Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell

I just finished reading, Blink: The power of thinking withoug thininking, by Malcolm Gladweel, and I can see why this book quickly became a #1 national bestseller. Especially in the wake of his previous successful book, The Tipping Point, this book was highly anticipated by readers.

Blink is Gladwell's attempt to point out plainly and clearly what is going on behind the curtain in our minds. Our conscious overt decision making mind takes place "on stage" or in front of a mental curtin behind which lies the unconscious. And this book shows that the unconscious is far more powerful than most of us give it credit.

Here's an example. A statue was being reviewed by a museum for purchase. After carbon dating tests, geological tests, archeological and all kinds of other scientific and fancy testing had been done, the expensive statue appeared to be abeautifully preserved original. Just before purchasing it, the museam brought in a few experts on ancient Greek statues. One expert said that after only seconds of viewing the statue he knew something was fishy about it, though he couldn't put his finger on it. Another expert while talking with the museum curator asked, "Have you paid money for this?" The curator responded, "So far, only a down payment." "Can you get a refund?" blurted out the expert without noticing what she was saying.

Several top experts, after one look, questioned the statue's authenticity contrary to all the other evidence. This prompted a closer look from the technological angle, which later revealed the statue, of course, to be a fake.

The point: In the Blink of an eye, the brain of the experts compared this statue to the thousands of originals they had seen before and judged it to be false. This resulted in an unexplainable, inarticulate feeling of uncertainty or uncomfortableness with the statue. None of the experts could articulate why they questioned it, they just did. This processing which goes on constantly in the back of our minds lead the experts to such conclusions and is what Blink is about.

Gladwell uses a myriad of examples covering many different types of mental processing to demonstrate his point. From interviewing New York City speed daters to rehashing Coke Cola Company's dangerous venture with New Coke to the examination of minute facial expressions to predicting marital success rates to discussions with police officers who've in split second decisions had to use their guns, the topics are relevant and intriguing.

Gladwell is a fine writer. Blink is written smoothly for any reader, and for 275 pages it went rather quickly. The topics kept me engaged so much so that I read 100 pages without even noticing. However, I should say that by the end of the book I was ready to be done.

The lessons of the book are thus. Lesson 1: Our unconscious is far more powerful over our actions and motivations that we probably think. Blink us gives permission to trust our gut, or intuition, a bit more. In fact, near the end, Gladwell's advice is to be sure to calculate the small decisions of life, those choices that affect our immediate and short-term happiness and status. But in large, big life-decisions we ought to go with our gut. In that job interview, first date or even life and death situation, trust your instincts; because, even though you haven't done a flow chart or a pros and cons list, your unconscious mind is rapidly processing and sending you conclusion via your emotional response.

Lesson 2: "Understanding the true nature of instinctive decision making requires us to be forgiving of those people in circumstances where good judgment is imperiled" (pg. 263). Clearly, split decisions can also be bad desicions, and like infantry soldiers in the midst of battle, we don't always have the luxery of time to pre-think every choice we make. And this can get us into trouble.

Lesson 3: Sometimes, less information is more. Learning too much about a situation before we decide can cloud our judgment. The scientistse examining the statue in the earlier example who "knew" so much about it were hindered in the end by document after document from lawyers and geologists proving its authenticity.

This book has been a really great compliment to my learning during this year of residency. This year, by intentionally reflecting on my functioning as a chaplain and through a therapy process, I have spent much time learning about my own unconscious and how it affects me and my relationships.

Blink is a real pleasure to read. It teaches us about ourselves and our world. Because of it, I will definitly read more books by Malcom Gladwell. I recommend it to the casual reader whose looking for something different and fun. It won't change your world, but it will change how you often view the world; and, it won't change who you are, but possibly in a Blink it may change how you think.