I’m a textbook overthinker. The irony of my job in admissions is that while the real crux of my job is decision making, I am absolutely crippled when it comes to making a decision that will directly affect me. This could rightfully be a drawn out decision about whether or not to accept a job or pursue a particular graduate program but it most frequently manifests itself in an inability to pick a place to go for lunch. I’m really lucky to have some decisive friends or we’d never go anywhere.
I’ve been in my own head quite a bit for the past few weeks, more so than usual, so it seemed an appropriate time to read Blink once and for all. It had been recommended to me a thousand times (in retrospect, I guess I should have taken the hint sooner) and after loving Freakonomics as much as I did, I was ready to tackle another fairly cerebral book.
I will say first and foremost that being in the headspace I’ve been in- considerably more self reflective than usual- probably wasn’t the greatest one for this book. On one hand, I thought I’d pick up some good tips, but throughout the book, I found myself a little frustrated that personal decision making comes so easily to some people and remains fully elusive to me. To be clear, the ones about professional judgment made a lot of sense to me, as I don’t struggle much with work decisions, but some other parts stuck with me and made me wonder why my brain has this barrier…typical.
That out of the way, it was a compelling enough book. I love the idea that sometimes your gut guides you just as well as or better than researching, though I’m not about to drop my intense need to understand everything before making a decision. It’s interesting, because upon further reflection, I realized that I’ve never regretted the impulsive decisions I’ve made, but there has certainly been a particular level of discomfort upon doing so. Gladwell touches on this throughout the book- that even though studies show that split second decisions work just as well in many cases, people are more comfortable deciding after knowing all of the facts.
“I think we are innately suspicious of this kind of rapid cognition. We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it.”
Hits the nail on the head, no?
The other piece that struck me was the idea that not only do we as a people generally overthink things, but that we also create thought processes for situations that don’t need them.
“We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We’re a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don’t really have an explanation for.”
This resonated strongly. We’re all guilty of it- concocting hypothetical scenarios for why things did or didn’t happen, wondering how things could be different if just one thing had gone another way- and it’s a pretty slippery and dangerous slope. Of course, it would probably be impossible to forego this altogether, but it would be nice to not feel an innate need to search for answers where perhaps there are none.
For a book about not thinking, it’ll make you think a lot. I’ve shared just two parts that stuck out to me, but I have more Kindle highlights for this book than any other I’ve read- not just for this project, but in general. Gladwell touches on things that resonated about my personal life, about work, about teamwork, about things I hadn’t thought of before. It was a good read- worth checking out. I’ll definitely be looking into some of his other books to read down the road.
That said, perhaps the most important thing I gained from this book was the inspiration for my next career move: professional food taster.
You’ll like this if: you like books that (again) unpack large concepts into accessible lessons using real world examples. You may like it less if you’re not feeling great about your thinking patterns; then again, you may pick up a tip or two.
Happy reading!
carlyreads 