Blink By Malcolm Gladwell: Chapter Summary

All in all, Gladwell helps paint a picture of what’s said to be behind the locked door of the subconscious. He uses repetition and rhetorical questions to stress how thin-slicing plays a crucial part in our world. The power of our minds are limitless but Gladwell is still searching for the key to unlocking the truth of our unconscious

He asks, “How are human beings connected? Do we all belong to separate worlds, operating simultaneously but autonomously, so that the links between any two people, anywhere in the world are few and distant? Or are we all bound up together in a grand, interlocking web? (Page 34)” Gladwell doesn’t actually expect readers to come up with an answer, but he does realize that readers wouldn’t consider these questions had he not put the questions in their heads to start with. By doing this he allows his audience to form their own opinions on the questions asked before he reveals what answers the questions were originally designed to expose. Gladwell effectively uses rhetorical questions to get the audience interested early on, therefore making the information given in the selection more important.

An ineffective device used by Gladwell was his use of repetition of evidence and failure to acknowledge counterexamples by forcing the reader into thinking that Gladwell’s theory is the only one possible to be correct. The lack of acknowledgment towards counterexamples thrusts the audience into thinking that Gladwell’s opinion is the only viable one. “Philip Norman, who wrote the Beatles biography”, “nonstop show, hour after hour”, “Here is John Lennon”, and “playing all night long” are examples of repetition of evidence because the author already established that the

Society is stocked full of various trends and epidemics. To many, the way in which these trends start is a mystery. As members of a society, we often subconsciously take part in these patterns without questioning our participation. Therefore, people continue to ignore the drastic changes in society, and the reasons why they occur so swiftly. There is a lack of motivation to take a step back and inquire about society as a whole, and rethink one’s actions. In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell effectively discusses and analyzes how and why ideas spread throughout societies using the rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos and logos.

As Gladwell conducts his argument, he writes with confidence and authority, which expresses his passion and knowledge about the subject. Gladwell’s poise throughout the essay, combined with his resume, establishes his credibility and constructs a rhetorically effective argument. Being a best-selling author as well as a professional

Criminal case is always tedious when it involves little or no information about the offender, like in the 9/11 terrorist attack which annihilated most of the workers in and damaged the New York Trade Center building. However, in an attempt to identify the offenders, government officials and investigators try out different ways such as criminal profiling and others. Thus, in the New Yorker article, “Dangerous Minds” by Malcolm Gladwell; the author informs the deeper problems with FBI profiling and argues that it is ineffective. He questions the usefulness of criminal profiling, “But how useful is that profile, really?” and uses other criminal cases, group research analyses, and analogies to refute

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell. This book introduces the concept of “thin slicing”. The concept refers to how in a split second or blink of an eye people can make an unconscious and accurate assessment of someone. Using the concept of thin slicing we can determine what is really important within the first few seconds when meeting someone. Malcolm Gladwell explained that first impressions or spontaneous decisions can be just as important as decisions that are made carefully and planned out. According to Gladwell, people make better decisions with quick judgments than they do with a lot of analysis. Gladwell believes that the power

In life, people tend to overthink and overanalyze certain situations and events that occur around them; in reality they should be focusing more on their instincts and quick decisions. This is exactly the point that Malcolm Gladwell makes in the intro to his book, Blink. In order to successfully get this point across, Gladwell blends together a number of different strategies and devices. This is a common practice for established authors, using literary and rhetorical devices in order to keep the audience interested in what they are saying. In the intro to Blink, Gladwell uses the rhetorical devices of plot progression, allusion, and narration to present his beliefs in a way the reader can easily understand.

Q1. What is the general focus of Part 2? Answer: The general focus of Part 2 is ‘legacy’.

In Chapter Three, “The Warren Harding Error,” Gladwell focuses on what he calls “the dark side” of thin-slicing, which can be when our first instincts betray us, and we actually make errors based on our snap judgements. Gladwell begins by talking about Warren Harding, who was one of our presidents back in the 1900’s and explains how people felt he should be a good president based on his good looking appearance. Harding was tall, dark, and handsome and people felt he would be a good president because he had the “presidential appearance.” According to the book, historians said that Harding was the worst president of the United States. Gladwell’s exemplification of Harding expresses that it is okay to make snap decisions, but you have to keep

Gladwell began the book by describing a “thin-slice”, and then refers to that definition after each example. For instance, when Gladwell describes the “Warren Harding error” -- or the phenomenon where people are selected for jobs simply because they look like they are qualified – he says,

The results determined that Gladwell was wrong because when the results came back it indicated there was more of a preference for positive words with images of white people than blacks. Gladwell was stunned by the results of the test because his mother is Jamaican and he would have expected himself to be more color blind during the test. I found the test fascinating because the test seemed predictable but in the end it really wasn’t what he expected. Gladwell also used a lot of inspiring quotes that are eye openers into our minds and judgements on how we think. Gladwell thru his book inspires us to think freely but carefully and with reasoning. Gladwell message to us in this book is to take our time no with making the right decisions no matter what we might be going thru at that time that may influence us to make a quick decisions. Mostly importantly the one thing I will not forget is that we do not have to put a time clock on everything. Gladwell stated, “When time is removed you are subject to the lowest-possible intuitive reaction” (p 112). I took this advice as when you don’t rush you make better decisions when you take your

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell is a book intended to inform the readers about the vast mystery of the mind. The book goes off to talk about science projects and/or tests, that were conducted on humans which essentially allows the reader to learn a little more about the mystery of the mind. The mind has exposed itself to the public many times, and it’s the first thing the book doesn’t fail to do. Blink has been intentionally written to be easier to understand by the public, it is a combination of many stories that as an end result gives a closer look on how the brain works. For the most part, each chapter is designed to inform the reader of the many different ways the brain can function. The chapter The Locked Door: The Secret Life of Decisions,

Gottman method couple therapy or Gottman's Sound Relationship House (SRH) theory (Gottman, 1999) is grounded on years of John Gottman’s research and exploration about what makes marital relationships succeed or fail. The outcomes of these studies reveal that couples with successful

“Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant – in the blink of an eye – that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. The book deals with the smallest components of our everyday lives—the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that spontaneously arise whenever we meet a new person or confront a complex situation or have to make a decision under conditions of stress.