Neil Fein's Blog

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell

Modern emergency rooms use codified decision trees as a diagnostic tool, and the tree used for heart attacks intentionally limits the information used. More data is not always better, argues this tool, and many physicians resisted this when it was first introduced in a Chicago hospital. This technique is now saving lives in ERs, allowing for a quicker response to a situatuation that demands it.

The 21^st century is information-saturated. Decisions made in haste by someone with an informed opinion can, Blink argues, sometimes be better than drawn-out, considered conclusions based on studies and focus groups.

Thin-slicing, as Mr. Gladwell calls it, is a vastly underrated method of making decisions. Determining the authenticity of a statue, reading whether someone is lying, even listening to your gut when gambling or deciding who to date -- these are all examples used in the book of thin-slicing. While the individual stories are fascinating, and the writing is up to the usual high standards of any Gladwell book or essay, these stories don't hang together well enough to be called a cohesive book.

The theme of listening to your gut is there throughout all the chapters, but I wasn't convinced that the book was much more than a set of excellent essays, sometimes essays that made the same point in different ways.

Don't expect the miraculous, cohesive quality of Mr. Gladwll's first book, The Tipping Point, cobbled together out of New Yorker essays. However, if you enjoy good writing, by all means, pick up Blink. It's an enjoyable book.

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