Goodreads
The book in 3 sentences:
- Split second decisions made in a blink can be just as good as well thought out decisions.
- Our unconscious is a powerful force, but it is fallible, distractable and can be thrown off.
- Split second decision making can be optimized, primed and honed, and it has to be done in context for it to have maximum value.
Quotes that stood out:
The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.
Insight is not a bulb that goes off in our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.
Anyone who has peeked into the bookshelf or the medicine cabinet of a new boyfriend/girlfriend can understand implicitly that one glance at someone's private space can make you learn as much as hours of someone's public face.
Often a sign of expertise is noticing what doesn't happen.
Ideas
The theory of thin-slicing
- Humans have the ability to take very thin slices of data and draw conclusions from it using a combination of experience and intuition.
- This allows us to make smart decisions based on little information with minimal deliberation.
The 40-70 rule
- Only make decisions when you have 40% of the relevant information, but never wait until you have more than 70% information.
- This describes the ideal relationship between time and information, ensuring you act fast but also not uninformed, without waiting until making a decision eventually becomes moot.
The world’s fastest filter of information
- The unconscious is the fastest filter of information.
- When confronted with new information, it sifts through all of it and then tosses out the less important, judges the few big ones in a split second and then presents you with a solution.
- But it can get it wrong sometimes, stress can temporarily lead your gut down the wrong path.
Priming
- It happens when we alter our behaviour in measurable ways due to certain stimuli, such as images, words and culture.
- We are always getting primed by our environment at any given time. Our subconscious recognises the environment, and decides if this specific personality favours it, then we start behaving more like our environment.
Verbal overshadowing
- Trying to justify, explain or rationalize decisions prevents us from making good and intuitive decisions.
- This process is known as verbal overshadowing.
When should we trust our instincts?
- It is just as important to question our intuition as much as we trust it.
- Snap judgements may be more accurate than well thought out ones, but we need to make sure they are not a result of an underlying subconscious racial, socio-economic or appearance based bias.