13 November 2004

Blink

Malcolm Gladwell has a new book coming out in January of next year called Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking [Amazon]. Gladwell wrote my 30 September 2004 Currently Reading item, The Tipping Point. Tipping Point analyzed how popular trends become popular--labeling that transition as the tipping point. He classified the way that trends tip into three areas: the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. His ideas have that quality of obvious-yet-unstated. Why hadn't someone codified this before?

Blink should be equalling intriguing. IT Conversations has a streaming presentation by the author. A simple, obvious statement he makes at one point in the presentation, our feelings about something are extraordinarily unstable, hints at the conclusions arrived at by social construction [Wikipedia]. We're making choices every day, many of which we think are normal and absolute, yet we will change our choice--sometimes to the exact opposite--when context changes.

[ via BoingBoing -> IT Conversations ]

[ posted by sstrader on 13 November 2004 at 12:35:58 PM in Culture & Society ]