An Audible Promised Land

Monday, April 13, 2009

Thin-slicing

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink. It's a fast read about how we make decisions in the blink of an eye. Gladwell calls it thin-slicing.

When we come in contact with something—a book, a painting, an idea—we bring subconscious knowledge to that very first second and on some level, we come to a conclusion.

Most of the time, we dig for more information. It's rational. Gladwell shows that sometimes we know in that very first second what the what is. Thin slicing is not intuition, but real thinking that takes place real fast.

Sport makes for a great example. A running back makes thousands of decisions as he runs down the field. He's thinking, "Cut or duck—that guy's huge. Cut. Quick."

Tiger Woods tweaks his ankle and sinks the putt. Is he aware of his ankle adjustment? Doubt it.

You're in a bookstore and you slide a book off the shelf. You glance at the cover and scan the blurb and then you read the first line. A decision has formed. You might ask the clerks their opinions, but you already have an idea in place.

Writers make these snap, subconscious decisions as they are typing. The über critic makes this naturally more difficult. But in the end, can you tweak your subconscious?

Editors and agents plow through tons of material every day. Without thin-slicing, they would never get through the pile.

I wonder if the accepted stories have something upfront and deliciously subconscious that clicks in the agent's mind and makes her say, "I can sell this."

7 comments:

Christy Raedeke said...

The thing that's frustrating with publishing is that the decisions seem so slippery - what someone likes one day may be somewhat different another day. I suppose decisions related to art are a bit more influenced by mood than, say, our decisions related to sports activities.

Blink has been on my list for awhile. Need to get to it. Have you read Outliers yet?

StaffPicks said...

Mood certainly plays a role, but Gladwell argues that many decisions we make, sports or art, are made in the first two seconds. Compelling stuff.
As far as Outliers goes, I hear that I am getting it as a birthday present |:~)

Corey Schwartz said...

I never get through an entire non-fiction book, but sounds like I'd find this one interesting.

Hardygirl said...

I like the whole "thin-slicing" concept. "Thin" is the operative word--you're not digging too deep in there when you form those snap opinions.

And, yes--mood can make or break you. It's amazing! Must read.

sf

Dan said...

I read outliers, thought it was great. I have been trying to you the uber first impression to make decisions, I look back on the many bad chioces I have made most involved not paying attention to my own intuition!

Tyler said...

This sounds like an interesting book, and certainly seems to apply to publishing--especially queries. Thanks for the recommendation!

Katie Anderson said...

I've read the beginning of BLINK and love it. But my mutha keeps telling me that OUTLIERS is AMAZING!!!!

Happy Birthday! (whenever it is :-)

An Audible Promised Land