"Blink" And Your Subconscious

[Meta Blog]

Originally from The Charlotte Capitalist ™,

Have you read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell? Its subtitle, "The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking" had me concerned. But...upon reading it, I found it to be a neither mystical nor subjective look at the subconscious. Let us not judge a book by its cover.

The essential quote (p.114) from "Blink":

Spontaneity isn't random...How good people's decisions are under the fast-moving, high-stress conditions of rapid cognition is a function of training and rules and rehearsal.

"Blink" is not explicitly philosophical. But it inspired me to put Dr. Harry Binswanger's "Psycho-Epistemology I" on my Christmas list. As an introduction, Dr. Binswanger gave the simple example of how we can provide the answer to "7 plus 2" instantly. We don't calculate it consciously. It is because we, in "Blink" terms, "rehearsed" it as a child. We give the answer in a "Blink".

Another point Gladwell makes is:

that extra information is more than useless. It's harmful. It confuses the issues. (p. 137)

Sounds similar to crow epistemology to me. He provides an example of how a hospital focused upon determining the essential information for analyzing chest pains in an emergency room. The approach saved lives and money.

I could share more, but most importantly, I think "Blink" will help people to understand the nature of the subconscious. I think the lack of understanding of the subconscious is one of the great, if not *the* great, philosophical and psychological issues.

All of the gods of the sun and seas are dead because scientists have provided explanations for their identity and causality. People explain away the actions of their subconscious through mysticism ("God or The Holy Ghost provided me the answer.") or subjectively ("I don't really have to think or plan, I just wing it.")

In many cases, this "works" for people only because their subconscious is working the way it should -- based upon "training and rules and rehearsal". They are simply failing to identify the real root.

"Blink" is not Objectivist. It has its faults. But "Blink" is overall rational. And it points out the value for studies of the subconscious such as Dr. Binswanger's.