Have you ever just looked at something strange and known in an instant whether it was good for you (or for your business or ideas or whatever) or not? Malcolm Gladwell has written Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, and with that premise. The book lets you know that you have more ability in that first glance or first smell, or intuition (some call it that) about whatever you are seeing than you may realize. It also goes into the study of how you can make surprisingly accurate intuitive comprehensive thoughts about whatever the situation or object is, based on that first glance.

I have always cultivated this instant device for my own usage and found it most rewarding much of the time. This power has saved me many hours and countless blunders without my even knowing that it happened or why. If you study the way you perceive things and act without reason on some occasions, you may be reacting to that Blink process and not even know it. It is a very interesting phenomenon that we all carry around with and inside of us, so use it very well. Others completely ignore this power, and many who do that pay for it always.

Some use it wrongly, as when Warren Harding ran for President and everyone thought that he looked Presidential. He fooled most everyone. Those people all went by looks, but didn’t look deeply enough. Some people, or companies, like the Getty Museum when purchasing a very rare statue, had one of the notables in the field come in, and her first gut reaction-honed feeling was that it was a fake. She was right; however, she couldn’t explain to anyone why she felt that way, especially when everyone else thought the statue was real. She just knew that it was not a "right" statue. There are instances all around us to prove that this Blink thing exists and that we should cultivate it for more, stronger usage.

Maybe this book will give people the courage to use Blink more in their daily lives and get by without examining everything and everyone to death while killing those reactions that we all hold inside us. Malcolm Gladwell has developed a study called "thin slicing" that takes a minute look, a facial message, a tick of the eyebrow, a quick shot at listening to the way a word is spoken, and that is the basis for Blink. It is a bunch of quick studies that has taken generations and years to develop, but once developed in anyone, things move rather quickly when we understand how to go for quick responses and conclusions based on perceptions that only last a second.

A very interesting book, that is well thought out and inviting to the psyche to really dive into, because we all want to have those instantly perceptive moments, make them greater and last longer, and be more useful for us in everyday life. Get the book, read it, understand the process behind it, and start utilizing the processes in your life. Blink and you will find yourself knowing more instantly without spending hours of constantly chasing the shadow for wanting more output or production or insight, or whatever it is you are seeking to have more power over.