Book Review: "Blink," The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

You may remember the book "The Tipping Point," which is the blockbuster best seller of Mr. Gladwell. In "Blink," Mr. Gladwell investigates how we really make decisions, as opposed to the way we think we make them. The book is stunning in that it forces one to review all the decisions in ones life, especially the major ones, and makes one wonder again at the choices and how they were made.

On a rational basis, we might think that we are like a youngster playing a computer battlefield game. Total information awareness is the key concept in these adventure games. The party that can array the best weapons and get the best information wins the game. The game of air supremacy. The game of business. The game of life.

So much for the theory. That is just NOT how decisions are made. When you think about the decisons you made as a teen at the sock hop, how long did it take to decide which of the girls you wanted to dance with, date,.... etc. How much data and time did you have to think it over? Do you know any more about how you made the decision today than you did then?

These decisions are made in a heartbeat. We need them to be made in a heartbeat. That't how fast the decisions need to be made when driving a car or in other areas of life. The book "Blink" explains when this decision making can be a good thing, and when it can be a bad thing.

At the onset of the Iraq war, there were two supreme battlefield comanders. Two presidents of large armies. One relied on total battlefield awareness and the best of computer systems. One did not. "Blink" reviews the two very different ways of decision making employed by these commanders. Turns out the outcome was very predictable.

"Blink" is a wonderful read. It is available at the Eager Free Public Library. It is also available in large print edition.