Book Review: Blink

I’ve finally finished my book! So proud of myself.

My new year's resolution was to read one book! Now I've finished three!

Ok.

Fine.

Maybe my goals are set at low - at least i'm an over achiever :P

But seriously , I thoroughly enjoyed reading: Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

I picked up this paperback from Borders. I had no clue what a good book was so I scooted over to the best seller shelf. Surely the millions of readers of these books couldn't be all wrong.

Oddly, of all titles there, Blink had something that appealed to me.

Maybe it was the simplicity of the cover, the baby blue and pink fonts or the catchy title. There was something about this book that drew me and I couldn't figure it out.

And that was precisely what the book was about!

Malcolm Gladwell explains why we behave in such ways during the first few seconds when doing something.

It could be when we meet someone or taste something or drive a new car. He claims our brains have already gone through lots of processing and decisions have already been made - and we didn't even know it!

He explains that our instinctive first reaction is right….. most of the time.

We just need to be aware of our limitations and the pitfalls of prejudice and discrimination.

As a demonstration - sit by a busy street and look at the faces of the people passing by. You’ll only need one second to decide if someone is attractive or not. In that one second your brain has already analysed so much about that person - the eyes, hair, freckles, nose rings, spacial features. Yet it will take you a little while longer to 'consciously' notice all the features you dislike.

Heres another example. You're out shopping and someone presents you a shirt or top. Straight away you say - 'nope' i don't like it. Then they say 'how come?' ONLY then do you consciously have to think about why you don't like it.

And not just that.

You know sometimes when you get this awful feeling that something is wrong. Like you’re driving away from the house and you get this nagging feeling that something is not right.

The unaccessible super computer part of your brain that does clockwork, routine calculations is saying "hang on, wait a minute.... somethings amiss here. Based on what I know and experience, there's suppose to be something here... .... "

You weren’t thinking about things that you forgot, but there was just that nagging feeling.

Something in you was thinking about what you just did.
So you were thinking without thinking.

Only then do you realise that you forgot to wear underwear.

Book Review: Freakonomics

A study was conducted on ten day-care centres in Haifa, Israel. Economists kept track of the number of parents who came late to pick up their children.
After four weeks, a fine was introduced. Any parent who picked up their children late had to pay an extra $3 on top of their monthly bill.

After the fine was put up, the number of late pickups promptly... went up.

When I read this in the introducing chapter of Freakonomics, I said - what da? Surely nobody wants to pay an extra three bucks. You can (almost) buy a burger with that! But as it turns out - by introducing such a dismal fine (on top of the $380 monthly fee), it allowed a channel for parents to feel not so guilty when they are late in picking up their children.

Before they introduced the fine, parents picked up their children because they felt guilty about leaving their child in the day-care centre. The $3 penalty vented that guilt and thus parents were a lot more relaxed (and late) in picking up their children.

Last year I failed to read a single book.
Lots of magazines (with lots of pictures), but no books. Nadda.

This year, I told myself 'I should at least read one book'. Doesn't matter if it’s thin, thick or pink or gold covered (thou shall not judge a book by its cover!!) as long as I read a book. That was my new year's resolution.

I finished my second book this year and I'm glad I've gotten back to reading.

I think I was just being stubborn from all the Harry Potter attention that's why I've stayed away from books. Or maybe because I didn't make time to read books. But who was I kidding. My brain needed a work out just as much as my body did. So off to Borders I went.

Freakonomics was a non-themed book which was dry in some parts and interesting in others. I say non-themed because it was really hard to put a finger on what the authors were trying to say.

But I'm glad I read it. Now I'm walking away with some pearls of wisdom on why drug-dealers still live with their mom and why claiming to be single, tall and wanting to be in a long-term relationship will maximise my hits in Yahoo! Personals.

The message I took home from this book was that people are driven by incentives. Be it economic, social or moral. Positive or negative - rewards determine who we are.

And although that may sound trivial, it made me realise the type of people around me by looking into what their goals are. I could have figured that out. But it took a book for me to think it.