The Dangers of Quick Thinking

How to counter these biases? That's not a focus of Gladwell's book. Investors with a behavioral slant try to ferret out where biases are affecting stocks. Princeton professor Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel prize for his research in this area and has links to interesting papers on his Web site. Keeping accurate records of trades made and trades considered but rejected ought to be a mandatory part of any investor's self-training as well.

On a final note, even though Blink is a scant 265 pages, it has the feeling of being stretched a bit too thin in places. What might have been two or three fascinating articles in The New Yorker can get a bit tedious and repetitive at book length, especially the final couple of chapters on the flaws of consumer preference surveys and police shootings.

But on the whole, Gladwell has compiled again a largely fascinating if anecdotal series of essays that are nothing if not thought-provoking -- at least if you can get beyond your first impressions.