Blink (middle)

I have now read half of the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.  I am going to be honest.  Before I started reading the book, I thought it would be somewhat interesting, but very dull, boring, and a long read.  I was almost completely wrong.  Blink is a masterpiece!  It is the most fascinating book I have read and was extremely fun to read.  It was absolutely insane to learn about the studies done and information available about the human brain.  The main concept of the book is about something called "thin-slicing".  Think about this as snap judgments.  It is when we take a tiny sliver of information about someone, or something, and make assumptions and decision based on those observations.  Surprisingly, a human's thin slicing ability is extremely accurate, and, in many cases, more accurate than learning all about something and gathering as much information as possible.  This entire book is basically an account of unbelievable studies with crazy implications.  One of my favorite examples is about Millennium Challenge, a "war game" that was supposed to become the way war would be fought in the future.  It was a simulation war with real commanders, leaders, and generals (if you've read Ender's Game it is like the battle room).  There are two teams: red and blue.  The blue team was "given greater intellectual resources than perhaps any army in history" (Gladwell 105).  Basically, it new everything it needed to about the red army, besides what they are thinking.  The blue team also had far superior weapons, personnel, and resources.  The red team had basically nothing, however, their commander was someone by the name Paul Van Riper. Van Riper had a reputation as being on of the best generals in the military because he acted on instinct and thin-sliced every opportunity he got.  During the Millennium Challenge, Van Riper launched a surprise attack because he thin-sliced the situation and acted on instinct.  This surprise attack destroyed half of the blue team's ships, biggest cruisers, 5 of 6 amphibious ships and, most importantly, showed that superior knowledge does not necessarily correlate with success.  This proved the point that it is sometimes better to act on instinct and thin-slicing rather than well thought out decisions.
I really enjoy this book not only because of the interesting topics, but also because Gladwell writes in a way that is easy to understand while still conveying a complex idea.  It is the perfect balance between slang and jargon that no average person would understand.  It is truly a wonderful book.