Throughout the duration of the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, I was always thinking about how the split seconds decisions could be beneficial, and how if there was a down side to the snap judgments. At the very end of the book, I read a quote that I stuck with me for the remainder of the book and in my thoughts following. This quote was something that stood out to me, and something that equated to exactly what I was thinking. "Too often we are resigned to what happens in the blink of an eye." (Blink 152) As aforementioned, this quote really stood out to me because it connected to my thoughts through out the book. The majority of the book was dedicated to educating us, the readers, about the power of making decisions in the blink of an eye. Yes, there was a …show more content…
On the positive side of thin-slicing, we are exposed to the many different situations in which it can be used to gather information; throughout the book we see thin-slicing applied to everything from ancient Greek art to speed dating. We are introduces to the power and effect that words have to our unconscious. One of the many experiments that were talked about in the book was the scrambled sentence test, a test in which words linked with 'being old' were hidden in each sentence. The study concluded that after reading those sentences the test takers would unknowingly exit the test center at a much slower pace than when they entered. However, as said in the "dark side of thin-slicing" section, thin-slicing can be the root of prejudice and discrimination. Looking at someone and instantly categorizing them for their race is a very common example of this. Living in
Margaret Atwood once stated, “Our problem right now is that we're so specialized that if the lights go out, there are a huge number of people who are not going to know what to do. But within every dystopia there's a little utopia,” which is a perfect description of when talking about The Maze Runner. James Dashner presents his idea of dystopia in a society which the reader sees instead as a utopia in many points of the book. Indeed, this is what keeps the readers thinking who side is everyone on. If utopia is what Dashner was trying to succeed in his book, The Maze Runner, then all the aspects of a true dystopian society start to show its true potential.
The power of stereotypes stored in the brain was a daunting thought. This information enlightened me about the misconceptions we carry from our cultural experiences. Also, it startled me that according to (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013) “those who showed high levels of White Preference on the IAT test were also those who are most likely to show racially discriminatory behavior,” (pg. 47). I reflected on this information, and it concerned me that my judgments were simply based on past cultural experiences. This mindbug was impacting my perception of someone before I even had a chance to know him.
In his article, he tries to show readers his ideas and concepts with examples. For instance, he chooses example of Nazism when he claims racial differences regard as a cultural perspective from a biological perspective which was disliked causes of Holocaust by Nazism. (Malik 86) He also picks French to explain all people who have common language do not have a common recognition against the world. (Malik 86) These examples are related to his arguments when he claims ineffectiveness of dying language so examples he gives in the article can make his ideas simply because the readers are likely to imagine how the author tries to say ineffectiveness of dying language. Also, these examples are reliable for readers because he uses factual references and examples which is one of the techniques in article “Thinking and Reading Critically”. His idea is strengthened by using this technique. For example, in “Let Them Die”, he says “Today, biological notions of racial difference have fallen into disfavor, largely as a result of the experience of Nazism and the Holocaust”.(Malik 86) Nazism and the Holocausts are very famous institution and event in world history as everyone knows. People are likely to think about how much the author wants to discourage preservation of dying language. These examples show how you can convince people well because factual example can be a reliable evidence, and support claims to make easy to understand for
(OxfordDicktionaries.com). This also falls in line with Fahrenheit 451 because in the story because part
1. Malcolm Gladwell’s primary objective in Outliers is to examine achievement and failure as cultural phenomena in order to determine the factors that typically promote success. His main argument that success results from a complicated mix of factors, requires taking a closer look at why certain people, and even entire groups of people, thrive while others fail. In the chapter “The Three lessons of Joe Flom” it describes another success story for the reader to inspect. The chapter is mostly about success and failure as we look into the life of a man who, against everyone he knew, succeeded in an occupation in which he had not been accepted in so he decide that he was going to make a name for himself anyway. Gladwell begins to describe Joe Flom's origins by revealing to the reader that his family was in poverty, “His parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His father, Isadore, was a union organizer in the garment industry
The goal of this paper is to emphasize as well as decipher the multifarious activities Gladwell used to bring his points across in the concept of “The Theory of Thin-Slices: How a Little Bit of Knowledge Goes a Long Way." (Gladwell, 2007, pg.18) Thin- slicing, the ability to gather information in a split second, naturally, as in mind over matter or by conducting experiments, coming to a conclusion. Gladwell presents two types of illustrations of how thin slicing works: natural circumstances and controlled studies.
“Why don’t you just kill yourself?” I hear these words harshly uttered in hallways. “ Drink bleach.” I see these words wickedly typed on social media. “You’re ugly.” I face these words jokingly said to my face. Four-thousand, four-hundred young people die each year in the United States because of malicious remarks that are barked from the mouths of those who are insecure themselves. Welcome to the vicious cycle of bullying and the insensitivity of the human species. However, this occurrence isn’t exactly new, as Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, spoke of a corrupted society where life wasn’t valued. Fingers are pointed at irrelevant issues that are blamed for the downfall of our society, but the only place we must look is at ourselves
Kindle or hardback, that is the question! I often hear the older generations talk about how they like to feel a book in their hands, and sometimes the weird ones talk about smelling a book. Does a book really smell? Now picture a world where books are not debated between electronic reading or good old paper books, but reading is outlawed. Do you think it is possible for the world to shun books and focus so much on the electronic world that we eventually do away with books too? Could we someday rely on the computer, television and media to teach us? Maybe even cut books off completely. Now try to imagine this in the 24th century, but instead of people shunning books, they are burning them. In the book “ Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, it has
o Snap judgments suggests that such errors can be avoided by thinking more slowly; this isn’t the case, for some people think very slowly with no better results.
The beautiful Chloë Grace Moretz is back again with another stunning performance as Carrie; an abused, bullied, beautiful young girl. Carrie White is just a normal teenager or we believe she is. Bullying by her peers and abused physically and verbally by her mother is what releases the demon inside Carrie. She is an outcast and has deadly gifts that the world has never seen before. The two hour long film Carrie is full of surprises and unexpected twists. In the movie Carrie, written by author Stephen King we see aspects of puritan views also expressed in Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Poe's infamous death of a beautiful women, and the way the tone of fear is achieved.
The book I read this month was The Maze Runner by James Dashner. The lexile of my book is 770 and it was published in the year of 2009. I decided to read this book this month because when I attended Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp my cabin counselor would read this book to us every night. We only finished half of the book and I wanted to finish it because it “hooked” me on because it had so much action in it.
A dark room ascends. A young boy awakens with no idea where he is. With no idea who he is. All that he can grasp in the lonely darkness is a name – “My name is Thomas.” When the ascent stops, Thomas is hauled out of the dark room and into a strange new world where he’s greeted by teenage boys of different ages and sizes. Thomas is the latest addition to the Glade – a large open green square, surrounded by an immense labyrinth. By day, the Glade is a place of hard work as boys dedicate themselves to their specific, important jobs: farming, cleaning, tending, killing. No job, however, is more important than that of the Runners – the smartest, quickest boys who go out into the Maze every day to document its paths and attempt to find an exit. The Runners must be quick because every day come nightfall, the immense doors connecting the Glade to
Over the course of this term, I have read seven fantastic pieces of literature that just made me eager for the novels and growth to come. First of all, I read Champion by Marie Lu, which was a stellar dystopian fiction novel. Also, I read The Maze Runner by James Dashner. Next, I read Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. This bestseller is a realistic fiction novel. Additionally, I read the fiction prose Magnus Chase: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan. In addition, I read The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. This fiction book is just right. Also, I read Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, a realistic fiction and just right novel by Jesse Andrews. Finally, I read The Infinite Sea, a Rick Yancey fiction novel. All of these spectacular pieces of literature were just right for my
The quote mentioned above was chosen for a couple of reasons. First, the quote plays a crucial roll in both novels that helps with the character's decisions. The decisions that are made are highly influenced by whether or not the character can conscientiously handle the thought of some thought. Thus the character's actions will be effected.
"Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat." – (Ellison, 1952)