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.