You can absolutely criticize Malcolm Gladwell as the king of pop culture psychology or anthropology. He does tend to overgeneralize his conclusions from very narrow examples, but it’s fun as hell to read and makes me think.
Gut Instincts Can Outperform Analysis
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.
Thin Slicing Is Powerful
Thin slicing is the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience.
Change Your Experiences to Improve Your Judgment
Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can change our first impressions by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions.
Stress = Different Reality
Adrenaline during police incidents impairs judgment, but stress inoculation helps professionals handle high-pressure situations.
Rapid Cognition Has Risks
The dark side of thin slicing is the Warren G. Harding error. It’s why utter mediocrities sometimes end up in positions of enormous responsibility.
Overthinking Can Disrupt Intuition
Recognizing someone’s face is a classic example of unconscious cognition. We don’t have to think about it. Faces just pop into our minds. But suppose I were to ask you to take a pen and paper and write down in as much detail as you can what your person looks like... Believe it or not, you will now do a lot worse picking that face out of a lineup. This is because the act of describing the face has the effect of impairing your otherwise effortless ability to subsequently recognize that face.”
Intuition Can Be Trained
Whenever we have something we are good at—something we care about—the experience and passion fundamentally change the nature of our first impressions. This does not mean that when we are outside our areas of passion and experience, our reactions are invariably wrong. It just means that they are shallow. They are hard to explain and easily disrupted.
Likability Is Mistaken For “Good”
Doctors are more likely to get sued based on likeability, not how many mistakes they make.
People Mistake Their Own Objectivity
People are ignorant of the things that affect their actions, yet they rarely feel ignorant. We need to accept our ignorance and say "I don't know" more often.
Spontaneity Requires Preparation
Improvisation is about ‘sophisticated decisions on the spur of the moment,’ but it is only possible after hours of highly repetitive and structured practice.