Blink

Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, _Blink_, had a lot to live up to. After an incredible debut with _The Tipping Point_, Gladwell has been criticized for a schizophrenic approach that contradicts itself in places. Certainly it is a different type of subject–the individual unconscious and emotion as opposed to social networking and business–and one that demands a different approach. Gladwell himself says “There are a lot of books that tackle broad themes…this is not one of them” (_Tipping Point_ was). In the small arena of unconscious thought, he explores two main areas that on first glance contradict each other. First Gladwell argues that our instinctual impressions can be trained to give us insight beyond what our intellect allows. Next he points out that those same instinctual impressions can easily lead us astray and exacerbate our prejudices and emotional biases. So which is it?

Both–although the balance between the two approaches is mostly ignored. Gladwell lays out the principles of _Blink_ on pages 14-15: Snap judgments can be as good as deliberate decisions; you can learn when to listen to them and when to ignore them; and you can educate and control them for when you do listen. The first and third of the principles are explored in great depth, but the second doesn’t get any attention. That’s a shame, because all his examples hint at the possibility of codifying which decisions should be “blinked” and which should be thought out traditionally.

The one main conclusion Gladwell draws is that if you do “blink” a decision, you’d better have experience. The stories consistently show that if you have practice making snap judgments, you make them better. You can learn traits of a field to improve just in that area (reading facial expressions is one such example), but nothing substitutes for experience. So build your own or hire someone who has it, and then you can “blink” well, your products can “blink” well, and you’ll know to keep your eyes open when you’re not “blinking”.

## Notes

5 Thomas Hoving, art critic, always makes a note of the first word that comes to mind upon seeing a work of art; he often asks his assistant to hide art so he’ll be truly surprised upon seeing it (253).

6 Interesting implication that some people, near-“heros”, can tell what mortals, even smart ones, cannot–he tempers this later by explaining that it is only their experience that sets them apart.

13 Why we are reluctant to trust even experts’ snap judgements: “We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it.” Raymond Loewy’s one-minute design for Lucky Strike comes to mind.

14-15 Principles of _Blink_

1. “Decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.”

2. “It is possible to learn when to listen to [your snap judgment] and when to be wary of it.”

3. “Our snap judgments and first impressions can be educated and controlled.” (section starting p. 237)

30 “In negative sentiment override mode (when people are emotional such that neutral things are perceived as negative), people draw lasting conclusions about each other.” – why it’s important to never go to bed angry; and to stop arguing when you get emotional. 94% of couples who begin trending toward negative sentiment override mode continue going down; it’s a self-perpetuating cycle.

32 Contempt is the most dangerous element to have in a relationship; it is present and shows itself without you even knowing you feel it. So what is the opposite of contempt, the thing most able to strengthen a relationship? Grace? Love? Charity? Worship? Selflessness?

33 Contempt is trying to put the other person on a lower plane than you, so you don’t view them as an equal. So the opposite would be elevating them; worship; obedience.

37 A person’s bedroom contains incredible amounts of information about them; should we insist on job applicants submitting a picture of their bedrooms instead of their resumes then? It’s what you _do_, not what you _say_!

1. Identity claims – diplomas, trophies

2. Behavioral residue – inadvertent clues: dirty laundry, alphabetized CD collection

3. Thoughts and feelings regulators – decorations, scented candles

39 If videotaping is the most powerful way to show people how they communicate, should we videotape meetings, relationship talks, and make the people watch them? With training/direction, it could help people notice the clues to working together better by “coming at the issue sideways.” (like the movie _Sideways_?)

53 _Priming_ – feeding people information or experiences that make them feel a certain way. An experiment where people read words associated with old people and then walked more slowly down the hallway leaving the experiment than they had walked toward it (John Bargh).

55 You can prime manners: people primed to be polite almost never interrupted a busy experimenter to let them leave; primed to be rude, they all did.

56 You can prime intellectualism: people thinking about being a professor did 12% better on Trivial Pursuit questions than those thinking about soccer hooligans. Palo Alto parents would pay dearly for those increases.

56 You can prime expectations and achievement: making people put down their race on a questionnaire caused African-American students to do only half as well on GRE questions than those not asked their race. Schools and companies concerned about getting the best applicants _and_ diversity should save their race questions until after the interview/application is done.

58 Just as the questions about old people make people act old, in most situations we just want to “fit in”. The key to acheivement, then, is to surround yourself with desirable things, so you want to “fit in” to a desirable place! We get what we expect…it’s why we look at where we want a line to end before we draw it! (on planning, and why it’s important but plans are useless; on exceptional people, who put themselves in places where they can do exceptional things)

70 People discovered solutions to problems when simply their unconscious picked them up (seeing that a rope could swing hinted to them that they could move it to accomplish their goal). Are there unconscious hinting tools? All that exist are IDEOs conscious inspiration cards…such a tool could be just a stream of “stuff happening”…like _The Way Things Go_? (video)

71 The limits of online textual learning? Benefits of video? “We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.”

85 You are what you eat – “The giant computer that is our subconscious silently crunches all the data it can from the experiences we’ve had, the people we’ve met, the lessons we’ve learned, the books we’ve read, the movies we’ve seen, and so on, and it forms an opinion.” More reason to tailor your environment carefully (like p.58)

87 The Warren Harding Error – 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are 6 feet or taller; almost 33% are 6’2″+. Only 14.5% of American men are over 6 feet, only 4% 6’2″+. All right! (I’m 6’7″)

88 An inch of height is worth, on average, $789/year in salary. Why am I entering the meritocracy of the creative industry again? I’m giving up a lot of free money in the “business” world…I’m sure it still works for me. I’m _really_ tall…

97 We can change our instincts “by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions”. It’s what you _do_, not what you think: for racism, “it requires that you change your life so that you are exposed to minorities on a regular basis and become comfortable with them and familiar with the best of their culture.” Reminds me of Tom Peters’ quote, “You are your calendar”.

101 Stay in “training mode”; even in the midst of battle, soldiers do training exercises. Reminds me of NORBA racers complaining of losing fitness during the season because they were racing so much and not training. Always train, even when you’re busy “competing”.

107 Shout-out to Gary Klein’s book _Sources of Power_, “one of the classic works on decision making.” One conclusion is that experts only consider the most important factors, never all the factors.

114 Sports is instinct honed by experience; have the skills to pay the bills: “[Basketball’s spontaneous decisions are] possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice…and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court.” Freedom through discipline and obedience (also Psalm 119:44, 45) Freedom to act is the important freedom, not freedom from rules.

116 Improv to “improve” your creativity; the “always say yes” rule in improv comedy means avoiding negativity and opening yourself to new direction in the scene. Similar actions in business can mean new directions for solutions. Say yes to things you’d normally deny – “They accept all offers made–which is something no ‘normal’ person would do.” – Keith Johnstone, improv pioneer

119 “Allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves constantly turns out to be like the rule of agreement in improv. It enables rapid cognition.” Often we don’t have the vocabulary to explain our decisions, but that doesn’t mean they are invalid (Aeron chair example later).

141 Lessons from the car lot

1. “Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.” – know when to use snap judgment and when to refrain

2. “In good decision making, frugality matters” – reduce a problem to its simplest elements; “take things off the table” (Gladwell at Stanford); Gary Klein’s _Sources of Power_ observation (p.107)

1. Gladwell says “less is more”; Milton Glaser says “just enough is more”. Simplicity isn’t the answer, but relevance is.

142 Marketers and product developers must be driven by the desired action, not the possibilities.

1. 30% of people with 6 jam choices bought some; only 3% of those with 24 jam choices bought any.

2. Why functional specs are bad: they are driven by possibilities, not desired actions (which can only be discovered through prototyping and testing)

166 Why Coke shouldn’t have worried so much about Pepsi’s blind taste test wins: “Because in the real world, no one ever drinks Coca-Cola blind. We transfer to our sensation of the Coca-Cola taste all of the unconscious associations we have of the brand, the image, the can…” Judging things outside of their context will give you a false impression every time.

173 Why the Aeron chair had trouble getting accepted: “People reporting their first impressions misinterpreted their own feelings. They said they hated it. But what they really meant was that the chair was so new and unusual that they weren’t used to it.” p. 174: “Maybe the word ‘ugly’ was just a proxy for ‘different’.” – Bill Dowell

173 Customers must be able to imagine a future with a product: “[Customers] don’t have any history with it, and it’s hard for them to imagine a future with it, especially if it’s something very different.” – Bill Dowell. All radical innovations (the only ones I’m interested in being a part of) must demonstrate their future viability to consumers, through marketing or design.

179 Experts aren’t geniuses–“The gift of their expertise is that it allows them to have a much better understanding of what goes on behind the locked door of their unconscious…it is really only experts who are able to reliably account for their reactions.” And when non-experts _are_ asked to account for their reactions, it changes them (p.173).

206 Our facial expressions not only reflect our feelings, they _create_ our feelings. Restricting expressions restricts emotion, causing expressions, even forcing them, creates emotion.

233 The only thing that helped people avoid prejudiced reactions in forced half-second decisions was allowing them a bit more time to respond. Snap judgments are fast, but not instant.

239 People can get better at “mind-reading” with the right direction; Paul Ekman has a [training tape](http://www.paulekman.com/training_cds.php) that helps people do it in just 35 minutes. How can I see that tape?

252 The goal: “To make a proper snap judgment”

253 The method: “If we can control the environment in which rapid cognition takes place, then we can control rapid cognition.”

254 The result: “We take charge of the first two seconds”