On not thinking

Chances are, you've heard about Blink, Malcolm Gladwell's recent book on "the power of thinking without thinking." The man's become famous lately. I feel like I see or hear about him everywhere. And this is in spite of (or more likely because of) the fact that his argument about split-second thinking is pretty controversial. (Check out here, here and here for some of these mixed reviews.)

The book is an intensely fast read, well in keeping with the idea of taking in information quickly. And Gladwell's argument is best put when he explains that certain people are able to make snap judgments accurately b/c they know which pieces to keep and which to ignore among the flood of information and perceptions we are constantly receiving. To do this, though, you have to have a LOT of experience - intuition is built on expertise. So in effect he is saying that "blinking" is great, and you can trust your gut, as long as you have that basis of unconscious information to tap into. Or something. At any rate, he meanders around his argument, providing lots of fascinating anecdotes, but not really convincing me of anything except that he's a good storyteller.