Un-Blink & Wink - It's time to party ! (Book review of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell)

“Insight is not a light bulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.” ― Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Blink is about the moments when we know something without knowing why. Taking snapshot judgments seriously to construct a better world around us.

Let's go ahead and deconstruct this book in a simplistic manner. Imagine you got a call for the party and now we proceed to look at how Malcolm's Blink concepts apply to the whole scenario.

1. Your brain reaches conclusions without telling you : So an old time friend of yours who you haven't spoken to in a while calls up on a Friday evening and invites you for a weekend party. Immediately gazillion questions pop into your mind. Why did the person call me? Do I have to bring a plus one but where will I find ? Should I make an excuse? What if it's a boring party? What if I meet my ex? Blah blah blah !! Your brain starts flipping cards of Going Vs. Not Going and your palms become sweaty. Do you make an impulse commitment or say you'll call back later to RSVP?
2. What we say we want & what we actually want, don't match : Consciously you know it's important to be social and this friend is influential so you say yes to come almost immediately but deep inside you really want to stay in your pajamas & binge watch on your much deserved Friday night. I mean you could potentially meet a Dating Partner or even a business prospect (well everyone these days are always thinking about work and life simultaneously).
3. Thin Slicing : So now you've reached the party looking all dapper & neat for making killer impressions. But hey so is everyone else here. Suddenly your eye catches a good looking person leaning alone at the bar. You're trying to guess your chances of striking a good conversation with this person and how they would turn out to be. The person seems attractively dressed (looks like someone who invests in their appearance) with what seems like your favorite drink in hand (definitely that's great taste right there), and seems to be glancing & smiling at the ongoing match on the TV over the bar counter (seems like interested in sports) while chit chatting to the bartender. Oh boy, Google am I feeling lucky !
4. The "Warren Harding" error: So you introduce yourself and try to strike a conversation, but you figure out quickly that looks aren't everything and even though you did judge the book by its gorgeous cover, the story-line within the book is just not worth your time. Quick fact, did you know 58% of Fortune 500 CIOs are over 6 ft tall while such height only consists of 14% of the whole world's population. So Blink decisions sometimes do lead one astray. 
5. Less is more: But you don't let that spoil your evening easily. You take your leave from the bar, with your drink still in hand and try to find yourself a quiet corner. You spot a perfect nook & see a stranger with an aloof demeanor already occupying the space. But before you start judging again, you quietly remind yourself NOT to again make preconceived notions and just go by the flow. I mean at worst if you don't like the person you get up and excuse yourself away. So you introduce yourself and it seems the person was new to the town and was a bit apprehensive to talk to strangers. But you quickly figure that you have common interests and have a great time.
6. Disliking vs. Unusual: Clearly as the party gets over and you drive home, you start thinking about your subconscious biases and agree that there is a difference between not liking something vs. finding it unusual as that's what happened when you decided to clearly break the ice without any presumed biases with a complete stranger today letting it go with the flow. Clearly decisions made quickly can be as good as ones done cautiously and deliberately. But & trust me there is a BIG but, we need to learn when to trust our snap judgments vs. when to be wary of them.
7. The Face is a mirror of the Mind: Let's get our facts about FACS (facial action coding system) right. Although tonight was a bummer, however with the right tools and practice, we can decrypt the face better. Even for the ones with deceptive or stoic expressions and maybe just maybe one day we can also figure out what's going in the minds of public figures, celebrities and politicians too ...okay maybe that's just fictional. 
8. The Optimal state of arousal: Most of us under extreme pressure get too aroused. Past a certain point our bodies begin shutting down and then so many sources of information become useless. Imagine again when you spotted the attractive person at the bar and for a few seconds, the party went into slow motion, suddenly it got a bit warmer than usual, your palms are sweating, your vision narrows down to this one person only and people stopped existing around. What you experience is similar to what the police and armed forces experience during a combat on the front-lines facing the enemy, however just 1000 times more intensely. 

So the next time you're in a situation that needs your decisive powers, just know that you need to re-calibrate your biases & filters because too much information does not always help to conclude into a good decision but hasty judgments too can be prone to more mistakes. 

In fact, per the author (contrary to the usual habits) try to make your transactional decisions (like which Pizza to order in today) after much deliberation with all choices considered. However for critical decisions, (like should I offer my help to a stranger who looks to be in a tough spot), go by your "gut instinct". 

A lot of people around us can be like the fake Greek statue that was sold to the Getty museum but it took only a few art experts to instinctively and almost promptly point out the forgery around the piece. So with experience, you can also be one of those experts ! 

And the next time in a party you see an almost perfect (demigod/goddess), turn around and try to talk to more real people because if it's too good to be true, it probably is.