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trash_candra's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
What Blink lacks in solid points it makes up for in recounting a bunch of interesting studies and stories. The actual thesis of the book is wishy washy, but I think it's that people make really quick snap judgements that can be incredibly useful, especially when you're experienced, but those snap judgements are very biased.
I don't usually use pro and con lists, but I feel it's the best way to summarize all the stuff happening in this book
Pros:
-The book is very light and readable
-The historical examples of snap judgements were entertaining and informative
-It clearly defines the terms it uses throughout the book so there weren't any parts that were confusing or jargon
-Malcolm Gladwell is a very engaging narrator
Cons:
-The central point of the book is unclear
-The book is pretty light on meaningful analysis
-There's a single chapter that gets REALLY ableist Spoilerrefers to police officers unjustly shooting innocent people as experiencing "temporary autism"
-The narrator themself seems to flip-flip on what their opinion is
-The book loves telling stories, but sometimes it just casually references a historical event or story without describing it or how it relates to the overall meaning (such as Rodney King and Gladwell's previous books)
I don't usually use pro and con lists, but I feel it's the best way to summarize all the stuff happening in this book
Pros:
-The book is very light and readable
-The historical examples of snap judgements were entertaining and informative
-It clearly defines the terms it uses throughout the book so there weren't any parts that were confusing or jargon
-Malcolm Gladwell is a very engaging narrator
Cons:
-The central point of the book is unclear
-The book is pretty light on meaningful analysis
-There's a single chapter that gets REALLY ableist Spoilerrefers to police officers unjustly shooting innocent people as experiencing "temporary autism"
-The narrator themself seems to flip-flip on what their opinion is
-The book loves telling stories, but sometimes it just casually references a historical event or story without describing it or how it relates to the overall meaning (such as Rodney King and Gladwell's previous books)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism and Police brutality
bugsybugs's review
fast-paced
0.5
This is my first review ever on Storygraph, and I wish it was a positive one. This book was okay-ish until towards the end, when it became obviously ridiculous and ableist.
The author decided to use one autistic man to draw conclusions about all autistic people being "mind-blind". He then goes on to say police who killed an innocent man were "temporarily autistic" because they didn't bother to read the man's facial expressions before shooting him. Appalling.
If you must read this book then don't read those chapters. Misinformation about autistic people shaped to fit the author's own conclusions, that uninformed people might take as fact. Un-scientific and laughable!
Drastic leaps of logic and sweeping generalistions throughout are disguised with an engaging writing style, but don't hold up with close scrutiny. The author uses many examples in a haphazard structure, which leaves a jumbled impression.
There are some interesting points made, but the evidence seems unclear when you consider all the examples contradicting his own thesis. Even if you discount the completely unnecessary and wrongly-chosen autism example, the message of the book could have been made more legible.
In general I do not recommend this book, especially if you don't know anything about autism and won't be able to take a critical eye to that chapter. Don't absorb this author's misunderstanding as objective truth, and save yourself a couple hours of your life.
The author decided to use one autistic man to draw conclusions about all autistic people being "mind-blind". He then goes on to say police who killed an innocent man were "temporarily autistic" because they didn't bother to read the man's facial expressions before shooting him. Appalling.
If you must read this book then don't read those chapters. Misinformation about autistic people shaped to fit the author's own conclusions, that uninformed people might take as fact. Un-scientific and laughable!
Drastic leaps of logic and sweeping generalistions throughout are disguised with an engaging writing style, but don't hold up with close scrutiny. The author uses many examples in a haphazard structure, which leaves a jumbled impression.
There are some interesting points made, but the evidence seems unclear when you consider all the examples contradicting his own thesis. Even if you discount the completely unnecessary and wrongly-chosen autism example, the message of the book could have been made more legible.
In general I do not recommend this book, especially if you don't know anything about autism and won't be able to take a critical eye to that chapter. Don't absorb this author's misunderstanding as objective truth, and save yourself a couple hours of your life.
Content Warnings
Minor: Police brutality, War, and Ableism
creationwing's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Interesting overall, but I wasn't a huge fan of the structure, and was a little bothered by the casual othering of autistic people.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality, Gun violence, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, and Racism
Minor: Medical trauma, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexism
matcha_cat's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, and Police brutality
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Death and Racism
katrinarose's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
On a surface level, I enjoyed this book. Tons of anecdotes on just about any topic, there’s something for everyone. These stories are interesting to discuss and I can see myself bringing them up in future conversations. However, I don’t feel like there’s a very cohesive argument. Sometimes snap judgements are good, sometimes they are bad. There’s lots of studies discussed but it seems like they’re just thrown in an individual curiosities not part of the whole book. There were several times I found myself wondering “now why has he been discussing this random thing for 10 minutes” and then there’s a weak connection to the thesis (which itself is weak).
I appreciated the unconscious racism discussion but I didn’t like how it led straight into apologizing police brutality. Yes, police officers face a lot of pressure in high-stress situations that causes their ability to make sound judgements break down, but let’s not ignore the fact that the police force in America attracts people who are racist and violent, and there are plenty of studies to show this.
Overall not a bad book but I feel like it missed out on another round of edits to make it more cohesive.
I appreciated the unconscious racism discussion but I didn’t like how it led straight into apologizing police brutality. Yes, police officers face a lot of pressure in high-stress situations that causes their ability to make sound judgements break down, but let’s not ignore the fact that the police force in America attracts people who are racist and violent, and there are plenty of studies to show this.
Overall not a bad book but I feel like it missed out on another round of edits to make it more cohesive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, and Sexism
lindsey_bear's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.5
I finished this entire book on a 3 hour flight! It’s rare that an informative non-fiction book can be so entertaining and easy to read for its duration. I never felt overwhelmed by statistics or descriptions of the research, but Gladwell nonetheless gave many examples backed by research and hard science. He has a humour and manner in his writing which makes you feel like you’re talking to a friend who just happens to be an intellectual. I always enjoy when he includes puzzles or exercises within the text for readers to try. The only reason for the .5 minus is his repeated concept of the “temporary autism” which I found a bit odd.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality
bstarn96's review
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality and War
sharknerd's review
0.5
I was gonna give the book 1.5 stars but, near the end, I read the sentence “Most police officers - well over 90 percent - go their whole career without ever firing at anyone, and those who do describe the experience as so unimaginably stressful that it seems reasonable to ask if firing a gun could be the kind of experience that could cause temporary autism” and had to lower the score 💀
The author seems like he only has a basic understanding of the concepts he is trying to teach others and reaches conclusions with little backing.
The author seems like he only has a basic understanding of the concepts he is trying to teach others and reaches conclusions with little backing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Police brutality
Moderate: Murder and Racism
stevia333k's review
slow-paced
1.0
it's only good for pop culture references. this book is white supremacist & ableist as all hell. Malcolm Gladwell is a windbag. highly recommend "a mind of its own" by Cordelia Fine over this book (it covers a lot more ground than this one & is a lot more helpful). Fine's book even gives more recommendations for preventing bigotry from entering the judgement process than this book.
Malcolm Gladwell doesn't understand how racism works. he doesn't understand the consequentialism of systems. he thinks the pronouns of the overton window is everyone/everybody which alienates people of different neurotypes such as autistic people & those whose brains have impaired regions for decision making (everyone/everybody pronouns is based on the myth that everyone has an organ called "common sense" instead of "common sense" being an ideology. Gladwell claims he's talking about science.)
so this book is apologia for police brutality when the pop culture was already aware that it was police brutality. this book compares supporting prejudice with developing algorithms for diagnosing people. due to this idea of prejudice is good & his desire to normalize it, he throws different neurotypes under the bus too. (The old ableist playbook of calling evil people disabled in order to not hold evil accountable.) point being, this book is neoliberal if not outright fascist trash.
he literally says that when cops are in a heightened state that they are "mind-blind". he reduces autism to "mind-blindness" when labels like "high functioning" imply a Spectrum. ...this could've been an argument for police abolition, but it wasn't. Therefore this sympathy for the devil bullshit is especially horrendous considering that cops murder autistic people.
so here's the list of topics for a jacky of all trades skillbox
- tone reading
- face reading (2022-1106-0858 PS: this turned out to be some Evo psych bullshit & body language is cultural instead of universal. It's upheld because forensic science is based on conviction rates instead of accuracy. The whole thing is fueled by appeal to authority & vertical models of ethics: https://youtu.be/Y0VQyEY-B2I )
- heart attack algorithm
- blind auditions.
- there's some more, but frankly, i suspect there's a wikipedia article for this sort of list.
seriously, compared to cordelia fine's book, this book is not information dense at all. it's a lot of fluff.
this might be good for cultural revolution types, as well as that other book i recommend over this book. this is because workplace culture being involved in sabotage plays into this. but again, if fascism involves mind trickery than Cordelia Fine's book is the superior book.
Malcolm Gladwell doesn't understand how racism works. he doesn't understand the consequentialism of systems. he thinks the pronouns of the overton window is everyone/everybody which alienates people of different neurotypes such as autistic people & those whose brains have impaired regions for decision making (everyone/everybody pronouns is based on the myth that everyone has an organ called "common sense" instead of "common sense" being an ideology. Gladwell claims he's talking about science.)
so this book is apologia for police brutality when the pop culture was already aware that it was police brutality. this book compares supporting prejudice with developing algorithms for diagnosing people. due to this idea of prejudice is good & his desire to normalize it, he throws different neurotypes under the bus too. (The old ableist playbook of calling evil people disabled in order to not hold evil accountable.) point being, this book is neoliberal if not outright fascist trash.
he literally says that when cops are in a heightened state that they are "mind-blind". he reduces autism to "mind-blindness" when labels like "high functioning" imply a Spectrum. ...this could've been an argument for police abolition, but it wasn't. Therefore this sympathy for the devil bullshit is especially horrendous considering that cops murder autistic people.
so here's the list of topics for a jacky of all trades skillbox
- tone reading
- face reading (2022-1106-0858 PS: this turned out to be some Evo psych bullshit & body language is cultural instead of universal. It's upheld because forensic science is based on conviction rates instead of accuracy. The whole thing is fueled by appeal to authority & vertical models of ethics: https://youtu.be/Y0VQyEY-B2I )
- heart attack algorithm
- blind auditions.
- there's some more, but frankly, i suspect there's a wikipedia article for this sort of list.
seriously, compared to cordelia fine's book, this book is not information dense at all. it's a lot of fluff.
this might be good for cultural revolution types, as well as that other book i recommend over this book. this is because workplace culture being involved in sabotage plays into this. but again, if fascism involves mind trickery than Cordelia Fine's book is the superior book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Misogyny
rochellefh's review
informative
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Police brutality