| View Larger Image | Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | Paperbackby Malcolm Gladwell (Author)
| List Price: | $15.99 | | Price: | $9.35 | | You Save: | $6.64 (42%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Back Bay Books | | Page Count: | 320 Pages | | Publication Date: | April 03, 2007 | | Sales Rank: | 134th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780316010665
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
In his #1 bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. In BLINK, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? That's the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in BLINK. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, examining case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the New Coke, Gladwell shows how the difference between good decision making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but rather with the few particular details on which we focus. BLINK displays all of the brilliance that has made Malcolm Gladwell's journalism so popular and his books such perennial bestsellers as it reveals how all of us can become better decision makers--in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life. |
Amazon.com Review
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. --Barbara Mackoff |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 1095 reviews)
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another thought provoking book by photondn (Florida, USA)  5 Stars
November 22, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is about how unconscious thought, maybe can referred as instinct, affects human behavior and decision making.
For example, professionals do what they do without thinking because they have conditioned themselves on the basics so much so that they no longer have to think about it - they just do it. It is like chewing gum and walking at the same time. Two of those things are so basic that most people can do it without thinking about it and moreover while thinking about something else. It is these unthinking thoughts is what Blink describes.
Blink also describes about gut feelings. Gut feelings compel people to do or not to do things. Because of the nature of gut feelings, people cannot really describe why they have them. Blink discusses these undescribable gut feelings and how they help us and harm us.
Also, Blink talks about situations of TMI (Too Much Information) and how sometimes people who rely on gut and experience can survive and outsmart those who are armed with TMI. I thought the part about TMI was pretty good. Sort of makes me wonder if people who try to integrate TMI really know what they are doing.
I have read Outliers, The Tipping Point, and What the Dog Saw. To me, the story about panic and choking from the What The Dog Saw was an extension from Blink. Blink ranks about 2nd best from his books, Outliers being the best. From reading this book, it sort of makes me wonder how how he thinks and how he notices common subtleties of human life. Blink was a different book - it relates more to thought than behavior or effort.
Blink was a good book. I was left still thinking about the unconscious thoughts that Blink describes.
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Thinking about Thinking by K. Scott Proctor (Wilmington, DE USA) 5 Stars
November 20, 2009
"Blink," one in a series of excellent books by Malcolm Gladwell, is one of those rare publications that actually makes you think about how you think. This concept, covered in an engaging and entertaining voice by Gladwell, may seem confusing, strange, boring, or all of the above at first glance. Rest assured -- this book is anything but boring, strange, or confusing -- it is a wonderful publication that entertains and teaches in equal measure.
With a rhetorical style akin to that conveyed by Michael Pollen in In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, Gladwell presents readers with data and hypotheses. He carefully and logically supports his conclusion(s), but does not force his perspective on his readers. Gladwell's style, rather, is one of engaging and involving the reader on a journey of learning.
For the interested reader, Gladwell offers stories and characters that engage, and ideas and perspectives that stimulate thought. This is a wonderful book that is well worth a read.
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Blink by Robert T. Petersen II  4 Stars
November 16, 2009
This was an interesting point of view. I think it was well researched, but does not share any of the counter-point to his position.
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Neither Power nor Thinking by A. Fung  1 Stars
November 16, 2009
Just a long list of antedotes. Interesting for the first two seconds at best. Not useful reading.
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A Real Eye Opener by A. Bono (MO United States) 4 Stars
November 14, 2009
This book is a great read. Very engaging and thoughtful. The author provides some wonderful new insights into how we make decisions from the gut or at the blink of an eye. From this insight you can start making more intelligent decisions on how you take advantage of your instincts.
My only complaint and the reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is that the author doesn't give enough definitive advice about what we can do to better ourselves with the knowledge he provides. There are suggestions and hints but any conclusion is a little weak. Regardless, I have read this book twice and will read it again so I can continue to understand my own gut instincts and make better decisions in the blink of an eye.
If you enjoy this book, check out Emotional Intelligence. Although a little dry, Emotional Intelligence reflects some of the points made by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
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This celebrated New York Times bestsellernow poised to reach an even wider audience in paperbackis a book that is changing the way North Americans think about selling products and disseminating ideas. Gladwells new afterword to this edition describes how readers can constructively apply the tipping point principle in their own lives and work. Widely hailed as an important work that offers not only a road map to business success but also a profoundly encouraging approach to solving social...
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In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he...
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| What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
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What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?
In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first...
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| Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye
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Outraged by the downward spiral of intellect and culture, Michael LeGault offers the flip side of Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling phenomenon, Blink, which theorized that our best decision-making is done on impulse, without factual knowledge or critical analysis. If bestselling books are advising us to not think, LeGault argues, it comes as no surprise that sharp, incisive reasoning has become a lost art in the daily life of people everywhere. Somewhere along the line, the Age of Reason...
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