"It's an intellectual adventure story..."

This weekend I read the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, former business and science reporter for the Washington Post and current staff writer for the New York Times. It's a difficult book to explain, but Gladwell sums it up nicely as a "book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in the blink of an eye." But of course that's a synopsis and there is a whole heck of a lot going on in those first two seconds our minds take to jump to a series of conclusions. So, more than anything, it's about those two seconds and the insane amount of information we can get from studying snap judgments and how, occasionally those judgments are really "powerful and good".

The book includes a great deal of science and psychology, of tests and studies and (for me what made the book really amazing) anecdotal accounts of every day people and situations reliving the first two seconds of their Blink moment. Statistical data and results of research is peppered throughout the book to provide interesting insight into those sometimes positive, sometimes negative unconscious associations we make. I loved this account regarding tall people...

"Not long ago, researchers who analyzed data from four large research studies that had followed thousands of people from birth to adulthood calculated that when corrected for such variables as age and gender and weight, an inch of height is worth $789 a year in salary. That means that a person who is six feet tall but otherwise identical to someone who is five foot five will make on average $5,525 more per year. As Timothy Judge, one of the authors of the height-salary study, points out, "If you take this over the course of a 30-year career and compound it, we're talking about a tall person enjoying literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of earnings advantage." Have you ever wondered why so many mediocre people find their way into positions of authority in companies and organizations? It's because when it comes to even the most important positions, our selection decisions are a good deal less rational than we think. We see a tall person and we swoon."

Blink also shares historical accounts and events illustrating remarkable examples of rapid cognition and how truly powerful they can be. The book begins with a story about a "statue that didn't look right" and how after months and months of research a museum purchased what they thought was a 2,000 year old kouros, "a statue of a nude male standing with his left leg forward and his arms at his side." However, when the world's foremost experts on Greek sculpture saw the statue their immediate reaction was of "intuitive repulsion" and "hope you can get your money back." Immediately upon seeing the sculpture in person these experts knew there was something wrong with the statue but couldn't necessarily identify what exactly. They just knew it "wasn't right." Remarkably, despite the scientific research and months of attorneys determining the authenticity of the statue, the first few moments for these experts was all they needed to determine the kouros was a fraud. And it was. This book is about the science behind how they knew.

My favorite chapter, however, has to be The Warren Harding Error, an account discussing the rise of one of our nations worst presidents and the "dark side" of rapid cognition. Warren Harding was our 29th president and the story of his rise to the oval office seemed to me timely in relation to our current political environment.

Harry Daugherty, a brilliant Ohio lawyer and lobbyist know for his "shrewd and insightful judge of character and political opportunity" was having his shoes shined in 1899. He was seated next to another man, a newspaper editor who was a week away from winning election to the Ohio state senate. That man was Warren Harding. "In that instant, as Daugherty sized up Harding, an idea came to him that would alter American history: Wouldn't that man make a great President?"

Unfortunately, Harding was not particularly intelligent, he never once distinguished himself, was vague and ambivalent towards matters of policy and "his speeches were once described as an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea." After being elected to the senate he missed important debates on women's suffrage and Prohibition - the big political issues at the time. He was stage managed by Daugherty and pushed by his wife to become the President and people just couldn't get over how much he looked like a presidential candidate.

"Many people who looked at Warren Harding saw how extraordinarily handsome and distinguished -looking he was and jumped to the immediate - and entirely unwarranted - conclusion that he was a man of courage and intelligence and integrity. They didn't dig below the surface. The way he looked carried so many powerful connotations that it stopped the normal process of thinking dead in its tracks."

Gladwell's Blink covers a lot of ground and at times is heavy for the eyelids and a tired brain. I certainly recommend reading it refreshed, or you might miss something. The book challenges readers to take a good, long look at snap judgments, decipher why and how they are made and determine how and when they can be altered or used for a greater good.

For me there's nothing better than a good book that makes you think and Blink is one of those that makes you think about thinking. Even better.