Blink

I generally don't read books when they first come out. I like to see if they pass the test of time, if people are still talking about them a year or two later. So I finally picked up Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, the follow-up to his successful The Tipping Point (which I plan to read a little later). Bending between the genres of business, culture, science and self-improvement, the title captures the premise--that in a nanosecond our brains can unconsciously process data and often make better decisions than it can given more time to gather and analyze information. First impressions count. And sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. (If you don't believe me, go to a university bookstore and look at the chemistry texts.)

Like most business books, I got it after the first chapter. But unlike the typical fare, the rest was filled with fascinating anecdotes and accounts of research which illuminates or adds color to his premise. There are many examples where less information, and relying on instinct, trumped the opposition, for instance in a war exercise frighteningly similar to what we're seeing today in Iraq. But also the opposite, where snap decisions can prove disastrous. The counter-intuitive conclusion is that for simple decisions, an analytical approach is better, but for more complex ones with more variables (like picking a spouse), instincts are often superior. Uhhh ... maybe, but don't marry the first cute girl that smiles at you.

The Blink idea rang true to me personally, because I've always done better when I trust my gut, and generally paid a price when I ignored it. I was particularly intrigued by research on reading faces--how people who have extensively studied facial expressions can accurately tell an extraordinary amount about a person very quickly. I've always felt the same thing, but been a little embarrassed by the snap judgments I tend to make about someone's character, after very little interaction, even though I think my track record is pretty good. I feel a little better now, knowing that there's a potential scientific basis for what I do.

I'm not ready to relinquish all my decisions to a blink. There will always be a place for research and analysis. And of course, eenie-meenie-miny-mo.