Good afternoon, bookish girls. Just a quick reminder that I'll be posting some discussion points on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in a few weeks. I hope you'll sneak a read in. It's a classic, but more importantly... it's short!

Blink Discussion: Wrap-up

This is my last thread on Blink. Thanks for letting me lead the discussion!

Let me remind you of most of the cases from the book:

Kenna, the singer
Vic Braden, the tennis expert
Warren Harding, past U.S. President
Pepsi vs. Coke
Gottman and the Love Lab
The Getty Museum acquisition
Paul Van Riper, the general, and the Millennium Challenge
The police massacre of Diallo
Heart attach triage at Cook County Hospital
Silvan Tomkins and face-reading
The food tasting duo of Civille and Heylmun
Predicting litigation of physicians
Slow-motion during distress
Herman Miller's "ugly" chair

Any thoughts on these cases? Any other thoughts on Blink or questions for the group? Did you enjoy the book? Will you recommend it?

Blink Discussion: Social Agenda

In his afterword, Gladwell stated that Blink was originally meant to be a "journey into the wonders of our unconscious" (p. 273). After time has passed, Gladwell feels there may be a call to action after all. Similar to the blind auditions in symphonies, Gladwell suggests removing race, gender, and age pointers from the courtroom to discourage discrimination of defendants. How well do you think this would work and how in favor would you be? I am personally very much in favor with this idea and would fight for it. What are other social applications to Gladwell's theories? Ahem, Ron Paul vs. Mitt Romney. Discuss.

Blink Discussion: Gut Instincts

In what ways are you applying Gladwell's theories to your personal life? I know that I am a very analytical person and that when faced with something, I can easily toddle down a detail road and never make a decision. When my husband heard at work about Blink and its premise, he started encouraging me to make gut decisions. For me, it worked. But half-way through the book, I started second-guessing myself (big surprise!!) and wondering whether Gladwell was actually anti-gut reaction (anyone else confused at that point?). Then, around page 180, he started making the distinction that gut decisions are for experts, in context, and without distracting variables. I figure I am the expert on me and my life, so I have gone back to making gut decisions. It is saving my family a lot of time and getting the same results or better! I guess I can thin-slice my neighborhood, kids, clothes, tastes, etc. pretty well.

Another distinction came around page 266 when Gladwell defined gut decisions as being best when the issues are complicated and analysis as being more effective when the variables are few.

What about you? How will Blink help you?

Blink Discussion: Lie to Me

Did you like Blink? If so, do you also like the television series "Lie to Me"? Check it out here on hulu.com.

Blink Discussion: The Love Lab

The idea of Gottman's Love Lab (Blink , p. 20) is alternately intriguing and terrifying to me. Do you think Gottman's "thin-slicing" takes into account that someone could just be having a bad day in the lab, or that maybe the chosen topic just hit a nerve for the moment? While reading I kept wondering what people would do with the information that their marriage was in trouble.

One of my friends has a doctorate in Marriage and Family Science and she related that Gottman is considered the leading authority on marriage science. His studies are used world-wide in the industry. She also said that couples are not told the result of the analysis of Love Lab. Phew!

Still, would you subject your marriage to Gottman's analysis? Would you want to know the results?

Blink Discussion: Project Implicit

Click here for Project Implicit, the Harvard survey tool discussed in Blink (p. 77) that correlates your preferences using timed tests. Each test takes about 10 minutes.

What do you think of the test? Do you think your answers were biased due to "priming", a concept mentioned on p. 52?

I was hoping for the race test that bothered Malcolm Gladwell so much (and would probably bother me), but I was given a test related to discipline preferences. I will say that no wonder I have cognitive dissonance as a mother because I am a strict mom, yet the test said I have a strong association to "Nurturing"!

Good evening, bookish girls. I hope you have been well these past weeks since our last discussion. We are excited to be posting questions for Malcolm Gladwell's Blink in just a few days.

Tonight however, Kelly and I are pleased to announce that fellow reader and bookish girl, Carol, be leading the discussion this time around.

Carol and I served as missionaries together on Temple Square some (undisclosed) number of years ago. It didn't take long for me to realize that Carol was brilliant, charming and very funny.

Today Carol lives in Arizona with her husband and four beautiful children. She loves to sew, garden and bake... and she especially loves to try new recipes. She also enjoys to craft, particularly with her children.

Carol works as a curriculum editor. Among other endeavors, she writes and edits for www.ikeepsafe.org, a website that provides parents, teachers and policymakers with resources for teaching children how to use technology safely. This past summer, she edited classroom materials for Signing Time.

A couple of months ago I had the chance to catch up with Carol in San Francisco. I had a wonderful time reminiscing with her... and just as on the Square all those (still undisclosed) number of years ago, Carol proved to me that she is very much still brilliant, still charming and still very, very funny.

Thanks, Carol, for agreeing to be our first brave reader to lead a discussion. We're looking forward to it!

p.s. I will write equally complimentary posts of no less than three paragraphs for all future bookish girls who agree to lead book discussions. If that is not enticement enough, I will throw in cookies.

p.s.s. OK, seriously, if you'd like to lead a future discussion please email me at the address given on the sidebar. I'll still send cookies.