Back Bay Books Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

The book came in with different cover page design and with different publication date. Even book size is different than the one than at is advertised. In other words, I ordered a book, and I received another.

Malcolm Gladwell is a compelling writer, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without ThinkingBlink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking  using a tried and tested technique: a parable. You tell a human interest story and learn from it along the way. The problem with this book is that it faces in two directions simultaneously. One direction is encouraging us to trust instinct, while the other is pointing that that instinct can be misleading. Well, Malcolm, which is it? I tend to feel it could be both. but a chapter helping us understand how to temper instinct with reflection would have been handy. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without ThinkingBlink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

This was the first book I have read from Malcolm Gladwell.While it is an interesting and entertaining book, by the end of it I could not help but think it would have been better if "Blink" would have been published as an essay/ article in a magazine. While I do not expect (and do not want to read) an in-depth review on the topic "Blink" is dealing with, a bit more depth would have done the book a great favour. I will, however, read some of his other books ("The Tipping Point" and "Outliers") as well, as Malcolm Gladwell clearly is a good writer.

Fascinating book by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of 'The Tipping Point'. Gladwell provides lots of practical examples to demonstrate how our 'intuition' can be based upon a micro analysis of what we experience, evaluated against a historic sub conscious historic database - all enabling us to draw 'logical' conclusions which are outside the scope of our conscious mind. This comprehensive and almost instantaneous analysis by our sub conscious mind can be much more reliable than our detailed and protracted conscious analysis, which can suffer from data overload.............But only to a point! Our subconscious mind can also play tricks, particularly where our historic database is skewed, when we are stressed etc. The book makes you think when you should rely on your subconscious 'intuition' and when you should look to a more conventional conscious analysis. If you are looking for a comprehensive, technical analysis, this probably isn't for you. If you want an interesting light read for the plane or beach I would recommend it.

Here it is a fine example of how a smart idea and big marketing support can turn a mediocre book in a publishing success.The aim of this work is to analyze how we are able to take decisions on the spot ("in a blink") and how choices made in this way can prove more accurate than those taken after a lengthy process.The book, however, falls short in what, according to its preface, are its stated objectives. It folds out as a lengthy list of anecdotes, with no structure to hold them together.There is neither a clear description of how instantaneous decisions are taken (except a fuzzy reference to "thin slicing") nor an explanation of when "blink thinking" makes sense that goes beyond the obvious (contexts with high complexity and limited time for decisions).Some of the stories and evidences quoted are actually interesting, but are not used to elaborate a robust argument and seem to have limited reference to the scope of the book.So, in a nutshell, very disappointing.

Malcolm's book explains how you can make quick decisions. And, in fact too much information means you can make the wrong decision. This is backed up by case study and his various insights.