　　无论是重大的商务决策，还是诸如躲避迎面开来的汽车这种微不足道的行为，我们不可避免地总要对我们面临的情势做出快速判断，并迅速付诸行动，但是，我们又常常无例外地以为，我们必须对我们要做出的决策收集尽可能多的信息，必须殚精竭虑，必须反复权衡，必须“三思而后行”，只有这样，我们才可能对我们的决策充满自信，我们才会觉得我们的决策是完美的决策，我们总是在决策的当口排距直觉的介入，总是把我们快速做出判断的先天禀赋看成不入流的低能儿，但这本书以全新的视角告诉我们什么是不假思索的神奇力量，它证实了这样的简单事实：在转瞬之间做出的决策能够与经过谨慎思量和深思熟虑做出的决策媲美。而这本书诉求的另一个主题就是：你快速做出判断的能力和凭借第一印象付诸行动的能力是可以训练和掌控的。

内容简介

How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? That's the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in the follow-up to his huge bestseller, The Tipping Point. Utilizing case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the shooting of Amadou Diallo, Gladwell reveals that what we think of as decisions made in the blink of an eye are much more complicated than assumed. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, he shows how the difference between good decision-making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but on the few particular details on which we focus. Leaping boldly from example to example, displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Gladwell reveals how we can become better decision makers--in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life. The result is a book that is surprising and transforming. Never again will you think about thinking the same way. 　　在《引爆点》中，马尔科姆·格拉德韦尔为我们揭示了认知世界的过程，现在，他的另一力作《决断2秒间》，革命性地为我们展示了如何明了我们自身的内心世界。为什么有些人天生就是充满睿智的决策者，而其他人却错误频出?为什么有些人跟随直觉的指引便能抵达成功的胜境，而有些人却在艰难的泥沼中不能自拔?再有，为什么有些英明的决策常常是那些无法向人解释的决策呢? 《决断2秒间》是一本关于“不假思索”的著作，是一本让我们无需冥思苦想、在转瞬之间便作出决策的著作，不过，这个过程并不简单。在办公室，在教室，在厨房，在卧室，你的大脑到底是如何运转的呢?《决断2秒间》让我们见到了这样的心理学家——只需观察几分钟的时间，就能预测一对夫妇是否能白头偕老；我们还遇到了这样的网球教练—— 在网球与球拍接触之前，就能断定这次发球是不是双误……当然，《决断2秒间》也让我们看到了“灵光一闪”的恶果——它“造就”了美国历史上最糟糕的总统，它让“新可乐”成了商业史上最大的笑柄之一，它让一个无辜青年葬送在警察的枪口下……《决断2秒间》揭示出，最优秀的决策者并不是那些掌握最丰富信息资源的人，不是那些殚精竭虑、终日冥思苦想的人，他们到底是些什么样的人呢?

作者简介

At the start of the 21st century, a new form of narrative nonfiction emerged, blending science, sociology, and pop culture into a compulsively readable hybrid genre marked by originality, accessibility, and a breezy, anecdotal style. As much as any single writer, and perhaps more than most, journalist and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell has helped to forge that genre.Born in the U.K. and raised in rural Canada, Gladwell stumbled into journalism purely by accident. After college, he wanted to pursue a career in advertising; but when he was unable to find work in that field, he took a job with the conservative U.S. monthly The American Spectator. In 1987, he joined The Washington Post, where he reported on business and science for nearly a decade. Then, in 1996, Tina Brown hired him to work for The New Yorker. (Brown left the magazine in 1998. Gladwell is still on staff.) 　　马尔科姆·格拉德威尔，被《快公司》誉为“21世纪的彼得·德鲁克”，曾是《华盛顿邮报》商务科学专栏作家，目前是《纽约客》杂志专职作家。2005年被《时代》周刊评为全球最有影响力的100位人物之一。2005年，他更是创造书市神话，两部作品Tipping Point（《引爆点》）和Blink同时位居《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜精装本和平装本第一名。　　马尔科姆出生于英格兰，是牙买加人的后裔。在加拿大长大，后居纽约市。他曾经做过卫生政策和科学新闻方面的记者，其文章喜欢以小见大。马尔科姆是一个非常有创意的作家，他认为自己的文风属于一种adventure of ideas的风格，虽然大部分作品都不属于虚构，又不是围绕一个人物或者一个故事展开，但其中的故事情节却一般比较曲折，看他的文章很有adventure波澜起伏的韵味。　　著有图书有，《异类:不一样的成功启示录》、《引爆点》、《小狗看世界》、《直觉》、《与苏格拉底吃早餐》等。

精彩书评

For Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling The Tipping Point explores the extraordinarily perceptive and deceptive power of the sub-conscious mind. Gladwell’s major claim is that decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as a decision made cautiously and deliberately. What we are actually doing is what Gladwell calls ‘thin-slicing’. When we leap to a decision or have a hunch our unconscious is sifting through the situation in front of us looking for a pattern, throwing out the irrelevant information and zeroing in on what really matters. Our unconscious mind is so good at this that it often delivers a better answer than more deliberate and protracted ways of thinking. Much of this is utterly mysterious but some of the most astonishing and useful examples of thin-slicing can be learned.
Gladwell hopes to convince us that our snap judgements and first impressions can be educated and controlled so instead of merely praising the mysterious process of instinct and intuition he is interested in those moments when our instincts betray us, the situations where our powers of rapid cognition can go awry, where we fail to read the signs. Most disturbing of all is the degree to which culturally determined preconceptions and prejudices control us. Without reducing matters to racism and sexism Gladwell shows us that there are facts about people’s appearance—their size or shape or color or sex—that can trigger a very similar set of powerful associations which explains why utter mediocrities (such as U.S. President Warren Harding) can sometimes end up in positions of enormous responsibility; or why tall people earn substantially more than their shorter colleagues; or why car salesmen unconsciously charge prices according to race and gender.
Gladwell’s conversational prose style is concise, informative, accessible and entertaining. The stories, scientific findings and psychological tests are consistently surprising whether he is dealing with speed-dating, record promotions, police shoot-outs, the human face, or the reasons doctors get sued.
--Larry Brown END