Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

By Malcolm N. Gladwell

(Paperback Edition 2007, Back Bay Books)

Have you ever believed that first impressions really count? The author, a former science writer at The Washington Post and a columnist for the prestigious The New Yorker magazine, expands the idea about how the subconscious interprets events and links it to past experiences to make informed decisions rapidly and curiously, more accurately. The book spans in anecdotes and case studies in many varied subjects (advertising, sales, sports, music, etc.), showing that intuitive response is what proves to be correct “99.9% of the time” rather than a carefully planned, exhaustive study and tons of data. Hence Gladwell terms the split-second processing as “thin-slicing”, and the judgment as “blink”. He says that most often, we use the best of our “thin-slicing” abilities in judging the mental and emotional states of other people, but this could also be disadvantageous if hampered by personal biases and sociocultural contexts. It also depends on the situation. He further stresses that once we learn the power of rapid cognition, we can actually use it to make positive changes in decisions and in a way, know ourselves better.