This entry is an excerpt from

July 08, ENJOY! IT’S YOUR LIFE! NEWSLETTER 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Ask me questions and I’ll answer them.

This blog page belongs to Julieta Macias, of Macias Consulting. It is intended for the use of AABDGRL members , Julieta’s guest, who want to extend a book discussion beyond the groups’ meeting. This blog is not affiliated in anyway with Montgomery County Public Libraries.

Hello Everyone,

I am a member of the Rockville Library African American Book Club. This month we read the following book and I want to start/continue the conversation about this interesting topic.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking By Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown, 277 pages)

Blinking is automatic. I remember playing a competitive game with my siblings to see which one of us could keep our eyes open the longest without blinking. I’ve been told I tend to blink a lot. Does my blinking or your blinking have anything to do with our decisions or actions? Well not really.

Blink is the title Gladwell used for his book. It is his attempt to bring awareness to the process of thinking which can happen in the “blink of an eye”. Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink discusses “thin slicing”. It is about trying to understand and study a segment of time. It is the time where experiences and beliefs (conscious and unconscious) operate when you or I make decisions. Most of us believe this. This book supports this assumption with scientific research. Blink takes us through an array of psychology, marketing and criminology research that is detailed and understandable.

Experiences/prejudgments/biases can influence our thinking. These influences can be positive (we make healthy, life preserving choices) or we make negative (hire a less competent employee or kill another human being). I appreciate Gladwell’s work and his honesty about his score on a test of bias. Gladwell conveyed his sensitivity and openness to the humanness that we all share.

This book is a good vehicle for the needed conversation to improve our choices/lives and continue engaging in life affirming decisions. I invite you to tell me your impressions, what did you like the most, the least about this book? What will you do differently if anything because of reading this book? Are you more interested or less interested in the way you come up with decisions? Is any of this new to you? If you were asked to write a follow up to this book, what would you write about?

Feel free to answer any of these questions, ask your own or simply make your own statements. If you haven’t read Blink, I suggest you do and come back here and comment.

Hi,

I am pleased to begin this forum for the exchange of ideas. I welcome your questions/comments about personal and professional development. I'll respond.

Enjoy! It's Your Life!  

Please sign up for my monthly e-newsletter with advice to reach your goals.

 http://www.maciasconsultingphd.com/form/eng/contact.html

“ Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler”