Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell

I heard Daniel Negreanu say during the WSOP ME webcast that he was reading this book. I picked it up and found it very interesting with applications in poker decision-making.
Blink pertains to the act of decision-making and how snap judgments made under stress by our unconscious minds are sometimes very reliable. Our unconscious mind weeds through the extraneous information and zeroes in on the pertinent information. We know something, but we don't know why we know it.
I'm reading the book now, and it reminds me of those gut instincts poker players get when they just know a guy is bluffing or not. It's a skill that can be developed.
If anyone else has read it, I'm curious what you think.

[Subby]

I haven't read it yet, but I saw him speak at a conference I attended recently. The most important piece that I took away is that we often consider *too much* information when we are asked to make decisions. He used an example of ER doctors that were constantly mis-daignosing potential heart-attack patients. When the hospital administration pared down the screeening process to just four questions (and four only), the rate of correct diagnoses went through the roof.

I wrestle with his main theory though - that we should trust our instincts on matters even when most available data and analyses points in the other direction.

I don't doubt however that in poker, there are some players that are subconsiously taking into account odds, reads, tells, etc. and making correct, split-second inutitive decisions a large majority of the time.

Anyway, I have been meaning to pick up the book - if it is half as good as his talk, then it will be worth it.

[mshalen]

I thought Tipping Point was amazing - haven't had a chance to read this one yet.

[Ragnar]

I read the book. The information about immediate reaction is excellent. This is probably the reason that good players watch others reactions to the flop before they look at the flop. They are looking for the reaction that occurs in less than a second. They are instinctively doing what Gladwell talks about in Blink.

After I read it I put it on the portion of my bookcase with the poker books. It is the only "non-poker" book in that section of the bookcase. I'm playing Internet only now, but intend to re-read it before I get back into playing B & M.

Ragnar

It was scary how because of some mistakes, 5 cops were able to pump 65 bullets into an innocent man in less than two seconds. The downside of blink.

The book also discusses a lot of blink upsides that make the book worth reading. Not an instructional book, though.

[MyTurn2Raise]

Good book, but more a magazine pop piece and a tertiary source. Read the books he used as the basis (ie the books he copied). "Sources of Power" is fantastic. Paul Ekman knows his stuff. "Strangers to Ourselves" is pretty good too.

[A_Junglen]

I started reading it today, and one chapter in I'm already excited about it. Should be an interesting read, to say the least.