Something for the weekend - Blink

This weeks 'Something for the weekend' is...

Blink

by Malcolm Gladwell

As you read along the first few lines of this post, taking in each word that forms the introductory sentences

of what is to follow, your brain is processing information in quantities and at speeds that you would find difficult to comprehend. Ironically it is your own brain processing the thoughts required to comprehend the work that it is doing, however that level of meta-thought is something that I'm just not prepared to deal with on a Friday.

One of the key things that you have already done up to this point is make a judgement, and a snap judgement at that; you judgemental little so-and-so you. Don't worry, you are forgiven. We all make decisions in the blink of an eye that we just can't help, and, more often than not, some that we don't even notice. Within two seconds you had probably only managed to read the first 25 words of this writing and had already decided whether you wanted to read on or not. Good decision so far I must add.

What Blink does, through Malcolm Gladwell's alluring narrative littered with intriguing factual anecdotes, is present some prime examples of the effects of these snap judgements. Starting with the correct instinct held by a handful of art experts working with the Getty Museum, and working through to the bad decisions made in a police shooting in the Bronx, Gladwell shows the full extent of the power that those first two seconds can hold.

What he argues however, is that these snap decisions can be trained, thus allowing our brains to process all the same information in the same short space of time to a more effective level. Just think (no pun intended) of all those snap judgements and decisions you have already made today. How much easier would it be to trust them if you knew you were thinking more effectively? Blink not only gets you thinking about the way you think, but it entertains and informs you through every chapter you absorb.

If you want to trust my snap judgement, buy this book: you'll be delighted.

Or just come in to Blackwell's, pick up the book, and let your brain make up its own mind.

Buy it here

Luke