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Blink  By  cover art

Blink

By: Malcolm Gladwell
Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
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Publisher's summary

Intuition is not some magical property that arises unbidden from the depths of our mind. It is a product of long hours and intelligent design, of meaningful work environments, and particular rules and principles. This audiobook shows us how we can hone our instinctive ability to know in an instant, helping us to bring out the best in our thinking and become better decision-makers in our homes, offices, and in everyday life. Just as he did with his revolutionary theory of the tipping point, Gladwell reveals how the power of blink could fundamentally transform our relationships - the way we consume, create and communicate, how we run our businesses, and even our societies. You'll never think about thinking in the same way again.
©2005 Malcolm Gladwell (P)2005 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Brilliant." (Observer)
"Astonishing." (Daily Mail)
"Compelling." (Evening Standard)

What listeners say about Blink

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good but flawed

This is the third Malcolm Gladwell book I have listened to (or read), and like the other two, it is really interesting, but just a little bit unconvincing in parts. He is a brilliant storyteller, drawing you in with interesting anecdotes about a man who can pick winning horses by observing their body language and a rogue soldier who outwits the entire US army in a war game scenario. But towards the end of the book his argument loses its way.

As the book progresses he gradually builds a convincing theory about how our minds are adept at making accurate instantaneous judgements and how, in many cases, the more information we are given the less likely we are to judge well.

But then he starts to make some slightly dubious claims and even to contradict himself somewhat. He tells the story of 4 policemen who kill an African American in a bad neighbourhood at night because they think he has a gun. He says that the stress of the situation gives them ‘temporary autism’ which robs them of their normal powers to make ‘blink’ judgements. But you just don’t need this theory to explain why they misjudged the situation. It was dark, and the inability of the men to detect the innocence and terror on the victim’s face could be explained by this alone.

Later on he describes another policeman, who had received training in controlling this kind of panic reaction in dangerous and stressful situations, and because of this training, when faced with an armed youngster, he waited a little longer and gathered more information and decided not to shoot. But this contradicts the main idea of the book, which is that we make better decisions when we allow our intuition to do it in a blink.

So, by the end of the book, you have been entertained and have also been persuaded that humans often make better judgements when they ‘thin slice’, i.e. they make quick unconscious decisions based on very limited information. But, in my opinion, he tries to over-elaborate his theory in the later chapters, and I felt myself disagreeing with him, which spoilt the book a bit.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Blink

Very perceptive book and a good sequel to Tipping Point. I am currently on my second way through it and enjoy the open approach that has been taken.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazingly written and read.

If you happened to like any of Malcolm Gladwell's books, you will surely like this one. For me , it is even better than the previous ones. I think negative reviews might have been influenced by exceedingly high expectations.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Eye opener

Excellent and inspiring book - of the matter of intuition as well as actual issues concerning us all - such as police shootings or effective markting of products.
A minor but unusual and very nice detail: this audiobook is actually modified slightly from the written edition, so it consistently makes sense to a listener as oposed to a reader.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gladwell tells excellent stories to back theories

I loved how Gladwell explains how much information we can gather in a blink of an eye. He goes on to show his findings through research and stories.

I feel wiser and love re-quoting the stories to other people.

Great audio - and well read.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful

Wonderful read and brilliant narration by Malcolm Gladwell. I really enjoyed it.Audible please upload more books.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Insightful

Excellent & well worth the listen, it's motivated me to look more into the expressions of the face ☀️

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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love it

I enjoyed this book. I want to listen to all of Melcolm's books. I've listened to 3 so far. A great companion on long road trips.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

entertaining and very insightful

entertaining and very insightful I really enjoy Malcolm's books and having himself doing the reading helps to understand better the meaning because he stress the words the way you know it was supposed to be read/heard

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

pointless, mainly

no clear conclusion, but a lot of information. more like a research without an actionable conclusion

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