30 of #100daychallenge: blink

Tonight was my last speed reading class.

I really enjoyed reading Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. I hadn’t realized it was written before The Tipping Point, Outliers and David and Goliath; and was re-released with a new afterword that addresses some of the questions received after the original publishing.

It is so wonderful when an author has the opportunity to reflect and share updated thoughts with readers in a new edition. I agree that “we have come to confuse information with understanding” and that “the key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding” (p. 264-265). As a person who is apt to taking time to understand my own experience in order to understand information, Gladwell’s statements relieve some of the judgment I’ve felt about requiring time to process.

In this case, I am still processing, but I do understand one thing very clearly about my experience reading Blink. The simplest way for me to explain is to update the subtitle accordingly, which is Blink: The Power and Practice of Awareness.

Gladwell’s three main points are all connected to awareness: the value of thin slicing, when to trust and when to be wary of thin slicing and how to educate and control thin slicing.

Perhaps, “power and practice of awareness” feels too broad, yet I wonder if the "power of thinking without thinking" is too vague or even contradictory for the complex subject of thin slice decision-making? 

“I think the task of figuring out how to combine the best of conscious deliberation and instinctive judgment is one of the great challenges of our time” (p. 269). Yes, this makes sense to me.

It feels as if there are still some thought gaps that I’m needing to understand for myself.

What I am pondering:

Thin slicing seems to be based on what we know and experience as much as what we don’t know and haven’t experienced (i.e. awareness). Therefore, I continue to find myself coming back to awareness as the most crucial mechanism for honing thin slicing as a tool and discerning when to use and trust it.

I have many more thoughts and questions about the theory of thin slicing and about the conscious and subconscious intention(s) of this book. It seems like there are layers of intention involved and affected how I experienced it.

I love anything that inspires me to ask questions and consider or re-consider is obviously worth the read. Thoughts in process…

Read the book if you get a chance. If you have a library card, you can read the e-book for free on the @cloudlibrary app (download >> iOS I Android).

Noticing the days are getting shorter. I've been feeling it, but today is the first day I noticed it's dark at 8pm.

Follow @blueprintwellness.life to see my #writing #alltheloveandnoexcuses #100daychallenge unfold.

Brightly,

Laura

parental thoughts.