Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Genre: non fiction
Malcolm Gladwell’s book is all
about the decisions we make in the blink of an eye and the good and the bad
that follows from it. Through the book, the author is trying to make us more
aware of how we make snap decisions and depending on the situation at hand, it
can be good or bad.
The book starts out by giving
examples of how we make two very different kinds of decisions- one, which are
arrived at after rational and much deliberation and others that happen
unconsciously and by a way that we are unaware of. He then goes on to explain
that snap decisions are mostly arrived by way of ‘thin-slicing’- picking up
snippets of important information. This sort of thing helps in making up our
mind if we like a person or not. This unconscious thinking can also lead to
biases in choices that we think we are making rationally. Gladwell shows how
this can have far reaching implications with the example from sales where
biases can lead to loss of potentially good customers. He then highlights many
more examples where biases and spontaneous decision making play important role;
with examples from fields as varied as military, medicine, selection of a
presidential candidate and, market research. In the end, he explains how one
can actually train the parts of the brain involved in quick decisions in being
more accurate. For example, this part is very efficient in reading emotions and
thoughts of others from their facial expressions but gets impaired during high
stress situations. With training, it can function under stressful conditions as
well, a skill required by police officers.
I have read two other books by
the same author and this one blew my mind away as well. The main points that
make his books so amazing is the engaging way of writing, the plethora of
examples used to prove a point and the amazing amount of research done on a particular
subject. The book over all has an easy flow with lots of interesting stories
interspersed to keep the reader interested. One always comes to the end with
some profound realisations.
If you are a fan of Gladwell’s
books as am I, you will not be disappointed! If you are not, then this book has
a potential to turn you into one!
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