Because I am living in an environment in which I can't understand the TV, the radio nor most conversations, I have some free time on my hands. To fill those hours, I am trying to read. There are many many book stores here that carry English books. Very nice. I finished the first volume of Harry Potter I brought (book 5). I am waiting on the next one. I don't want to overload on Harry. I couldn't decide what to read next. Often times I like to read local books but I can't read local books cuz I can't read Thai. Also, I don't want to cloud my experience here with someone else's. So after a few trips to the bookstore, I finally settled on "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of "The Tipping Point". I loved his first book. "Blink" was pretty good. It did have some interesting bits. Well actually it had many interesting bits, I just didn't feel like it was as tight as the first book. Like maybe he used all his knowledge and good ideas in that one book sort of like when a musician does an album. When the first one is great, the second isn't. Everything was used up in that first album. The years and years of making music poured into the first album and then a year or two of music goes into the second.
Anyway, back to the book. Malcolm talks about how people in the blink of an eye can get a lot of information (thin slicing). He talks about how we analyze a situation in a moment. For examples, he sites a tennis expert, Vic Braden, who can predict double faults. And a researcher, John Gottman, who can predict marital failure. (Who couldn't use that?) He even talks about when thin slicing goes wrong: stereotyping. He talks a lot about the Amadou Diallo shooting as well as racial profiling and everyday sorts of prejudice that's versus ones that end up with someone dead. Harvard has a website in which you can test your own racial bias: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Study?tid=-1. Gladwell came up as being only having a mild preference towards whites and his mother is from Jamacia i.e. he is half black. There is a chapter on the new process of auditioning musicians behind a screen to prevent biases. To read an interesting account go to: www.osborne-conant.org/ladies.htm. As I flip through the book again to for the details, I am overwhelmed by the number of interesting bits. I really recommend this book: totally interesting easy read.