The Good First

I tend to be highly self-critical. I tend to introspect a lot, slice my actions and thoughts, which I think is very important to being objective and consistent, and to set the bar higher for myself.

However, there is a risk involved in this exercise. A critical look invariably tends to focus on the negative aspects, and draw you into a whirlpool of negative thoughts. You don't see the good things happening to you, or the good things you are doing. What's the way out? To borrow a phrase from management parlance out-of-context, you must do a "360-degree evaluation". First, be happy for the good that has happened to you and all the things that you did right. Think about what you learnt from what you did right. Those lessons will help you to climb a notch higher and settle there. Next, understand what went wrong and how to go about fixing the same. I guess that's what people have for long called a "positive attitude".

PS: Its been a long time I haven't blogged, since I promised myself to be more regular. This self-criticism is warranted, but that it goes into the footnote of the post is only warranted by the spirit of the post :).

Blink: : Trust your instincts if you have the experience and expertise

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is about how decisions taken instinctively can at times be better than those taken with a lot of thought. The author's argument is that in crunch times we discard all irrelevant information and concentrate only on solving the task at hand. The author coins two new terms 'blink' and the act of 'thin slicing'. The author does not substantiate his premise with a good theory, but rather resorts to a series of anecdotes, which sometimes seem contradictory and sometimes irrelevant to the matter under discussion (the author forgot to thin slice his ideas!!). The book is a good example of how not to propound radical ideas.

The basic message of the book is this: Trust your instincts if you have the experience and expertise, else you are better off trying to think hard.