Whenever some eager young idealist has cause to declare that you can’t judge me — you don’t even know me, I’m all too happy to point out that yes, in fact, I can, because The New Yorker says I can.
I don’t allow myself to save issues of The New Yorker because, if I did, I’d save every other one. From Hertzberg to Kolbert, from Sacks to Gladwell, there’s just so much excellent material that I’ll want to refer to later that I don’t even dare go go down that road. That said, I’ve allowed myself one issue: August 5, 2002, for Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Naked Face.”
That article is what became Gladwell’s 2005 book, “Blink.” Its central thesis is that humans have evolved to make crucial, complex decisions instantaneously, and that we should learn to trust some of these immediate conclusions. The book tells the us about art experts who can instantly detect a forgery, a psychologist who can predict with uncanny accuracy whether a marriage will last, and how we can all take the measure of a man in the fraction of a second. It’s the latter that was addressed in “The Naked Face” — it turns out that we can assess the basics of somebody’s character within a few milliseconds, and that, on the whole, we’re pretty much right in our judgment.
“Blink” explores the downsides of these sort of snap judgments, such as Amadou Diallo’s killing, the existence of New Coke, and the fact that Warren Harding (the George W. Bush of his time) was ever elected in the first place. Sometimes our first impressions are wrong. The trick is knowing when to trust these instincts.
Gladwell’s book meanders a bit a times. Sometimes I skimmed my way through a page or two looking for an active verb. It’s a quick 250 page read, though, and well worth the time. I found that it served more to confirm what I already believe, rather than to change my mind about anything, much like “Freakanomics,” which I read last fall. I recommend it.
Waldo –
You may also find his new blog interesting.
–Jim
My opinion is that Gladwell is schlock. He’s took a couple of decent New Yorker pieces and stretched it into a thin book, The Breaking Point, which is interesting cocktail party fodder but not a work that can hold up to rigorous scrutiny. My opinion is that Gladwell serves up even more watered down broth in Blink, which in my opinion is little more than a string of interesting anecdotes.
just picked up a copy from work yesterday. haven’t had time to read it yet. looks good.
I suspect that’s why, at times, I skimmed along looking for a verb. It’s the anecdotes that I really enjoyed.
I liked both books. The Tipping Point was better constructed, I thought, but Blink has changed the way I go through my days. It made me more attentive to my starting point for deliberate decision making – all of those split-second decisions I’ve already reached.
Did you go to the Harvard research website he mentions in the book re: race-based conclusions. I think it was in the section on the Diallo killing. It’s a fasciniting and a bit horrifying time sink.