Wonderful keynote from Malcolm Gladwell—a sampling of some of the anecdotes and key observations in his latest book Blink about the snap decisions we make and why they are sometimes so wrong.
Some of the issues raised were not surprising if unfortunate (predominance of white males in symphony orchestras until auditions were done behind a screen) or even tragic (the shooting of Amadou Diallo).
Where Gladwell was most fascinating, though, was when he pointed out some of the less obvious prejudices which can "hijack" our snap decision making. For example, he talked about how poor doctors are at diagnosing whether chest pains are a heart attack or not when presented with a wealth of seemingly relevant information. Doctors who are presented with less information can make a much more accurate diagnosis.
He also related this "less information can help you make better decisions" to things like the intelligence community, suggesting that the intentions of the Japanese in 1941 were clearer to people reading only newspapers than to the intelligence community with the wealth of information that effectively overburdened their ability to judge the overall pattern.
One audience member asked a great question about how Gladwell does his research. His response was both humorous and insightful. He just made sure everyone he came into contact with knew exactly what he was interested in at that time and talked about nothing else. Many of the stories in the book, he said, came from chance conversations with people.
I'm looking forward to reading Blink (bought a copy after the talk which Malcolm signed). If you get a chance to hear Malcolm speak, jump at it. He is a great speaker.