In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within.
Blink is
a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to
be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren't as
simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers,
while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their
instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our
brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and
in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are
impossible to explain to others?
In Blink we
meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage
will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis
coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even
makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a
fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election
of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by
police.
Blink reveals
that great decision makers aren't those who process the most
information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have
perfected the art of "thin-slicing"-filtering the very few factors that
matter from an overwhelming number of variables.
