Blink, Wisdom and Freakonomics

My reading as of late has been done with my ears. I started out with Confessions of an Economic HitMan and The Tipping Point near the end of 2007. From there I finished Blink, The Wisdom of Crowds and Freakonomics all in the first two months of this year. I am enjoying good writing at a rate that I would have never done in the past. I am a bit of a slow reader and when it comes to choosing to keep up with comics or a book when I'm home with free time the comic is always going to win. Audio books on the other hand allow me to listen in the car, when I am getting ready in the morning and even while I'm at the gym.

Blink is Malcolm Gladwell's follow up to the Tipping Point. It focuses on what he describes as "thin-slicing" or making use of the split second decisions your mind makes and that you may not even be aware of. It is a good mental exercise and a bit more organic than the some what more business oriented Tipping Point. It is interesting stuff though and I have made use of at least one of the many topics since reading it.

Priming is the act of subconsciously or consciously preparing your mind to change your future actions. Every night around 10pm Crystal goes to bed on the futon in our computer room. Around 12am or 1am when I am ready to go to bed I wake her up to walk to the bedroom with me. Most nights she does not even remember the trip, but she will on occasion get upset with me or refuse to make the trip without 5-10 minutes of gentle coaxing. I decided that before she went to bed every night I would prime her to wake up to some action or word I used. Some nights is would be a rub on the arm and a song. Other nights it was a kiss on the forehead and phrase. It worked since I started and when remember to do it has made the transition from the futon to the bed the easiest thing in the world.

The Wisdom of Crowds was my next choice after finishing Blink, it is a great concept, but the book tended to drag a bit. It is mainly about the power of medium to large collective decisons versus individual "expert" decisions. I can see the statistical applications it has, but when it tries to transition to business it starts to fail. Not as a whole, but it feels like a very loose argument. It got a bit redundant near the end as well, but I don't know if that was my questioning of its assertions or the actual writing.

Finally Freakonomics was my most recent finish and also the most entertaining. The questions it ask and attempts to answer are not always practical, but they deliver. Want to know why drug dealers still live with their Mom's? Why did the raging crime rate of the early 90s and late 80s suddenly tail off? How are salesman like the ku klux klan? These are the kinds of questions it attempts to answer and usually does so convincingly.

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