Book Review :Blink

Book Review : Blink
by Malcolm Gladwell

We all have heard the adage a countless times i.e. the decision that we take about a person or an object is based upon the first glimpse and the first impressions that we have. This book is about these snap decisions taken by us based on our instinct or intuition. Malcolm Gladwell has argued that sometimes lesser the knowledge available to our senses, more accurate are our decisions. He goes on to recount many incidents where the first impression formed a decision and that proved to be better than a decision based on documentation. But, he also recounts the times when the snap decisions taken in a blink of our eyes was not only inaccurate, but potentially deadly. Thus our unconscious might be right most of the times but unless we have a certain expertise in the area in which we are taking quick decisions based on first impressions only , we might be wrong. Especially decisions that are taken on the face value of a person or on the biases lying within our subconscious mind are quite susceptible to be wrong as our knowledge is shallow and information non-existent. It’s about less information is good in certain circumstances but and it’s a huge BUT, less information may still lead to inaccurate, hazardous and inefficient decision making due to the sheer shallowness of the sensory perception.

The book is a nice easy read. But just after first few chapters, it gets confusing where as soon as a folly of snap decision is being shown, somehow we again read a past example where it had been brilliant. So half way through the book we feel the author has overstated the case for blink decisions and vice versa and still it’s not clear what the author wanted. Too late we are introduced to issues like when should we make such decisions or not and we hardly have a convincing answer. Also, I must confess the author’s theory of lots of experience making us an expert at making such decisions, made me feel that he was being contradictory. If all good decisions (esp. the snap decisions) are based on experience and expertise , then are we really making a snap decision? It’s just that all our deliberation is in the past and we do not begin by deliberating and then taking a decision every time we are called upon to make decisions in similar circumstances.

Malcolm Gladwell is readable. No doubt about that and he does come up with some good anecdotes and makes them much more interesting in his retelling. Go for this book only as a preliminary introduction to our unconscious mind. For better understanding, I would recommend “The Invisible Gorilla: and other ways our intuition deceives us” and "Predictably Irrational".