BOOK REVIEW : BLINK The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

 

 

Malcolm Gladwell, 273pp.

                Have you ever known someone who has a “good eye” for something? That left you in awe,  every time you see him/her making a precise prediction? Then he might be someone who has bestowed with this BLINK power. Or rather than “has bestowed”, let's say... has cultivated.

                In total 273 pages of the novel without interlude, Malcolm Gladwell effortlessly convinces me to realize the enormous potential of human thinking mechanism. To be more precise, rapid thinking mechanism. Something he called snap judgment or hunch power. 

                What’s with this 'monstrosity' we keep on talking about? Gladwell describes BLINK as an ability to produce an accurate judgment in quite short time and almost unconsciously. It's a secret mechanism running automatically in your brain and sometimes it can not be explained well. But it definitely as good as a judgment made cautiously and deliberately.  

There would be no snap judgment if there’s no rapid cognition as the very crucial part of it. While the rapid cognition itself, tightly associated with the thin-slicing. Gladwell said this slicing refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience.

Simply put, thin slicing is the ability to heeds the most important spot of numerous informations you got in one event. So you don’t need to waste time, putting attention to every detail of the information. You just throw the right punch unconsciously.

The compact 8 chapters (include intro and conclusion) of this book consist of various encounters with snap judgment cases, research, and study. The story will establish your understanding and evoke the will of elaboration about what exactly snap judgment is.

 

1.       PROS ABOUT THIS BOOK

a.       I love how every chapter linked to each other.

Although Gladwell wrote different cases in every chapter, he successfully linked each of them in a pleasant way. So on the very last page, you’re not forgetting what chapter 1 is all about. Say goodbye to woozy!

b. Storytelling that flows smoothly. Every chapter connects naturally. There’s no unnecessary effort enforcing the connection of one chapter to another.  

c.       Serious Ingenious but not boring at all.

 

2.       CONS ABOUT THIS BOOK

IMHO, Gladwell did capture all sides of the snap judgment, but he didn’t distribute it fairly. He is drifted to only focus on the bright side of snap judgment. There're just 2 sub-chapters that discuss the failure of snap judgment. One story about Warren Harding and the other one about -four officers cruising down The Wheeler Avenue and happen to shot an innocent black resident-.

        A false snap judgment could drive you into a catastrophic astray situation. And that’s a very common thing. How many people fall into their own prejudice? Misinterpreted it as a hunch power? Then lost their chance of, for example, getting a worthy customer, or even a nice lover? Is the failure of snap judgment is too mundane to be brought out to the table? But since the book itself entitled “The power of thinking without thinking”, this kind of contra doesn't adequately stand as the deal-breaker of the book.

 

3.       CONCLUSION

Reading sure brings you enlightenment, but it won’t immediately leads you to (anywhere near) become a whole new person overnight. Reading provides new windows of various perspectives. It trains you to see things through different points of view. Help you to get the right gut about plausible reasons why certain situations could happen. But we couldn’t suddenly become ingenious shrewd person simply just from reading a book.

So don’t make an expectation of suddenly having a sharp instinct, the hunch power by reading the book. There’s a lot to be done to get the hunch, to have the ability that drives your mind thinking below the surface, to make a precise snap judgment in the blink of an eye.

Malcolm not explicitly describes how to make thin slicing or snap judgment in BLINK. But I personally think that the first step to thinking without thinking is....... TO THINK, TO STUDY.

 

1.       Every single person mentioned in this book as a successful example of snap judgment is pro out of pro. Initially, they’ve built a profound understanding in their field of knowledge.

 

Adalah orang2 provesional yang ilmunya udah ngendep banget, ngelotok tok tok, jadi otomatis sudah construct ilmunya dengan kokoh in both concious and unconcious mind of them.

 

Almost feels like, as if Gladwell said, “Be a pro! Build knowledge, experiences, and skills in a certain area. Then you could be the one who bestowed the BLINK power.”

 

2.       Fortunately, we see no deadlock. A layperson can also make a precise snap judgment if they’re being mentored by professionals. Look for someone professional to be asked for suggestions about what aspect requires detail attention. What element do I have to emphasize while deconstructing some cases?

 

As exemplified in chapter one of BLINK about the Gottman research. By watching the video contains a couple conversations about trivial things in their marriage life, Gottman asked nonexpert about the possibility of couple getting a divorce. Just 53,8% of the whole group guessed right. After given a list of emotions to look for, the observer's ratings predicted with better than 80% accuracy which marriage were going to make it.

 

Quite a huge distinction scored by the presence of a mentor, right?

               

                My thought about this book is just my own personal opinion. The whole experience could be totally different from yours. But, I have to say that I definitely enjoy reading this book. YAY!

At the end of this review lemme take some encouraging quotes from this book

       “Our unconscious thinking is, the one critical respect, no different from our conscious thinking, in both, we are able to develop our rapid decision making by training and experience” pp242

        “Our unconscious reactions come out of a locked room, and we can’t look inside that room. But with experience, we become expert at using our behavior and our training to interpret – and decode- what lies behind our snap judgments and first impression”

        “The power of knowing, in the first two seconds, is not a given magically to a fortunate few. It is an ability that we can all cultivate for ourselves.”

 

With pleasure

 

Choirin