Blink

I just finished Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. He is such a good writer! There is something so gentle, or smooth rather (like soft-serve ice cream), about the way he writes. It is effortless to read him and yet what he is addressing is subtle and complex. He weaves anecdotes about interesting characters -- food tasters, military experts, art historians, facial expression researchers, etc -- with data and ideas.

The book is about the intricacies of snap judgements and the role the unconscious plays in our conscious decisions. There isn't quite a clear line of argument -- sometimes snap judgements are the best and decision making gets too muddled when there is too much information; and sometimes they are hopelessly biased. And, those who are good at snap judgements are those who have years of experience and training. Although he also says there are somethings we can all make correct snap judgements about. So, there is no simple answer. But, clearly anyone can read a page of Gladwell and come away with the same impression as someone who has read the entire book: this guy is a terrific writer.

The stuff on facial expressions kind of freaked me out. He talks about how these researchers studied every possible movement of the face and analyzed "micro-expressions" that flicker across people's faces too quickly to be "seen" -- but they are picked up on. It made me paranoid about what I might be betraying...

Oh, the edition I read includes an afterward that I thought was critical. Otherwise it ended abruptly, without much summing up. His final reflections contextualized the whole thing, and I think I might have feel cheated if I read the original version without it.