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Book: Blink!

28.Aug.2007

Blink! is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell about human psychology. More exactly, a book about unconscious thinking or as the slogan says: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. The author was motivated by the consequences the fact of letting his hair grow had on how people approached him in several situations.

This work is mostly a collection of stories, from a hard to tell fake statue to an US president elect by its looks, or a virtual war lost by too many information. From this stories, Malcolm Gladwell presents us our ability to decide in the blink of an eye and when we should follow that instinct. There are examples where first impressions are always better, but there are also cases where our unconscious betrays us and it’s ruled by stereotypes and false impressions. Anyway, most of the times, against common sense and sometimes our confidence, more information doesn’t correlate with better decisions, even on the hard decisions. The author defends the ability to cut thin slices of information on any situation. Instead of gathering every possible data, we should try to focus on the true nature of the problem/situation and cut only the few key facts.

There is nothing like some good stories told by a great storyteller like Malcolm Gladwell. Even if your not into psychology and studding the human mind, the principals presented on this book affect everyone and may change the way you make your decisions. You just have to learn how to master the deeps of your brain.