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I finished up a reader’s copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking recently. I think the media blitz is just beginning (the book will come out on January 11th)–there’s also a recent FastCompany review/profile.

I really liked the book–Gladwell has a wide variety of very interesting profiles on “thin-slicing” and gut instincts. He covers everything from art forgeries to taste tests of Coke, Pepsi, and the “new Coke” fiasco, to snap judgments by police and predictions from psychologists on whether relationships will last another 5 years from snippets of a 1 hour interview. The crux of his argument is that many decisions are made in a snap and that it’s important to learn when to trust and when not to trust your instincts. I think his examples are well-chosen and generally entertaining (with the exception of his narration of the Amadou Diallo case, which is naturally a bit gruesome).

Only one gripe. Gladwell’s writing style is good. Yet after I got through about 50% of the book, I felt like he was beating me over the head with his thesis statements. So his transitions from one story to the next would be repetitive. Yes. I get your point–but do you need to mention it again and again and again?

So in the end, I’m glad I read the book, but I’m not sure it has much re-readability for me.

(And of course you can order it from your local bookstore through Booksense.)

Edited: 2004-12-29 I figured I should give some sort of rating for reviews. Let’s say Blink merits 3.5 out of 5 stars.