LOVED this book. I read "The Tipping Point" awhile ago and found both books equally fascinating. The short subject studies that the author uses are interesting, easy to follow, and compelling evidence of his "theory" or study in first impressions. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sociology, psychology, or who spends a lot of time interacting with people. You will learn how and when to trust your "gut feeling" or first impressions of people, situations, and products. A great read!

3.5 stars

n  This will be a fascinating book to talk about at book club tonight!n

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is in interesting look into the power of intuition and snap judgements. Malcolm Gladwell delves into the concept of thin-slicing, a concept on how our subconscious mind will make accurate decisions in the blink of an eye.

The book is filled with examples or case studies of this concept. I listened to this in audio format and liked how he's using those examples to show the concept of thin-slicing.

At the same time, there's unanswered questions in the book. I would have liked extra information on when to trust snap judgements on a situation or person vs not trusting first impressions due to lack of information that a person still hasn't seen or heard.
Gladwell really didn't get too much into how to do that.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting look into the psychology of decision-making and how our subconscious mind can shape our choices in either a positive or negative way.

I didn't learn much from this book that I did not already know. I am beginning to suspect that Malcolm Gladwell is not writing books that uncover valuable facts that we should know, but rather is writing books that restate facts we already know but in an interesting way.

I like his anecdotal stories very much which is why I finished the book - hoping for more stories. When he lays out the facts, though, his writing is no more interesting than any other scientific author.

So, in summary, what we have is a talented writer making certain scientific findings available to a much wider audience than usual. Bravo! However if you want to learn something new, this book or his previous effort, The Tipping Point, is not where to go to find it. I imagine, if I read it, I will find The Outliers, his latest effort, to be similarly constructed.

Blink's content is easily summarized. First impressions are often more accurate than conclusions arrived at after much study and analysis. Be careful, though, because first impressions can be troublesome because of people's prejudices. Got it in 254 pages. He does come up with an interesting term, "thin slicing", to describe the process of taking in a first impression. Maybe learning that term made reading the whole book worthwhile. Maybe.