Still reading...

"See, you look out there and you want to go out and play. I look out there and I want to run under the covers"
- Gina, after looking outside during today's snowstorm

There's not much else to do except wait for the snow to stop so that I can go out and shovel, so I may as well write about what an utter piece of crap Blink turned out to be. The subtitle, as I said before is "The Power of Thinking Without Thinking". The book focuses on "thin-slicing" - taking very small bits of information, and making quick decisions based on that information. It takes the reader through several mini-essays about people who are very good at this - people who can spot fake pieces of art, firefighters who make quick decisions, etc. However, that's all it is - just a collection of these stories. Maybe I was reading under a bad assumption, but I figure that, at some point, the book would detail how the reader can harness this power of thin-slicing to better himself. No dice. Not even in the chapter called "The lessons of Blink" - that was just more drivel about somebody who can make good decisions with minimal information. Bah.

So now I'm reading Freakonomics which, ironically, has a quote on the cover from Gladwell. I'm only one chapter in, but it seems much better, although that may be because this time I'm expecting a collection of stories, and not a lesson in Economics. So far the book has focused on incentives in modern life, and why they don't work. I'll report back when done with the book (which could be soon, depending on how bad my travel delay is tomorrow)

Non-book-related-note: We just tried to open the front door, and the snow is up over the level of the door, so once this is all done, I'll have to shovel my way out to get to the shoveling. Good times...