Blink

Blink... Eureka!!! Its a piece of brilliant thinking, something that not many people could have thought of. The world is full of ideas, success is limited to a very few ideas. What distinguishes these ideas from the rest? Is it practice or is it purely more knowledge about a certain subject? Why do we sometimes take so much time to think over the solution to a problem and when you find the answer your like 'that was so simple to think of'. On the other hand someone might know the solution within a flash.

While you are reading this very line do you realize how effortlessly you are reading these very words. I had read an email stating that (please read the following line as fast as you can) "eevn if I worte smoethnig lkie tihs you wuold be albe to raed it. The lgioc bnhied this was siad to be taht wehn we do ripad radeing we look olny at the frsit and the lsat letetr and we asusme taht wrod to be a cretian wrod". This effortless reading has come only after years of reading something or the other everyday. This rapid decision making mechanism was has been developed through a mechanism called thin slicing as described in the book called "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell.

There is an amazing instance from the book where a research is being carried on married couples, as part of a marriage counseling workshop. The couple is made to sit in a room and left alone and told to talk about anything they want to discuss with each other. A video recording of their interaction is done. The couple may discuss probably about their neighbour or their dog or even about sex. To a layman the couple seems to be absolutely fine as they were hardly being agressive towards each other or even seemed as if they were fighting, but the researchers were noting down, every second of the conversation, each and every movement of each person, every expression like agreement, sigh, rolling eyes and even the restlessness developed by a particular partner. If any of them was being defensive in their approach towards the other person, in the sense, " thats true ... but ..." kind of style of argument. Through these thin sliced observations the scientists were able to predict 95% correctly if the couple were really happy with each other or stuff like if the couple would still be with each other after 7 years.

However, it is not about collecting a lot of information. it is about collecting the required information. But, the problem that most of us face is recognising which information is useful. Like, I have a penchant for developing my knowledge about current affairs, so I read newspapers. But if I read a complete story about a boy falling in a borewell and only the headlines regarding the reasons of the Lehmann Brothers tragedy, I know I have faultered in my goal. Its about knowing your goal and developing a focused strategy pertaining only to your goal. The method of developing this flash instinct is ambiguous. There is no hard and fast manner to develop this. May be it is a meticulous approach towards your passion!!