It's All About the Hair Blink
Back Bay Books
It has been awhile since I've reviewed any non-fiction on this blog and I'm finding it rather difficult to get this entry going. To paraphrase Malcolm Gladwell, Blink is an adventure story that explores the human ability to make judgements, draw conclusions, and rapidly understand situations all in about the same time as it takes you to bat your eyelashes.
Part psychology text, part sociological tract, Gladwell's work articulates the theory of rapid cognition -- that is, how the mind processes information without really "thinking" about it. During this journey, he asks his readers to consider some fundamental questions that could and probably should inform our own world views. What would happen if we took our instincts seriously? How would our world change if we, as Gladwell suggest, stopped looking at the horizon with our binoculars and focused our microscopes on our own decision making processes? If you are interested in a plausible, reasonable and well written response to either of those questions, then Blink is a book for you.
Oh, and just so you know, I think MG has replaced Bruce Campbell as my new pseudo-celebrity fixation. He's got a lot going for him -- he writes for The New Yorker, he's Canadian, and he's even been on Oprah. Impressive. Blink gets four rapid eye movements out of five.
