December 2nd 2010
written by Inventa

Blink is a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye.

When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. "Blink" is a book about those two seconds, because those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good.

What goes on in that first two seconds is perfectly rational. It's thinking--its just thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with "thinking." "Blink"tries to understand those two seconds. What is going on inside our heads when we engage in rapid cognition? When are snap judgments good and when are they not? What kinds of things can we do to make our powers of rapid cognition better?