rblog

Author: Malcom Gladwell
Amazon info

The book covered many fascinating topics in psychology, perception, and brain studies - all of which are favorite topics of mine. In that sense, I enjoyed the book a great deal. However, for those looking for in-depth research, a well thought out theory, or a framework for making decisions, I believe you will be disappointed. I am looking forward to reading some of the references to get into more depth on selected topics and Gladwell does do a good job of making the book interesting and engaging. By the way, I think this is much better than "The Tipping Point" but some of the same flaws are evident - namely an anecdotal approach to "proof".

Recommended: For those who are interested in how people think, but who don't exect much in the way of concrete frameworks - more of an engaging overview on selected topics.

Since this classifies as a business book, we have the following detailed summary:

Introduction:
Getty Museum pays millions for a statue after exhaustive analysis. Others look at it and "know" at first glance that "something isn't right". Statue turns out to be a fake.

Chapter 1: The Theory of Thin Slices: How a Little Bit of Knowledge Goes a Long Way
Stories of people who can see the core issue almost immediately - although they have many years of experience. For example, John Gottman can watch a couple talk for 5 minutes and make a 75-80% accurate prediction of whether they will divorce or not. Originally he would watch couples, categories all their facial expressions into one of 20 categories, and use an algorithm that provided the results. But now he is so good at it, he just watches for the "Four Horsemen" of Contempt, Defensiveness, Stonewalling, and Criticism - where Contempt is the most important. Here is the idea of "Thin Slicing" - when Gottman watches couples, he knows that if he sees contempt (and he knows how to detect it), it looks very bad for the couple. Another observer might miss the small signs of contempt, but Gottman will see it. He has spent so much time watching couples that he can now do it very quickly. A key point here is that sometimes there are thin slices of data that are really all that matters. It's like knowing that someone will be a good programmer if they can juggle three balls.

Chapter 2: The Locked Door: The Secret Life of Snap Decisions
Whereas Gottman developed techniques that enable him to thin slice, other people can just do it. In fact, Gladwell claims that all people can just do it - and they may never know why. The first story is of Vic Braden who would watch tennis players and just know when they would double fault - but he could never figure out his own algorithm. This chapter covers a lot of brain reaction - how we can be primed to tend to react one way vs. another; how the brain will rationalize things that happen (described in more detail in other books covering split-brain patients); and in general, how poor people are at understanding their own snap judgements - even while the judgements may be fairly accurate.

Chapter 3: The Warren Harding Error: Why We Fall for Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men
There is a huge bias in America - and no one does anything about it. It is a bias against short men. This chapter describes this bias and other ways in which our snap judgement, our "Blink" leads us astray. Blink provides one tool in combating bias - which is to think about successful members of the group that you are biased against.

At this point the book moves way from "theory" to provide the stories of three people who "confronted the consequences of first impressions and snap judgements".

Chapter 4: Paul Van Riper's Big Victor: Creating Structure for Spontaneity
Scenario here is an official War Games - Van Riper (retired Marine commander) is given control of the non-US forces (the Red team). The US forces (the Blue team) have access to every possible piece of information you want to have. Van Riper relies on his gut instincts and gets such a jump on the Blue team that they change the rules of the simulation. An interesting side story on improv troupes - turns out that the core secret is that members of the troupe must always agree to whatever suggestions are made by others. Saying "No" just kills the skit. One theme here is that an overload of data can lead to poorer decisions as we become removed from our instincts. Anecdotes provided.

Chapter 5: Kenna's Dilemma: The Right - and Wrong - Way to As People What They Want
Story of a rock musician (Kenna) who falls between music categories - is he rock, R&B, etc? People who hear him think he is the greatest, but he can't get any radio play because he is different than what people expect - and can't be easily classified. This chapter covers the Pepsi Challenge and why it went so badly for Coke. Essentially, people prefer sweeter drinks when tasted in sips - but the sweetness can be annoying over the course of a full can. Essentially, taste tests - and many other direct ways of asking people's opinions can be very flawed. This is especially true when the product is new/unique and the case of the Aeron chair is presented. It is well known that you can only go so far by pleasing your current customers - they will not give you the "breakthrough new idea". By the way, I spent some time listening to Kenna's music - it was pretty good and deserving of some radio play - but I didn't find it awe-inspiring.

Chapter 6: Seven Seconds in the Bronx: The Delicate Art of Mind Reading
This appeared to be a fairly objective retelling of the Amadou Diallo case from the perspective of the snap judgements that were made and how/why they went wrong. References to the work of Ekman who has studied facial expressions (I will be reading some of his books soon) and has extensively categorized the various possible expressions and what they mean (hence the reference to mind reading). The chapter discusses some split-second decisions that went wrong and others that went right. One of the key lessons is to create a process whereby people remain calm, with heart rates below 175 - calmness allows our intuitions, our "Blink" to function well. However, at higher stress levels our intuition shuts down and stress reactions dominate. That is one reason that single officer police cars are safer than two officer police cars - when there is only one officer s/he is careful and cautious and tends to call for backup.

Chapter 7: Conclusion: Listening With Your Eyes: The Lesson of Blink
The main story here is how orchestras were dominated by men, until they put in "screens" that turned the auditions into blind auditions. It is a neat solution that is much easier than changing all the internal biases that people held - and it worked. Our challenge is to find more solutions of this type.

Afterword:
Gladwell tries to address the issue of "when to blink and when to think (deliberately)". He offers that in complex, multi-faceted situations, it is best to go with your instinct - letting your unconscious computer sort through all the details. In simple cases, think it through, come up with the best answer.