Friday, November 29, 2013

Book Review - Blink: The Power of Thinking without thinking

Blink: The Power of Thinking without thinking

Fascinating psychological stories/studies told the Malcolm Gladwell style and hence an interesting read. The power of information processing is all about thin-slicing (extraneous information to be discarded) an event and how our adaptive unconscious utilizes it brilliantly to provide us with valuable insights in real life situations. The author talks how great decision makers hone and trust their instincts to serve them in times of need and also when this impressive ability clearly fails both the experts and laymen. Particularly, how our biases influence this ability.

However, after a few chapters you do get a gist of the book and then it is just stories with the same message all over. The stories and the case studies cited are engaging and enthralling but somehow they do not appear to flow correctly. I got a the feeling that the author is going off tangent on many occasions for e.g the Coke vs Pepsi case, Silvan Tomkins and Paul Ekman story and Paul Ekman's FACS. These stories are very intriguing in itself but I felt the author could have talked a little less about it. Having said that this book is engaging and will keep you entertained.

Rating 3/5.

No comments: