Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking – Malcolm Gladwell

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge, it is understanding.”

“That’s the story of Blink: The power of thinking without thinking.  Our subconscious rakes in a ton of variables that influences our decisions.  Decisions based off of our history through nature/nurture.  So what happens when we have to take action in a blink of an eye?  Mr. Gladwell presents a few cases such as why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? And why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?  He presents how a study ‘thin-slices’ and predicts the successes of marriages.  He explains in detail the thought process that goes through cops when confronted with life and death situations.  Also, facial clues are a big part of analyzing someone’s thought process – thinking without thinking…

An excellent book, Malcolm dives deep into how we each make our decisions and how they’re influenced through our conscious stereotypes.  Hopefully after reading this, you would continue researching the external factors that influence our preferences when challenged with blink of an eye resolutions.