I Have a Really Good Feeling About This

Have you ever had that feeling where you really don’t like someone? You aren't sure why, and you don’t talk to them often enough to have a legitimate reason to dislike them, but the feeling stays. Then maybe two months later you find out they hurt one of your friends or did something really horrible, and you say to yourself, “I knew I had a bad feeling about that person…” Except, you still don’t know why or how you knew from the minute you met them, you just did. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explores “The Power of Thinking, Without Thinking”. As humans we naturally have instincts, certain knowledge that we don’t know how we know, we just do. In his book, Gladwell not only explains the why and how of every good and bad instinct we have, but also uses his research to convince the reader that our instincts are more reliable than we tend to believe.

Blink has about 5 chapters separated into sections, containing stories that support or contradict each argument Gladwell provides on our instinctual habits as humans. As I begin chapter two, I can feel my feelings on this book become clearer. At first, I really liked this book. I liked the format, how he told his stories, the content and facts he explained about how the brain works, and how I could see the facts I learned taking place in my own thought process and behavior. However, sometimes the way he writes feels uncomfortable. He tends to start with a story, then say why he told the story, and usually it keeps me intrigued, but sometimes it doesn't work out. Some stories are of course needed, but some feel like page eaters and fluff. I still like the book, its interesting and I feel like I’m learning things a lot of people don’t know, but there are some things that make the road a little bumpy. Overall, I think Blink is an interesting book, that I will quickly move through. Anyone who’s interested in psychology, human behavior, or random facts would probably enjoy reading Gladwell’s research.