Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

I just finished reading “Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell.

The book is about the kinds of decisions and snap judgements we take in the first fractions of seconds we’re confronted with something, how that happens, and how we have this hidden ability to “thin slice” situations, mind read the people in front of us and react according to a wealth of information that is stocked away behind a closed door in what is called our “adaptive unconscious”.

It goes on to tell us to trust these snap judgements of ours more often, and that sometimes they result in better decisions than if we take a lot of time and go through much anaylsis. Still the book shows examples of how that can go wrong, and why. Which leads us to how we can somehow train and develop these snap judgements and make them better and more efficient.

The book tells all this through results of research and real life stories that are woven very nicely together, in a way you won’t get bored.

I bought this book from the book fair, and it was the title that actually pulled me in. I’m not usually into reading these types of books, but still I found this one very interesting, as I do believe in what it’s trying to say, that a part of us, our “adaptive unconscious” as it turns out to be, is able to analyse a situation and reach a correct decision a lot faster than it would take us to think about it consciously and decide what to do.

These snap judgements or gut feelings or whatever you want to call them have come in very handy to me over the years, although I sometimes let myself get carried away by the idea that I have to think things over more before taking my decision, which only complicates things and gets me confused.
So from now on I think I’ll be trying to develop and trust those judgements and decisions more in my everyday life.