Libro que me han prestado: Blink por Malcolm Gladwell
Blink es un libro que llamó mi atención desde el primer momento por dos razones. Primero, porque soy un entusiasta del parpadeo. Segundo, porque es imposible que un subtítulo como “The Power of Thinking without Thinking” no te atrape. A fin de cuentas, hago la mayoría de las cosas sin pensar. Si gracias a este libro consigo pensar sin pensar alcanzaré el nirvana antes de lo previsto.
De la contraportada1:
Blink is about the first two seconds of looking – the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of “thin slices” of behavior. The key is to rely on our “adaptive unconscious” – a 24/7 mental valet – that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.
Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us “mind blind,” focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to “the Warren Harding Effect” (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the “dark side of blink,” he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell’s ideas about what Blink Camp might look like.
¡Gracias, Davidgp!
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En realidad, está tomado de la página Web que Amazon dedica al libro, pero no quería dejaros sin un tercer homenaje a las entradas que escribe Davidgp. ↩