscious assumptions about skin colour or gender that threaten making better choices than those we would make burdened with false assumptions.
Blink overall is a fascinating book. Decisions made in a hurry can obviously be ace compared to compiling piles of data and analysing them in non-intuitive, statistical formats. The major buzzword in this book is "Thin slicing". Rather than having a whole cake of info on something as a basis on which to make a hopefully correct decision, how thin a slice would you need to arrive at the same conclusion. The answer is surprisingly very thin indeed.
Things like a tone of voice can, according to this book prove just as decisive if not more than the content of any speech.
Vast and exciting examples of decision making are explored: Simulated wars; police shooting the wrong man/men; judging art work for authenticity; assessing couples breaking up on the basis of their conversations; looking at facial expressions and even the "Pepsi challenge" and selling cars. The themes are explored in an exciting fashion.
Gladwell reveals a lot about himself and illuminates many areas - helping us to focus on how we can train our faculties to make snap judgements weareas at the same time being wary of making decisions under stress or with wrongful assumptions about people in general.
Gladwell conveys the problems inherent in making snap judgements that can be plain wrong. He does not expand too much on this - I suppose this is why many of us are reluctant to make too many snap judgements (on important matters), because this could be just too risky. However this book does help you to avoid any risks, especially if you like a small gamble.
I read this book so fast and think it will be helpful and boost the confidence of any interested reader. It is not a long book to read. Please be warned that you should not make blink decisions and think of it as a virtue - it would be nice if you can spot your perfect partner in a blink, but would he/she agree? The fact of the matter is we continuously make snap decisions that are not especially consequential or even when we do make momentuous decisions that are good, it may rely on a good deal of subconscious input. As an example, I looked at this book for less than 10 seconds before buying it, and I'm glad I did.
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