Saturday, January 15, 2005

The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > 'Blink': Hunch Power

The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > 'Blink': Hunch Power: "There is in all of our brains, Gladwell argues, a mighty backstage process, which works its will subconsciously. Through this process we have the capacity to sift huge amounts of information, blend data, isolate telling details and come to astonishingly rapid conclusions, even in the first two seconds of seeing something. '' 'Blink' is a book about those first two seconds,'' Gladwell writes.
Well, I'm impressed. Here we have a guy who has already written one of the best and most successful nonfiction books of the past few years, the ubiquitous ''Tipping Point.'' He's the author of dozens of unfailingly fascinating articles in The New Yorker. And he's opened his new book with a crisp anecdote that suggests each of us possesses a hidden power, which we could use to improve our lives if only we knew how to tap it more fully. That's the essential formula for self-help-book greatness.
...
If you want to trust my snap judgment, buy this book: you'll be delighted. If you want to trust my more reflective second judgment, buy it: you'll be delighted but frustrated, troubled and left wanting more.
Or just go to the bookstore, look at the cover and let your neurons make up their own damn mind. "

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