Blink : The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist and it shows in this book. I read all of it with interest yet I had this feeling of being cheated of something. Well, 'cheated' is a hard word so let us put it as something missing instead. I figured it out soon enough and from then it was not bad at all. You see, the book reads like a bunch of articles sewn together. He did make certain names appear here and there for the sake of continuity but in essence the chapters were articles. That does not mean it is not a good read. In fact I did not skip over any part and did read all of it. I am just ambivalent about the reading experience that is all.

I am sure almost everyone has heard of the phrase " First Impressions Are The Best Impressions". Gladwell has written a book on this with ample examples to prove his point. I agree with most of what he says and since he himself did a good job of creating a good first impression on each of his 'articles' you will finish each with pleasure. See here and here for more on the book and here for more on the author.

Added on July23
Well, Gladwell has managed to make me conscious of what normally is an intuitive feeling. So read him at your own risk. I am adding this to write about how he does truly have a point and my recent experience just proves it.

You see, I work at this company where they have these huge conference rooms in the lobby with full paneled glass doors that everyone can see into and back. Most job interviews are held here because there will always be at least one or two of these rooms available. The last few days, as I was walking past one of the rooms I began noticing the same group interviewing with different people. Sometime two on the same day etc. I started slowly being aware of these candidates quite unconsciously and decided on one particular one as the most likely to be hired. It was arrived at almost as soon as I glanced at the candidate through the glass doors. Thought to myself that if I were to hire, I'd be hiring this person.

So...... guess who got hired in the end? Yes, "my" candidate. So the group didn't need to waste their time and money. All they had to do was to put the candidates in a lineup and ask me to point to the one:-))