Thoughts on "BLINK"

BLINK is a book by Malcolm Gladwell that talks about your unconsciousness making snap judgements/decisions. I think the book presents many wonderful examples/researches and theories on how much we already have a pre-judgement/bias after a few seconds/minutes on something or someone, which he called thin-slicing. However, we let our conscious thoughts overpowered our unconscious thoughts in decision making. We can use both of our unconscious and conscious thoughts in a good or bad way. In certain things, like judging a person by its physical appearance,race and dressing, thin-slicing could be a negative attribute because this makes us bias. But everyone does this, as much as we try not to be judgmental. He calls this the Warren Harding's Error. **side note: warren harding is actually one of the worst US president that was elected in 1921. He was found by a lobbyist because of his tall, handsome features and good looks. The congressman think he could be a good public figure based on his physical appearance**

take a test to at www.implicit.harvard.edu on how our unconscious level acts towards being bias or making judgements that corresponds to races and gender with descriptive words. It might be interesting. I have not yet take the test tho.

In the positive light of thin-slice, scenerios such as a doctor trying to see if the patient need an emergency medical attention or not was used. At this point, thin-slicing is a very important attribute where your education and your experience will give you that unconscious nudge or warning about how to treat the patient. He then explained that the health care system in the US tend to gather as much information as possible by running many manyyyyyy different tests to diagnose a person (Which I totally agree). It is a waste of money and the final call of treating the patient is overwhelmed by the bundle of information and not trusting the doctor's instinct. He said sometimes, less is more, which I concur.

**My personal experience- it took my friend jenny from 6pm-11.30pm on November 4th 09, to know that she had appendicitis, because she had to do all this crazy medical tests- blood/urine sample and wait for the results, and further do an ultrasound, and then WAIT AGAIN for the result, and thennn continued to do a CAT Scan, and WAIT again for the results, which the hospital fax the x-ray to ARIZONA for a specialist to diagnose her. it was ridiculous. I am not saying im good but when i took the cab to her house straight from the airport( because she was supposed to pick me up but then said she was in so much pain.) and drove her to the hospital, i already told her it might be appendicitis. My amateur conclusion just came from her telling me how and where the pain was. So basically she was in pain for five and a half hours, waiting and waiting in the hospital for the OFFICIAL diagnose from a physician saying she has appendicitis***

However the practice of empowering your unconscious level is very tricky because again, its something that we act or think before we realized it, right?

The book is a little draggy because from the first chapter u already know the summary/the objective of the book. Basically through out the book he gives many different researches, examples, scenarios and other short stories regarding the "power of thinking without thinking". Some of my friends found the book very boring and textbook-like. I find it interesting because it is like reading a compilation of many researches and many other prominent physicians, professors and other authors findings and stories. 

In his afterword, there was a quotation from Sigmund Freid- " When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, i think, by the deep inner needs of our nature". 

I can see his point of argument and I believe it is somewhat reasonable. Think about when you go shopping or when you are choosing your career. I am at the point where I think so much about staying in the US or leave the country and go back to Malaysia. My instinct tells me to leave, but the more I think about it, the more I cant give up my life here. UGHHhHHHh..