Blink

I just finished reading Blink. As the front cover states, the book is about the "power of thinking without thinking". It talks about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye when we see or do something for the very first time. For the author, it is about those two seconds where your mind reaches instant conclusions that are the most powerful and most important of all.

Most of us would disagree and think it is not rational to reach a definite decision that fast about something without gathering enough facts first. We always want to sort out all the information that we can get and spend so much time on deliberating before we actually act and decide on a certain matter. And as what the author has pointed out, we end up making inaccurate and ineffective decisions because of the overload in information. He suggests that we do thin slicing-gather less information and zero in on the critical pieces. That way we become more effective.

For someone like me who always makes it a point to consult the facts book first and yet still usually ends up making (or guessing?) sablay na first impressions on people and situations, I should start considering the author's advice and listen more to what my snap judgments are telling me. Let's see if I can make a better sense out of each situation (and people) once I start considering the first two seconds.