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Blink - the power of thinking without thinking

A few months ago, one of the Directors at work and I were having a discussion about this book, Blink. The premise is that we (as humans) make decisions within seconds, and sometimes microseconds, that are scarily accurate. We then tend to do one of two things:
*Ignore that ‘thin-slice’ (as the author calls it) of information and go on to talk and second guess and make mistakes
*Go with the snap decision because we have either learned to trust our instincts or because our psyche forces us to do so

To me it is a very personal book. I do this every day in a million ways. I’ve never been a fan of meeting about having meetings or debating something endlessly. I’d rather go with my gut and take a chance than to sit and ponder and over think things. In fact, looking back at my life, I would say that some of the stupidest and most tragic things I’ve ever done have been because I didn’t trust my initial thoughts and ended up going over scenarios endlessly in my own crazy brain.
But, at the same time, some of the best things to ever happen to me have happened because there was a real and visceral reaction to a situation that I followed.

Anyway, enough about me and my lunacy. Back to the book itself: I found it to be astoundingly accurate. There are so many things about it that stand out for me, but foremost are these:

*The Harding Error - it’s one of the most frustrating things I have ever known, put into words. Seeing the most lackluster and inept succeed because they fit an image or have a deep, reassuring voice. It’s infuriating to see people gloss over important things in order to achieve the politically correct or short term solution. The ‘Harding Error’ is based on the fact that President Harding was elected only because of his looks and vocal styling. He was an empty shirt, but achieved the greatest office in the land…the first of several men to do so, I might add.

*The autism example - VERY fascinating. The curse/ability to block out all emotion and evaluate a situation on its merit instead of the heat or passion of the situation. The example of the autistic man who would always seek out the light switch when in a room, in order to orient himself to a place or situation, is a little odd for me. Not something I want to divulge now, but I have a similar habit. The story behind this one is that people with autism see all situations as a collection of objects (not people as individuals, but as man/woman/chair/wall)…the man is shown a movie and small cameras watch where his eyes follow the screen. In every emotionally charged scene, the man ignored the characters and focused on their surroundings.

*The war games scenario - when the Marine vet plays the ‘red’ leader and outsmarts the ‘blue’ team in a big time war game by simply ignoring conventional wisdom and what is perceived to be most important (the more info, the better). That ties into the Cook County ER example, whereby sometimes too much information leads to either a bad decision or a decision that is inherently flawed by debate and conjecture.

I tend to react to things these days quickly and with some passion…what seems like anger or emotion is actually my gut telling me to speak out. Ten years ago I would have been prone to excuse that as being brash and cocky, but today I almost feel like one of the people used as an example in that book. I have experience that’s been gathered in some unusual circumstances that have taught me how to read people and situations quickly and accurately.

Forgive the profanity, but I’ve been told in different terms over the years that I have what an old boss from the dotcom days called an ‘excellent bullshit detector’. It’s only been in the past 5/6 years or so that I’ve gotten to the point where the detection led to the revealing of said BS. I’m sure it doesn’t endear me to many people, but the way I see it, my ability to get things done effectively is a leveler of sorts. Or at least I hope so.

Again, enough of my thoughts. If you’ve ever wondered what makes you tick (or doesn’t), then pick up a copy of Blink. It’s less than $20 and is out in paperback on April 1st. Here, have a link: