Blink The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Gladwell, Malcolm

• ISBN13: 9780316011785
• ISBN10: 0316011789
• Edition: Large
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-01-11
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
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Summary

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.

Author Biography

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer at TheNew Yorker since 1996. He is the host of the podcast Revisionist History and the author of The Tipping Point, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw. Prior to joining The New Yorker, he was a reporter at the Washington Post. Gladwell was born in England and grew up in rural Ontario. He now lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Statue That Didn't Look Right	3	(26)
The Theory of Thin Slices: How a Little Bit of Knowledge Goes a Long Way	29	(52)
The Locked Door: The Secret Life of Snap Decisions	81	(42)
The Warren Harding Error: Why We Fall For Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men	123	(46)
Paul Van Riper's Big Victory: Creating Structure for Spontaneity	169	(84)
Kenna's Dilemma: The Right--And Wrong--Way To Ask People What They Want	253	(74)
Seven Seconds in the Bronx: The Delicate Art of Mind-Reading	327	(100)
Conclusion Listening With Your Eyes: The Lessons of Blink	427	(18)
Notes	445	(20)
Acknowledgments	465