Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell

Apr 2006 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Malcolm Gladwell

About this audiobook

From the #1 bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia, the landmark book that has revolutionized the way we understand leadership and decision making. In his breakthrough bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant--in the blink of an eye--that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work--in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing"--filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Ratings and reviews

This book has a very little scientific information. Iy has a lot of interesting stories that I enjoyed to listed, however the author didn't come up with any system or general approach. I listened this book right after "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman which I enjoyed a lot. Kahneman referenced this book and I was think it should be as good as Kahneman book, but it was not.

I paid for this and keep getting a sample on my computer. I can not go any further than their sample. What a rip off. The worst is there is no contact information for this error. don't buy if you can not get it

This is without a doubt one of the most eye-opening books I have indulged in. I immediately was drawn in by the story of the statue and my interest only grew as the book progressed. Gladwell is brilliant in the way he uses studies to form his ideas. My biggest takeaways: 1) Paralysis by analysis is more common and even worse than we may think. 2) We all at times can become temporarily blind to others' thought. 3) Trust your gut, but also don't. Know when to "blink" and when to think it through.

About the author

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer at TheNew Yorker since 1996. He is the host of the podcast Revisionist History and the author of The Tipping Point, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw. Prior to joining The New Yorker, he was a reporter at the Washington Post. Gladwell was born in England and grew up in rural Ontario. He now lives in New York.