Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

The Power of Thinking without Thinking

I found this book about the power of intuition fascinating. Essentially the idea is that when we develop expertise and intuition in a certain area, our intuition can become a more reliable guide than what we end up with by using our analytical thinking. The trick is to know when to trust our snap judgements, and when they are likely to lead us astray or bias us in some way. Often we are quite unaware of our biases and unless we’re aware of when they’re operating, we go along thinking that we’re making objective choices when really we’re not.

Although it’s tangential to the main theme, one of the most interesting insights I got from this book was in the section on spontaneity where the author talked about the golden rule of improvised comedy: characters accept everything that happens to them. They accept whatever other characters tell them and go along with it without resisting. When I started applying this principle to my own life, I found that interactions with other people went more smoothly. Rather than being defensive when I sensed some sort of criticism from someone else, I’d just go along with it, let it slide, or return a playful tease instead of trying to justify myself. Like improvised comedy, life goes more smoothly when we accept, rather than resist, what happens to us. Easier said than done of course, but the first step is the mindset shift from we-must-be-right-and-in-control to let-it-flow. Other people aren’t interested in our “reasons” anyway; they just sound more like excuses.

The other point of Blink is that being overly introspective or analytical about things stops us actually being in touch with our feelings, our intuition, and ultimately what’s going on in life around us. I think this is an interesting book, well worth a read.