Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

I think I read this book a while ago, but I seem to halve lost all records of it. in the book, Gladwell provides a number of short anecdotes and background for "snap judgements". Sometimes we can find things subconsciously without knowing how we know it. This can be useful or detrimental depending of the situation. People often have the ability to "mind read" in situations to better understand what others are thinking. For police officers, this is a critical skill that can often be a matter of life or death. The book explores a few cases of cops killing innocent men in response to snap judgements.

On the more positive side, the book explores how experts can quickly identify a fake statue, even when the "evidence" seems to point to it being genuine. The University of Washington "love lab" can identify couples that will remain together after only viewing a short bit of their interactions. They use detailed by-second coding to quantify this process. 

The book also explores how market research and asking people about their thoughts can backfire. Pepsi would win taste tests because it was sweeter. This allowed it to win the "quick taste", even in cases, but doesn't show the long term impact. The two colas are so close together, that most people would have difficulty picking out the different one in a group of three. Market research could also lead to many "different" items being avoided. It is difficult to distinguish between "different" and "bad".