Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking

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

To start with, Gladwell uses ethos, an appeal to ethics, as a device to effectively explain how

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

Gladwell carefully constructs his argument by offering the real life story of Bernie Goetz. Gladwell uses this example in order to provide a

The author explains exactly what the professional asserts and how particular pieces of evidence relate to Gladwell’s unconventional idea of success.

In addition Gladwell starts using logical effects one of the patient's brain was different and only damage in certain spots

Gladwell’s use of ethos through word choice and tone throughout the five-page case in Outliers is concerned and disappointed as if in this example he is upset that his thesis is holding true. He is displaying himself as an equal to the audience, just as sad and frustrated throughout the disappointing Langan case, “That was the lesson Langan learned from his childhood: distrust authority and be independent,” (110). The pathos employed by emotional influence is strong throughout the entire discouraging case because the audience views the great potential of Langan, lost due to a lacking background. Gladwell uses short phrases to be direct with the issue which forces his audience to ponder on the information, “He’d had to make his way alone, and no one - not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses - ever makes it alone,” (115). The mental image of Langan having to persevere in harsh conditions with Gladwell’s thesis of success against him, makes the audience feel for him. Furthermore, it u9nfortunately persuades the reader that if the super genius, Chris Langan, cannot succeed because of his lacking background, then Gladwell’s thesis that success is based on factors

The question Gladwell asks seems so simple, but it gets the reader to pause and think. People can relate to it in many situations, so it is personal for each person. Gladwell also uses analogies to make his points come across. For example, when relating successful people to growing trees, “The tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured. We all know that successful people come from hardy seeds.

Through his novel, Gladwell reveals what he believes is the key to success. FIrst off, Gladwell begins his argument on the offensive by using logos tactics. He does so by using a statistic, from

If managers are to put Gladwell's theories into practice, they must abandon a certain degree of top-down decision making. In our textbook, Greenberg defines top-down decision-making as an approach that puts the power to make decisions in the hands of managers, leaving lower level workers with little or no opportunity to make decisions. Gladwell also recognizes that in order for people to make effective split-second decisions, they must be given the right set of inputs. In other words, employees must be properly trained before they can trust their instinctive decision making ability. However, once employees have been given

From Blink I’ve learned that we, as a society, are quick to make snap judgements even if we don’t recognize it. This preset of humanity isn’t always bad, but it isn’t always good so you have to take it in stride. From the IAT(?) tests I’ve learned that my interpretations of the world aren’t exactly as I thought they were, and, that in snap decisions, I seem like another person even to myself. It’s all been very interesting really, but at the same time a bit perplexing. The mental models and social identity lessons helped solve that confused perplexion honestly, giving a better explanation of what it was that Gladwell explained why we do.

Whilst entering a bar that your friend recommended, a shady looking guy brushes your shoulder and gives you a strange look, you immediately develop a sense of discomfort and question your friend’s taste in bars. What do you do? You decide to walk in anyway and ask for a drink, a stranger then sits next to you and starts to engage in conversation. You are immediately attracted to this person and develop a sense that they are cultured and educated. Do you respond? What do you say? As the night closes this person asks for your number and suggests meeting again soon. You trust their intentions but you just met them, do you give them your number?

While Gladwell does not specifically outline how his theory of thin-slicing and snap-decision making relates to the eight guidelines, this information follows these guidelines; this enables us to more accurately judge the content of his novel because he analyzed the information he used. The first of these is define your terms: In the first several chapters of his book, Gladwell explains to readers the terms he uses such as the “adaptive unconscious” — “The adaptive unconscious is thought of, instead, as a kind of computer that quickly and quietly processes a lot of the data we need in order to keep functioning as human beings (pg. 11)” and “priming experiments” by giving