Day-173

BLINK

The book is about those moments when we know something without knowing why. Here the author, Malcolm Gladwell shows that how a snap judgement can be far more effective than a cautious decision. By trusting our instincts one will not be deciding in the earlier ways after pursuing the book.

·      The book explains situations that where the decisions are made at the split of a second meaning, at the blink of the eyelids. For example in one instance cited in the book, one person was able to judge that a precious item shown  for sale was a fake. No specific reason, call it  a gut feeling, yet later on it was found to be  fake indeed.

·       This one can say was also due to some good fortune, good judgement. But then how it came about is the issue?

·       Definitely past experiences count while taking decisions.

In another incident narrated in the book , a police officer chasing a criminal states-"something in mind just told me I did not have to shoot yet". In this case a fourteen year old boy was trapped and asked to surrender. Here the boy despite the warning kept on taking the Gun from his pant pocket and was still trying to raise the gun to shoot. The officer did not shoot and kept on watching the boy’s efforts and delayed shooting such that the boy dropped the gun when he reached his stomach level. The police officer then arrested him and a life was thus saved. Here the past experience and the sixth sense must have prompted the officer to delay shooting even  when he saw the boy with the Gun in hand.

 Trigger happy police would have first shot and then asked for questions. The book gives similar instances to convey that the actions we and others take have dimensions other than the usual ones we come up with.

Though the actions would have or not happened in matter of seconds, like the boy trying to bring up his gun, there is lot of time to reflect over the action for the officer concerned due to his past experiences. Decisions may have been taken in  a blink, but that was possible due to past experience and expertise. Like the doctor diagnosing a disease  and the  decision to operate etc. may have been done in the blink of an eye, but lot of  past training and experience go into such decisiveness. That is an art to be developed by managers and executives.

"What to do, when to do and how to do  and taking a decision thereof in the Blink of an eye requires preparation, hard work  and  expertise" . The book also conveys that often the reality will be different by our pre-conceptions and it will be wise to “listen” or “see” with openness before arriving at a decision. Hence Blink based decision has both its pros and cons. Reading of the book is recommended as it will open up new vistas in the way we think and decide.

Be peaceful

Vande Mataram

9 30 AM