Malcolm Gladwell, author of one of the best books I have ever read, OUTLIERS, I decided to dig into another one of his works hoping to get the same thrill but sadly BLINK is not as good. I would say its fair in my opinion. Malcolm describes blink as a moment when the body limits the flow of information to focus on a certain target goal. It is often referred to as rapid cognition and it takes place primarily in our subconscious. He begins by mentioning the infamous Getty kuoros, a good example how loads of information clouded experts into thinking the statue was real. Malcolm argues that the human mind is constantly processing in the background which he refers to as thin slicing. Thin slicing allows marriages experts to predict if a couple is going to end in divorce just by listening to a few minutes of them discussing a regular topic. Thin slicing allows music maestros to tell either an artist is bad or great just by listening to a few minutes of them play. Although thin slicing happens in our subconscious, Malcolm claim that we can train this ability. The subconscious is highly influenced by our surroundings and changing our surroundings will change the way our subconscious process. Cops often involved in high speed chases or gun fires often describes moments of extreme visual clarity, tunnel vision and diminished sound, this is how the body reacts to extreme stress and can either improve performance or render us useless. Famous athletes also describe similar scenarios during tight game moments.
Malcolm also mentions how this rapid cognitions can also blind us if our subconscious is not properly trained. He stresses that humans can sometimes fail to describe their choices and end up misinterpreting this rapid cognition. A famous example is how Pepsi was winning the blind test against Coca-Cola and how women in the 90s were prejudiced during musical auditions. The moment auditions were conducted behind screens the more diverse the orchestra world became. Malcolm concludes by mentioning how training our subconscious can improve the way police officers operate, the way bodyguards can perceive dangerous situations before they happen and prevent salesman from judging customers according their race or gender. This is a good read in general and can change the way you think about everyday issues like racism and gender biases. It helps you understand the people around you even better and how to make rational choices during times of extreme stress.
