Blink - Malcolm Gladwell

In this book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the idea of what he calls 'Thin-Slicing'. When your unconscious mind can make snap decisions, that are often better, with just one look or small pieces of information, rather than exploring and pondering upon your topic. He takes thin-slicing to the grassroots, using different scenarios upon different people to explain just how powerful 'thin-slicing' is.

In his first story, he explains how a Museum in Greece was thinking of buying an ancient statue (called a Kouros) for display in the museum. They had teams of experts to scientifically examine the statue from every angle, going so far as to check the layer of oxidized stone on the surface. They gave it the green light. Just before the museum shelled out for the million-dollar marvel, a greek statue expert took one look at it and dismissed it as a fake. He said he just looked at it, and knew it was a fake. The museum called in many other archeologists, museum keepers and statue-enthusiasts and they all confirmed that the statue was in fact, fake.

The book is filled with stories such as these, as well as experiments and real-world scenario such as the "Pepsi Challenge" and the 'New Coke".