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1 Pages 13-14: (1)”We believe that we are always better off gathering as much information as possible and spending as much time as possible in deliberation. We really only trust conscious decision making… The first task of Blink is to convince you of a simple fact: decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately. ” (2)The quote above is in the introduction, “The Statue That Didn’t Look Right”. The quote if in between the end of three of the author’s examples of rapid cognition and right before the author admits that snap decisions can also betray us sometimes.
It represents the introductory tone of “The Statue That Didn’t Look Right and of the entire book itself. (3)The quote’s significance is that it sets the tone for Blink and gives a quick preview of the theories that the author, Malcolm Gladwell, will try to justify. The tone of the quote conveys a sense of thought renewal and redefining the way we think. It’s also a short summary of the three short stories of times when snap decisions were more effective than well though-out decisions. (4)From this quote, I can assume that the main idea of the book will be about the concept of snap decisions, or blinking, and when it can be applied. 5)I think that this book should be interesting because most of the decisions I make are already based on rapid cognition and I’m interested to read if Gladwell can explain why this is a better way of making decisions. (6)I like reading Blink so far and I like that we’re going to talk about it in class, but I don’t think I like writing these journals very much. Teacher comments: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Student comments: ____________________________________________________________ _______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 2 Page 49: (1)”He instinctively picks up the ‘giss’ of a double fault. He thin-slices some part of the service motion and — blink! — he just knows.
But here’s the catch: much to Braden’s frustration, he simply cannot figure out how he knows. ” (2)The quote above is found in “The Locked Door”, Chapter 2 of the book. It’s talking about tennis coach Vic Braden and his ability to see when a player is about to double-fault, even though he has no idea why he can see this or even what it is he’s actually seeing. (3)This is significant to the book because as the author points out on page 52: “We need to respect the fact that it is possible to know without knowing why we know and accept that — sometimes — we’re better off that way. The quote on page 49 states that it is possible to know things without knowing why and the quote on page 52 states that this is acceptable and that we are even better off that way. (4)From this quote, it can be inferred that this quote is one of the first justifications for the premise of Blink. It provides a foundation for which Gladwell can build the rest of his theories on and this is what I expect will happen. (5)While I agree that ignorance can be blissful, it still bugs me that I’m knowingly settling for less and that I’m basically saying “I don’t know, and that’s fine with me. (6)Are we going to be having a lot of homework in this class? I don’t want to sound whiny, but homework and I don’t get along well at all. Teacher comments: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Student comments: ____________________________________________________________ _______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 3 Page 91: (1)”They see someone, and somehow they let the first impression they have about that person’s appearance drown out every other piece of information they manage to gather in that instant. (2)The quote above is found in “The Warren Harding Error”, Chapter 3 of Blink. The person speaking is Bob Golomb, a car salesman who has become successful in his field of work because of his expertise in quick judgment.
The story is mostly about Golomb’s firm grasp on the concepts of Blink. (3)The quote’s significance is that it explains that while thin-slicing is an efficient way of making decisions, things like prejudice and bias can mask our mind’s ability to make these decisions and that it is important to realize this to devise a way to avoid this. It is also introducing the concept of first impressions in to the book. (4)From this quote, I can infer that Gladwell will begin to identify the disadvantages to snap decisions and defining the role of first impressions in these snap decisions. A solution to this problem will likely be explained. 5)I can admit that I make snap judgments of people based on their exterior, and I’m not embarrassed to say it because everyone does it to a degree. Plus, I’m black, so how racist could I be? (6)I don’t think we should spend a lot of time talking about this book in class because even though it’s really interesting to read and I can already see how this fits in with my life, I don’t think there’s much to debate or discuss about in this book. Teacher comments: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Student comments: ____________________________________________________________ _______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 4 Pages 112 and 113: (1)”Improvisation comedy is a wonderful example of the kind of thinking that Blink is about.
It involves people making very sophisticated decisions on the spur of the moment, without the benefit of any kind of script or plot. That’s what makes it so compelling and — to be frank — terrifying. ” (2)The quote above is found in “Paul Van Riper’s Big Victory”, Chapter 4 of Blink. The context of the quote is how improvisation comedy is an example of rapid cognition. The entire story is in between the beginning and the end of the story of war veteran Van Riper’s spontaneous victory. (3)The quote is used as a transition and to explain “successful spontaneity. It’s not central to the point of the chapter, rather, it’s a real-world application of Blink and it’s an example of rapid cognition. (4)From this quote, I can infer that Gladwell will continue to give examples of Blink similar to this one and that comedy is only one use for rapid cognition. I also think that successful spontaneity will be a new basis for new theories for the rest of the book. (5)I think that the quote is accurate because I find the things me and my friends say way funnier than professional comedians who write their jokes and rehearse to be funny. 6)I think the concept of successful spontaneity is important to this particular chapter in the book because it’s such a good example of rapid cognition and it’s one of the things I’d like to talk about in class. Teacher comments: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Student comments: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 5 Page 137: (1)”In fact… that extra information is more than useless. It’s harmful. It confuses the issues. What screws up doctors when they are trying to predict heart attacks is that they take too much information into account. ” (2)The quote above is found in “Paul Van Riper’s Big Victory”, Chapter 4 of Blink.
In this quote, Gladwell is in the middle of explaining that diagnosing heart attacks is actually simpler than doctors think. This section deals with the effects of an excessive amount of information on our decision-making skills. (3)The proposal in this quote is very radical and is basically the idea of the entire book: That too much information is useless and can actually prove to be harmful to the decision making process. The reason for this is that the information just isn’t relevant to the actual decision and because of this, the information drowns out the “underlying signature of a complex phenomenon. (4)From this quote, I realize that Gladwell is not only telling us about Blink, but he’s actually using the methods in Blink to write the book. He doesn’t stay on particular stories very long and he doesn’t use a ridiculous amount of information like other psychology books. This makes the book much more authentic and credible. (5)If I were to completely live by the principles of Blink, I would definitely have to work at taking in less information because I consider way too many unimportant things when making a decision. (6)I think I should let you know that by the time I wrote this quote, I had finished the book.
I just didn’t want to keep stopping to write a journal every time I saw a good quote. Teacher comments: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Student comments: ____________________________________________________________ _______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 6 Page 167 and 168: (1)”He called his new project the Aeron, and the story of the Aeron illustrates a second, deeper problem with trying to measure people’s reactions: it is hard for us to explain our feelings about unfamiliar things. ” (2)The quote above is found in “Kenna’s Dilemma”, Chapter 5 of the book. The Aeron is referring to a chair that was thought to be hideous but after people got past their views that chairs should “look” comfortable, it actually sold very and became very popular.
This chapter deals with how you can’t trust people to tell you what they actually want and you should really only go by their actions. The quote itself is a recap of stories and studies that are demonstrations of this. (3)The quote is important because once again, it is proof that trying to extract information from a situation tends to complicate it and makes for a poorer decision. People do what they want, but that doesn’t mean that they know what they want. The best way to determine what people want is simple: Don’t ask them what they want.
This could just complicate the decision-making process and it’s better to observe them and see what they spontaneously do. (4)It can be inferred that the end of the story of “Kenna’s Dilemma” will end with him getting the recognition he deserves because of the fact that even though research showed that people wouldn’t like him, when they actually listened to him, they actually liked him when they weren’t asked to analyze his music. I could be wrong though. (5)I actually used to have and Aeron chair, but I never thought it looked ugly at all.
That’s probably because it was a new design at the time it was released but by now, it’s very common and looks appealing to people. Another testament of how first impressions can lead us astray when taking in the wrong information. (6)I’m starting to realize that this book repeats itself a lot. I get the point by now and I don’t think I need a bunch of stories and studies to tell me I how I need to think Teacher comments: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Student comments: ____________________________________________________________ _______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 7 Page 183: (1)”Our unconscious reactions come out of a locked room, and we can’t look inside that room.
But with experience we become expert at using our behavior and our training to interpret — and decode — what lies behind our snap judgments and first impressions. ” (2)The quote above is found in “Kenna’s Dilemma”, Chapter 5 of Blink. The “locked door” of our mind is referring to where are all the mechanics of making decisions takes place. The only downside is we have no idea what’s going in the locked door so we can’t know why we know. (3)This is significant to the book because it basically tells you “Everyone can be good at something.
But only if everyone’s an expert and the ‘something’ is something you’re good at. ” I have no idea what the author was trying to do here but it definitely doesn’t make sense. (4)I hope that the author explains this contradiction but with the end of the book already approaching, I doubt he will. (5)The quote actually ticked me off a little because it’s the exact opposite of everything this book was supposed to be about. Remember this: “The power of knowing, in that first two seconds, is not a gift given magically to a fortunate few. It is an ability that we can all cultivate for ourselves. ” What happened to that? 6)If we could talk about nothing else but one thing from this book, I’d want it to be this section because it’s really going to bother me now until we do. Teacher comments: ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Student comments: ____________________________________________________________ _______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ 8 Page 237: (1)”‘If you have to rely on your reflexes, someone is going to get hurt — and get hurt unnecessarily. If you take advantage of intelligence and cover, you will almost never have to make an instinctive decision. ‘” (2)The quote above is found in “Seven Seconds In The Bronx”, Chapter 6 of Blink. A police officer named Fyfe is speaking and he’s talking about how they train officers to not put themselves in situations where they have to rely on their instincts.
Again, this goes against everything that the book was supposed to be about, which in this case would be being able to rely on the relevant information of the situation and being able to respond accordingly. (3)I guess the most significant thing about this quote is that it’s contradictory to the rest of the book. I see the logic in the quote itself, but I’m not sure what this has to do with the concept of Blink and I think it’s a confusing statement to add towards the end of the book. 4)Like I said before, I finished reading the book in the middle of writing the journals and I can safely infer that Gladwell doesn’t really say anything to explain the contradiction in the remaining pages of the book except for a few vague remarks about rapid cognition. (5)Personally, I think it’s a crummy ending for a book and it kind of makes me a little annoyed at the open-endedness of it all. (6)A comment I’d like to make to the teacher would be are we going to be doing any other assignments on this book or are we done with it? Teacher comments: ____________________________________________________________ _____________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Student comments: ____________________________________________________________ _______________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________