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A review by davemeister28
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
3.0
I consider Blink to be a sort of "food for thought" book. It's approachable and easy to read (or listen to), and it introduces plenty of concepts and ideas that are fun to think about, and might even provide some practical guidance and insight into one's life. Take, for example, the concept of implicit bias.
Implicit bias is mentioned by that name only once in Blink, but the concept is discussed at length. It is the phenomenon of one having prejudgments and preconceptions that are beyond the realm of conscious thought--so far beyond that one's active conscience can contradict them. For example, someone might hold the strong belief that they are unbiased about people of a certain race or religion, yet upon inspection, that person's behavior says otherwise: says that they discriminate based on wider, society-driven preconceptions. There is a bias in this person (that is, in every person--we all have implicit bias), and the bias is so unconscious that one doesn't even realize it's there. The food for thought is, if implicit bias exists, what can we do to counteract this and regain conscious control of our biases?
Blink covers several other areas that are hidden "behind the locked door" of our brain's quick-acting logic system: instinctual "gut feelings," the ability to "mind read" (to know what someone is thinking/feeling just by looking at their face), and an expert's ability to spot a counterfeit piece of fine art but not be able to explain in words why it is fake. All of these things are very neat concepts to be aware of. The book does a good job introducing these concepts to readers.
But Blink falls flat for me in a couple areas. First, although the concepts are interesting, in many cases Gladwell leaves it to the reader to take the next step in applying what to do about these things. They are just "neat things" that it's nice to be aware of. How do we fight implicit bias or train ourselves to know when a gut feeling is the right feeling or not? The only way, I suppose, is to be aware of such phenomena and take things with a grain of salt sometimes. Gladwell doesn't really provide answers. It's worth noting that perhaps there are no answers, or the answers must be come upon through personal reflection. But it would have been nice to hear more of Gladwell's research on this.
Which brings me to research. I "read" the audio version of Blink and so didn't have any reference information in front of me, but none was mentioned. No footnotes, no "further reading," no references at all. They might be there in the text version, but I have to proceed with the assumption that they aren't there. Was the book lightly researched, or very rigorous? Long story short, I've got to take what Gladwell is saying at face value, and/or with a grain of salt. Hence why I consider this more "food for thought" than "self-help"/more serious material.
I did like the book--it was interesting. My last peeve is that it's a bit scattered; I feel like it could have been more focused, or the topics could have been tied together better into the grand thesis put forth. But in any case there is value and entertainment in reading this book. It simply feels like an introduction to the topics, an invitation for a motivated reader to dive deeper into these ideas on their own.
I'd recommend Blink for just about anyone, but with the caveat that one should treat it as a jumping-off point rather than gospel.
Implicit bias is mentioned by that name only once in Blink, but the concept is discussed at length. It is the phenomenon of one having prejudgments and preconceptions that are beyond the realm of conscious thought--so far beyond that one's active conscience can contradict them. For example, someone might hold the strong belief that they are unbiased about people of a certain race or religion, yet upon inspection, that person's behavior says otherwise: says that they discriminate based on wider, society-driven preconceptions. There is a bias in this person (that is, in every person--we all have implicit bias), and the bias is so unconscious that one doesn't even realize it's there. The food for thought is, if implicit bias exists, what can we do to counteract this and regain conscious control of our biases?
Blink covers several other areas that are hidden "behind the locked door" of our brain's quick-acting logic system: instinctual "gut feelings," the ability to "mind read" (to know what someone is thinking/feeling just by looking at their face), and an expert's ability to spot a counterfeit piece of fine art but not be able to explain in words why it is fake. All of these things are very neat concepts to be aware of. The book does a good job introducing these concepts to readers.
But Blink falls flat for me in a couple areas. First, although the concepts are interesting, in many cases Gladwell leaves it to the reader to take the next step in applying what to do about these things. They are just "neat things" that it's nice to be aware of. How do we fight implicit bias or train ourselves to know when a gut feeling is the right feeling or not? The only way, I suppose, is to be aware of such phenomena and take things with a grain of salt sometimes. Gladwell doesn't really provide answers. It's worth noting that perhaps there are no answers, or the answers must be come upon through personal reflection. But it would have been nice to hear more of Gladwell's research on this.
Which brings me to research. I "read" the audio version of Blink and so didn't have any reference information in front of me, but none was mentioned. No footnotes, no "further reading," no references at all. They might be there in the text version, but I have to proceed with the assumption that they aren't there. Was the book lightly researched, or very rigorous? Long story short, I've got to take what Gladwell is saying at face value, and/or with a grain of salt. Hence why I consider this more "food for thought" than "self-help"/more serious material.
I did like the book--it was interesting. My last peeve is that it's a bit scattered; I feel like it could have been more focused, or the topics could have been tied together better into the grand thesis put forth. But in any case there is value and entertainment in reading this book. It simply feels like an introduction to the topics, an invitation for a motivated reader to dive deeper into these ideas on their own.
I'd recommend Blink for just about anyone, but with the caveat that one should treat it as a jumping-off point rather than gospel.