Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell

Apr 2007 · Sold by Back Bay Books

About this ebook

From the #1 bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia, the landmark book that has revolutionized the way we understand leadership and decision making. In his breakthrough 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.

Ratings and reviews

Reading _How We Decide_ reminded me of this book, which describes how quick, impulsive guesses are likely to result in the right choices. It's a fascinating read, but it doesn't really do much to explain why this is the case, or provide guidance for when it's untrustworthy.

I really enjoyed this book. Malcolm reads it himself with expert delivery. The book seems to be counter to mainstream wisdom and may be slightly oversold, but the research and examples discussed are really intriguing.

This book can help guide you to the understanding that our mind in the balanced state will come up with the correct answer. If you learn to operate using your sixth sense in a focused manner, the mind will make the correct decision. It is important to trust your gut, but only if you are thinking clearly.

About the author

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers: The Tipping Point,Blink, Outliers,What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. Gladwell has been included in the Time 100 Most Influential People list and touted as one of Foreign Policy'sTop Global Thinkers.