PRINT-Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is about instinctive thinking. It deals with intuition and gut reaction. The book is evenhanded showing how this type of thinking can be positive, and how it can be negative.

Gladwell points out that more deliberate thinking involving logic and data leaves out a great deal of this subconscious processing that goes on in our brains. He gives an example involving how experts were easily fooled by counterfeiters concerning some ancient Greek statuary. Other more trained eyes immediately spotted the counterfeits. How did they know? They knew in their guts.

The flip side of this thinking is when people make prejudicial decisions based upon things we know to be erroneous such as sex or race or the way someone looks. Gladwell noticed how he got more harrassment upon letting his hair grow out in a wild fashion. I noticed similar things when I elected to shave my head. People react to you differently.

At the end of the day, it is evidence that is the final determinant of whether or not that gut reaction is valid. Intuition is a good starting point and should never be dismissed. But you still have to verify. This is the message I took from Blink, and it is a good one. I recommend this book.

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