| Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking |  | Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy Used: £1.95
as of 31/7/2010 21:33 UTC details
You Save: £8.04 (80%)
In Stock
New (27) from £3.84
Seller: kt_mackay
Rating:  109 reviews
Sales Rank: 528
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0141014598
EAN: 9780141014593
Publication Date: February 23, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | New | | • | Mint Condition | | • | Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon | | • | Guaranteed packaging | | • | No quibbles returns |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Intuition is not some magical property that arises unbidden from the depths of our mind. This book shows us how we can hone our instinctive ability to know in an instant, helping us to bring out the best in our thinking and become better decision-makers in our homes, offices and in everyday life.
Amazon.co.uk
: For Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling The Tipping Point explores the extraordinarily perceptive and deceptive power of the sub-conscious mind. Gladwell's major claim is that decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as a decision made cautiously and deliberately. What we are actually doing is what Gladwell calls `thin-slicing'. When we leap to a decision or have a hunch our unconscious is sifting through the situation in front of us looking for a pattern, throwing out the irrelevant information and zeroing in on what really matters. Our unconscious mind is so good at this that it often delivers a better answer than more deliberate and protracted ways of thinking. Much of this is utterly mysterious but some of the most astonishing and useful examples of thin-slicing can be learned. Gladwell hopes to convince us that our snap judgements and first impressions can be educated and controlled so instead of merely praising the mysterious process of instinct and intuition he is interested in those moments when our instincts betray us, the situations where our powers of rapid cognition can go awry, where we fail to read the signs. Most disturbing of all is the degree to which culturally determined preconceptions and prejudices control us. Without reducing matters to racism and sexism Gladwell shows us that there are facts about people's appearance—their size or shape or color or sex—that can trigger a very similar set of powerful associations which explains why utter mediocrities (such as U.S. President Warren Harding) can sometimes end up in positions of enormous responsibility; or why tall people earn substantially more than their shorter colleagues; or why car salesmen unconsciously charge prices according to race and gender. Gladwell's conversational prose style is concise, informative, accessible and entertaining. The stories, scientific findings and psychological tests are consistently surprising whether he is dealing with speed-dating, record promotions, police shoot-outs, the human face, or the reasons doctors get sued. --Larry Brown END
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 109
 Malcolm is more confused than i am July 2, 2010
Hekuran Kokaj (london, uk)
in this dynamic fast paced world reading this book would be a waste of time. i believe it was written for monetary gain exclusively. you'd be much better off reading something useful which would enrich your intellect. im a few £££ poorer and Malcolm is a lot richer so it is a poor exchange for me lol.
 paradoxically both underrated and overrated. How so? June 16, 2010
Mr Fipple (Cheshire, UK)
Had I read the preceding mixed reviews upon BLINK I think it unlikely I would have proceeded to buy it or read it. As it happened I chanced upon it.
Students of psychology are going to find BLINK a little lightweight upon psychological theory. Likewise anyone with an above average casual interest in such matters.
However BLINK is a well crafted piece of fairly popularist writing on an expansive subject. Rather like economists who seem to have difficulty reaching satisfactory consensus particularly when it comes to foreseeing market catastrophe, so psychologists seem, to a layperson, to have difficulty attaining satisfactory resolution of divergent opinion and also in explaining real-world events. I found BLINK highly readable, entertaining and not at all demanding. I found it a little light upon propositions, but I found that the propositions that are presented amounted to some profundity.
'Thin-slicing' is illustrated very clearly. It is a notion of when intuition can serve well. there are suggestions how the capacity to 'thin-slice' can be cultivated.
Some years ago a relatives' facial expression had betrayed less than charitable thoughts about a fellow loved and I had been uncomfortable about that event since. I had not been so aware of my own intuition but after reading Gladwell it is easier to recognise I had read someones thoughts; I should trust that reading, and I can now rationalise the discomfiture that micro-event caused.
I concede to the detractors opinions that the vignettes, well written as they are, constitute repetition of examples to illustrate the sparse propositions that Gladwell puts forward. However, there my concessions end, for it is the repetition that underscores the profundity. It is as if Gladwell is apologetic for stating something fairly simple, for stating the obvious if you like, but then points out how common it is that the obvious is overlooked.
Gladwell illustrates a simple facet of human nature which is hugely variable, but convincingly shows how vagaries of individual thought and decision making transpose to major societal traits and events. In this BLINK has degrees of commonality with Chaos theory and the butterfly effect. What is often classified as social science is really the attempt to explain the consequence of the aggregate of millions of individual decisions, and not all of them rational.
Decision making is getting more complicated. Information overloads knowledge. We are increasingly ruled over by committees who wallow in information gathering but frequently fail to deliver much needed decisiveness. In lifting the fog over the misty and overlooked distinction between information and knowledge Gladwell presents a pertinent point; the two are not the same and should not be confused.
The Cooks County account (pp125-141) most resonated with me. My curiosity is why 'nanny' cannot provide an optimal health service without an escalating financial burden upon the state. Dr C Martyn, contributing and editorial to the BMJ (British Medical Journal), 5 June 2010, ponders a similar question. The likely valid explanation(s)Dr Martyn is seeking is almost certainly multi-factorial, but I cannot help thinking that a grasp of Gladells' propositions, neatly packaged in BLINK, could help advance comprehension to a partial explanation.
Gladwells principle assertion is that for all that we live in an information age sometimes an overdose of detail can be detrimental and broad brush strokes are all that are needed. So Gladwell adopts his own prescription for the writing of BLINK. To dismiss it as lightweight is missing the point. Gladwell has 'thin-sliced' important sociological challenges for our attention but he draws upon extensive research, knowledge and experience to be able to do that.
According to Professor David Harvey, in the 'Enigma of Capital', economists became embroiled (amongst other things)in the beauty and complexity of mathematical computer micro-economic modeling. After six months of pondering the question set by HM Queen, they replied in writing that they had '(collectively) lost sight of systemic risks.' Were they too enchanted by complexity and detail to step back and review an image in broad brush stokes and were not the consequences calamitous?
Decisions based on information have consequence. Decisions based upon false information (to that also tag; false dogmatic premise, subconscious bias, or superfluous detail) can have disastrous consequences.
This reviewer is moved to read more of Gladwell ... ... and periodically I shall trip to the library to access the BMJ.
 it didn't deliver June 10, 2010
Sergio Pisanu
after a promising start in the first couple of chapters the book lost itself in a labyrinth of examples and case studies. In short, the book is incomplete, the author hovers over the main subject and never really delivers what he promises. it is well written and the examples are interesting, though at times hardly relevant to the main theme. Overall, disappointing
 thought provoking June 6, 2010
Kurt Decoene (Gent - Belgium)
This is one of those books which gives you what the Germans call an 'aha erlebnis'.
This is not a scientific publication and it shouldn't be read as one. But to me this
book was an eye-opener and it does give me what I think is a plausible explanation
for strange skills and abilities that I have noticed not only in myself but also in
others.
I think the writer of this book makes a number of very valid observations which
warrant further in-depth scientific research and I'll certainly have a look at his
other books... In any case I will be on the look-out for other publications about
this subject.
Fascinating Light Read May 19, 2010
Brian Carney (UK)
Fascinating book by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of 'The Tipping Point'. Gladwell provides lots of practical examples to demonstrate how our 'intuition' can be based upon a micro analysis of what we experience, evaluated against a historic sub conscious historic database - all enabling us to draw 'logical' conclusions which are outside the scope of our conscious mind. This comprehensive and almost instantaneous analysis by our sub conscious mind can be much more reliable than our detailed and protracted conscious analysis, which can suffer from data overload.............But only to a point! Our subconscious mind can also play tricks, particularly where our historic database is skewed, when we are stressed etc. The book makes you think when you should rely on your subconscious 'intuition' and when you should look to a more conventional conscious analysis. If you are looking for a comprehensive, technical analysis, this probably isn't for you. If you want an interesting light read for the plane or beach I would recommend it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 109
| In Stock
|
|
|
DISCLAIMER: This is an Amazon storefront - the products referenced on this site are manufactured and sold by parties other than NaturalBreastEnhancement.org.uk
and its affiliates. Any questions, complaints, or claims regarding the products must be directed to the appropriate manufacturer, vendor or to Amazon.co.uk. |
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.à.r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
Powered by Natural Breast Enhancement
In Association with Amazon.co.uk | |
