Buy Used/3rdParty

More product information

Find other editions of Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking (Softback, Hardback, Audio, E-Book)

Similar Products

Audio CD Description Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea. Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. --Barbara Mackoff

Customer Reviews Snap Judgement Review Blink is about making an inital judgement and going with it. The author uses many different historical examples to illustrate his theory. I found a lot of the material to be very intuitive, but it was interesting to read a good sound philosphy and basis behind what most of us do as habit. Basically this book looks at the reason why we make our decisions, and I enjoyed it. I would have liked for him to have delved into the subject a little more and gotten into the deeper psychology of the matter. Overall, a good read. Statistical (and other) Nonsense Gladwell begins with a story about a supposed Greek statue that some experts, using scientific testing, could not detect as a fruad, while others were immediately suspicious. (So, some people look at the forest for immediate clues, before examining the trees in detail.) Another example involved a single tennis expert with an uncanny knack of foretelling when someone was about to double-fault. (The bad news is that he could not relate how this was done. Thus, what this proves is beyound me.) Still another revolved around an officer playing a "rogue MidEast commander" vs. the regular Army. Anyone who has been in government knows that it moves at glacial speed, and can easily be outdone by much smaller groups with a modicum of intelligence and speed (eg. Lockheed's "Skunk Works," and Burt Rutan's "space ship."). So the rogue officer's success is hardly suprising. To say that quick decisions - based on a few KEY VARIABLES - is better than studied analyses that include a multitude of minor issues is hardly surprising either. Finally, readers need to keep in mind that there will always be statistical abberations - eg. someone who correctly predicts the flip of a coin 50 times in a row. However, that does not prove that they have any special talent, and they are just as likely to be wrong as right on the next toss. Similarly, finding snap judgements superior to supposedly sophisticated statistical models does not necessarily support a conclusion supporting snap judgements - many statistical models are poorly specified and have embarrasingly large errors. Not worth reading. Blink is AWESOME! This is one of the most important self-help pieces in modern history, on par with classics of the self-help genre such as How To Win Friends and Influence People Nothing Down Awaken the Giant Within Secrets of Snesual Lovemaking GODDESS WORSHIP and the DVD New Sex Now: Life's Ultimate Pleasure.