Rapid cognition. Split second thinking. Snap judgments. Thinking without thinking. Blink.
At the recommendation of a friend, I read the book by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of . Talk about a page turner … I read it in under a day. Gladwell is a terrific story teller and his subject matter is fascinating.
If you want some cliff notes on what the book is about, I recommend you check out Gladwell's web site.
Gladwell does not write from a Christian worldview. The book is about psychology and he throws an obligatory bone to naturalism and physicalism. That does not mean Gladwell in his research is not on to something. I happen to think he is. It just means his worldview colors his interpretation and the attributions of his observations. E.g. Gladwell views the ability of the mind to rapidly process information as a byproduct of evolutionary advance. This is an assumption, of course, and gives Gladwell the aura of scientific respectability. It adds nothing to main thrust of his theory, however, and I did not suffer in slightest by swatting away these unnecessary appeals to authority.
Moving on.
Gladwell makes a compelling case that the mind can rapidly process clues and make snap judgments that in some cases are pretty accurate. That goes against our intuition, right? We are supposed to conduct a thorough due diligence, gather our data, make our decision. Well, sometimes that process proves no more accurate than our blink.
The upside is that we can learn to "thin-slice" with great reliability. Thin-slicing is making inferences on the thinnest of data samples. The advantage is of course speed ... providing your quick read on things is accurate. Why waste time conducting due diligence if you can get the right answer in a fraction of the time?
The downside is that our thin-slicing can run amok. We make unconscious judgments that are bogus. We reach the wrong conclusion and sometimes are not even aware of our faulty reasoning. When our unconscious mind gets a brain cramp, it can get deadly and fast. Gladwell tells a story of a shooting in the Bronx where all the wrong decisions were made in the course of seven seconds. The result was four distraught cops and one very bullet riddled, innocent man ... a sad case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The cops emptied two and half clips from their semi-automatic handguns. Forty-one bullets later they discovered their mistake … oops.
Gladwell's chapter on the ability of some people to read people's faces was downright creepy. If true, some have refined the art of thin-slicing facial expressions to the nth degree. Amazing ... and creepy.
Gladwell introduces some sticky terms and expressions that I plan to annex into my vocabulary.
- Blink : the process of rapid cognition.
- Thin-slice : drawing inferences on scant data samples
- The Warren Harding error : drawing a false conclusion based on appearances.
- Mind-blindness : a temporary autism of the unconscious mind which creates blind spots.
- White-space : the distance between a target and a potential assailant
The next step in processing this book is to cogitate and integrate. I am going to give Gladwell the benefit of the doubt. Let's assume his research is correct. What would it mean to acknowledge that our mind has the capacity to influence and control our actions in a split second? Where does this leave us vulnerable? How does this integrate with the doctrine of total depravity? Is thin-slicing a euphemism for prejudging? Is blinking something that can be harnessed for use in a redemptive way?
Thinking about it ... consciously ;-)
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