Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (2005, Unabridged, Compact Disc)

"Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking" is Malcom Gladwell's challenge for readers and society to follow intuition and glance. Gladwell cleverly and powerfully outlines the power of snap judgments - the key, as he puts it, is to analyze behaviors and situations using "thin slices" and "adaptive unconsciousness".

The struggle is simple and prevalent in business, life, relationships etc - simply put, people tend to over analyze and over think. Though this is a natural inclination, it is dangerous and time-consuming. Gladwell challenges us to act differently - but training ourselves and our surrounding to quickly adapt and interpret. But unlike most self-help books, Gladwell doesn't begin and end with a challenge - he walks readers through the need, the solution, etc - all in a thoughtful, well-developed manner.

I encourage readers not to form an opinion of the book based on the first chapter - which is slow and underdeveloped. The fundamental trouble with Gladwell's book (though I quite enjoyed it and found it quite powerful) is that, like all similar books, must be taken for what its worth. While its dangerous to always overthink - its equally dangerous to always rely on the adaptive unconscious. The true answer lays somewhere between the two extremes - Gladwell does a fine job allowing you to arrive there and I believe that is the goal he set out to achieve.

Also recommended:
The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book by Patrick Lencioni