Malcolm Gladwell in Blink -- Talkative Bore?

Man is a Pattern Maker and a Pattern Seeker. Pattern Seeking happens when we prejudge people on the basis of their dress, appearance or voice. This is the subject of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I am not much impressed by the author’s style which is more like the pseudo-research articles featured in “Readers Digest” than anything else.

No doubt, a conversational style is a great advantage but when it is devoid of meaningful conclusions, we end up not knowing what make of the whole thing. It is like listening to a well-read but talkative friend who is fascinating at times but often threatens to become a bore.

The Gyan that I could eke out of this “best-seller is as follows:

a) We make snap judgments based on first impressions.

b) The brain is a able to process all the inputs quickly and deliver conclusions much before Logical analysis based on thinking does. This is called thin slicing which is deriving deep conclusions by studying the object or situation for a very small period of time. “Experts” and Professionals” like food tasters, art experts, coaches and lawyers thin slice a lot as they have trained themselves to do this. They are right but don’t know why.

c) Non-Experts (read you and I) are not good at this as we arrive at wrong conclusions based on the experience of the first two minutes. (So blind testing of Coke and Pepsi can never give conclusive evidence on taste because real consumers don’t drink blindfold. They are exposed to visual signals like design of bottle, colour texture etc., But isn’t this old stuff?)

d) Our eyes often lie (Wow, how original!) We should be willing to discount the prejudices based on first impressions by learning to use and trust inputs through all the sense-organs.

These simple (Obvious?) truths are elaborately explained using numerous examples from real life.