8.24.2007

BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell


Links for the East Side Readers' August discussion.

Looking forward to discussing Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Did this book change your thoughts on anything? Has your behavior changed? Compare & contrast with THE TIPPING POINT. Do people like Malcolm Gladwell fill an important role these days? If so, what is it? And what about that hair?? Come prepared to talk!! Here are some links....
Reviews:
Interviews
Articles
Blinking applications
From the book….
Thanks for the great turnout and terrific conversation about BLINK. A few more links.....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read enough of Gladwell to know I'm so jealous I could spit! I have consciously made decisions using rt. brain activity for years - even took that intuitive "quick" process and went backwards into a scoring system IBM managers could use after interviewing. In my "corporate" life I was in charge of hiring from college campuses for the east coast - and trained others. I had enough time to try my methods and see how they worked over years. How come I couldn't have seen that as anything novel, or transferable, or profound?? I learned one brilliant thing - my "blink" technique never worked just after I had lunch! my technique got sloppy. learned never to interview then! I forgot to tell you I really liked Malcolm's apologia and disclosure essay and had no trouble following it right to the end. I am interested in what you found "obsessive" about it? I thought it was pretty straight forward, and again I learned a lot from it.

RkC said...

I actually liked it a lot too, as it showed he thought about what he was doing and what it might mean. By obsessive, I really just meant he went on and on and could have tightened up his writing a bit. I found the style of that essay more self-indulgent than he usually is, although.... I'm sure his books & New Yorker pieces are edited more vigorously (or have strict space requirements) as opposed to an entire webpage on his personal site.... with little over-sight!

Anonymous said...

I have finished BLINK, cannot wait for the discussion and have a couple of great links, but I am not savvy enough to do anything more than "direct" you to Salon (book section and type in blink) and same with Slate (Arts and Entertainment and type in blink). The Slate is particularly interesting because it consists of letters between Malcolm Bladwell and James Surowiecki discussing the differences and similarities between BLINK and WISDOM OF THE CROWDS....check it out.