I read Blink by Malcom Gladwell a few months ago and didn’t like it much. I was hoping to find some insight to my chronic indecision and a way to chip away at it. I also love psychology and like to read about how the mind works. Unfortunately, i felt that the book contradicted itself, gave no usable advice and was generally quite overrated.
When we were at Powell’s in Portland at the beginning of the month, i saw that How We Decide was on the bestseller list. I read the blurb and thought the book sounded like what i had hoped Blink would be. I picked it up from the library last week, and i’ve only read fifty pages and jumped around to a couple of interesting-looking bits of the book, but i’m pretty sure i know where it’s going.
Both books start each point with a dramatic story about a person who had to make a tough decision, then describe what was really going on in his or her brain at the time of decision-making, and finally illustrate the phenomenon with quotes from scientists who have done studies on it. Each book has a story about a decision-maker in the armed forces, a sports enthusiast who just knows what to look for, and a homicide that shouldn’t have happened. The moral of the story? Trust your emotions! No, wait – don’t trust your emotions!
Although i don’t plan to finish How We Decide, i do think it may be more insightful than Blink. My attention was caught by one part in particular which describes how Christians and Republicans have been shown in studies to willfully ignore information that contradicts their point of view. In the study cited, Christians actually chose not to turn off static that was garbling a message debunking their faith, for example, while the atheist test subjects quickly pushed the button that turned the static off. In another study, Republicans failed to recall positive changes that took place under the Clinton administration. There might have been a bit about Democrats doing the same sort of thing, but um, if there was i honestly can’t remember.
For the most part, though, it seems to me that Jonah Lehrer just read Blink and thought, “Wow, this book stinks and Gladwell is getting filthy rich off it! I think i’ll just re-write it and cash in on his idea!”
I didn’t get anything out of either book, really, except for a few accounts of interesting psychological studies shrouded in a lot of journalistic fluff. This CNN article, 10 Ways to Be a Better Thinker, succinctly sums up the scraps of advice in Blink and How We Decide and adds a couple of insights of its own. I have come away from these books with a brilliant idea, though – i think i’ll read The Tipping Point and just re-write it, and voila! I’ll be a New York Times bestseller.
Friday, August 21st, 2009 11:40 am • books
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August 21st, 2009 at 11:48 am
I also read both of these, and liked “How We Decide” better. It’s by no means perfect, but I preferred the seemingly more light-hearted style. That said, neither book should be prescribed as a sole means of life living.
They had interesting ideas, but it feels like they stretched their premises too far in order to fill a book instead of writing a pointed and focused essay or journal article.
August 22nd, 2009 at 2:15 am
Hey, don’t we have a very-soon-to-be psychologist in the family?… Oh, wait… Yeah… It’s ME! I guess strangers’ opinions are better than your brother’s.