Blink

Blink is an amazing book. Totally unput-downable. Finished reading it in about a day. It talks about the amazing ability that we have in thin-slicing something. Thin-slicing is a judgement process that occurs in a blink of an eye (hence, the book title). For example, when I first laid eyes on the book, I wanted to read it. I did not look beyond the book cover. I didn’t even know who Malcolm Gladwell (the author) was. But I knew that I wanted to read it.

Experience told me that I cannot judge a book by its cover. And so I deferred buying it until I could find more data to support my purchase decision. The day finally came when I bought it. I must confess that my decision to buy it was also heavily influenced by the “3 books for the price of 2″ promotion that Borders was having.

The other reason I got the book was because I considered myself to be an intuitive and gut-feel type of person. I wanted to read of cases where people made intuitive judgements and the principles that they abide by. This book talks about such cases and more. It also explores the benefits and perils of making snap judgements. The beauty of thin-slicing shines when we are not swamped by a lot of unneccessary details and we or someone else had already invested hours and hours of building up expertise in that area and make it available for others to tap on their expertise.

Things like making very accurate guestimates of which marriages would survive or end in divorce fifteen years down the road, which doctor would most likely be slapped by a lawsuit, the power of association that is hard to break free from, reading people’s minds through their facial expressions, etc are also discussed in this book.

I put the last bit into practice this morning when I went to a church in Klang with bezzie. Malcolm Gladwell stated that experts believe that our facial expressions will betray our inner thoughts and emotions. No matter how cleverly we conceal it, it will show – even if only for a fraction of a second.

The pastor in the church who was speaking had this type of facial expression – his brows were furrowed, his eyes glazed in a haze and his lips were clenched periodically. I interpreted that he was stressed out. So subconsciously, I set out to gather more data through the tone of his voice, the content of his message. His voice was booming and his hands were gesturing animatedly. Well, most good speakers do that. They know that a monotonous voice and passive stance on stage would put the audience to sleep – Christians or not. So, this data was irrelevant.

Next, I noted that the things that he said had no bitter edge nor a sense of striving or stress behind them. He was sharing the experiences he had with the Holy Spirit in a warm, humble and candid manner. There was a sense of joy in the way he described things.

But he still had that stressed look about him throughout the sermon. I couldn’t put a finger on why. Until he shared that it was by the grace of God that he could stand to preach today. He had been experiencing severe back pain of late. The moment he sits down, the back pain comes. But when he stands and preaches the Word of God, the pain goes.

And then, my question was answered. In two seconds, I had an inkling that something was wrong. But it was only after 50 minutes that I knew why or at least part of why he had a strange look upon his face.

Gladwell, the author of Blink also talked about the wisdom of deferring judgement until more relevant data can be gathered. A whole lot of data is not valuable if none of it is relevant. In fact, too much data can be a deterrent to make good decisions because we can get lost and overwhelmed in the details.

To find out more about this ‘power of thinking without thinking’, get this book. It is brilliantly written and very engaging indeed. I highly recommend it.

p.s: And yes, in case you are wondering, I was paying attention to the sermon :) I was ministered to very much by the pastor’s timely message. We are made so wonderfully – our sensors are picking up clues about someone so subconciously that we do not even need to think about it.

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