Blink … The Power of Thinking Without Thinking …

Have you ever wondered sometimes, somehow you know something is wrong and you just know it but yet you can’t describe how and why? You interviewed a candidate and in that short time, you are supposed to make up your mind and give your recommendation whether you think this person would fit or has the ability to do the job. Do you think if they would have given you one month to work with this person first, your decision may stay the same?

--courtesy of goodreads.com

In September of 1983, J. Paul Getty Museum in California was approached by an art dealer by the name of Gianfranco Becchina. He offered Getty a marble statue dating from the sixth century BC for the price of $10M. It was what is known as kouros – a sculpture of nude male youth standing with his left leg forward and his arms at his sides. According to Blink, the Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcom Gladwell, “there are only about two hundred kouroi in existence, and most have been recovered badly damaged. But this one was almost perfectly preserved.”

Getty requested a geologist from the University of California named Stanley Margolis to do an investigation and at the end he concluded that “it wasn’t some contemporary fake.” In another word, it was real. After spending fourteen months, finally Getty decided to buy the statue.

However, the statue didn’t look right to Federico Zeri, an Italian art historian. He found himself staring at the sculpture’s fingernails. He couldn’t articulate why, but it seemed wrong to him. The same thing happened to Evelyn Harrison, she is world’s foremost experts on Greek sculpture. When a curator said to her, “Well, it isn’t ours yet, but it will be in couple weeks.” And Harrison replied, “I am sorry to hear that.” According to the author, “Harrison had a hunch, an instinctive sense that something was amiss.”

“In the first two seconds of looking –in a single glance – both Zeri and Harrison were able to understand more the essence of the statue than the team at the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months. Blink is a book about those first two seconds. “

Hope you will find yourself walking down the library’s isle looking for this “Blink” by Malcom Gladwell and find yourself enjoying it as much as I do. Until next pause.

Until next stop,
Journey of Life