Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Malcolm GladwellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-03
ISBN: 0316010669
Number of pages: 296
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316010665
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Book Review: "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking," a powerful addition to any library
Summary: 5 Stars
Headed to the library's checkout counter, I intuitively grabbed, "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking," on display and added the hardcover book to the top of my pile." I'm glad that I relied on my gut instead of my intellect. Otherwise, I would have left the book behind, feeling that it would bore me with useless psychobabble. This was far from the case. I delved into the 250-plus pages chockfull of psychological studies and theories; the esoteric synthesis of information was just too good to put down. After all, who gets eight hours of sleep these days anyway?
As the title suggests, the book examines the unconscious brain processes, particularly concerning how the brain can make a snap judgment--in the blink of an eye. Through exhaustive research, Malcolm Gladwell illustrates that people, to put it bluntly (but accurately), can be rather stupid some of the time. In essence, many of his case studies prove that, yes, too much knowledge is not necessarily a good thing. He shows that sometimes it is best to surrender the credentials and expertise, and operate under the rule of intuition. On the other hand, he also substantiates, intuition, and things like first impressions, may not steer you on the correct path either. So, go figure. I suppose, as humans, we must accept our imperfections.
Overall, however, the author's case studies, though plentiful, fall in an illogical, random order. Obviously, Gladwell did not have a prior chronological skeleton before he filled the page marrow with prose. If the author had utilized an outline, he did not follow it.
Nonetheless, the studies, whether portraying the petty, biased mind of a person or the plain no-nothingness of a person, are fascinating. Take, for instance, the notion of "sensation transference" which, Gladwell says, was coined by Louis Cheskin, a man born in Ukraine at the turn of the century and a U.S. immigrant child, who later became as Gladwell dubs "one of the greatest figures in twentieth-century marketing." Gladwell cites Cheskin's promotional effort of margarine, which back in the late 1940s, was the unpopular contender on the American table. After Cheskin dyed margarine yellow, wrapped it in foil imprinted with a crown and the name, "Imperial Margarine," consumers ended up raving. Why? Because a pretty package is just that. Who needs to go below the surface? Shallow, but true. Stupidity always is.
Gladwell also draws a picture of autism and cites an example of one of the country's leading experts on autism, a teacher at Yale University's Child Life Center, Ami Klin. Klin tested the eye movement of an autistic adult while he watched the 1966 film version of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" When the scene involved two of the main characters kissing, the autistic man fixated on a light switch in the scene. Klin sums up the premise as follows: "....It's like if you were a Matisse connoisseur, and you look at a lot of pictures, and then you'd go, ahhh, there is the Matisse. So he goes, there is the light switch. He's seeking meaning, organization. He doesn't like confusion. All of us gravitate toward things that mean something to us, and for most of us, that's people. But if people don't anchor meaning for you, then you seek something that does." Interesting stuff!
Despite the book's lack of overall organization, "Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking" packs a powerful punch from beginning to end without losing a blink of an eye's worth of force.
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