Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

The adaptive unconscious processes the mass of incoming sensory data that impinges on the nervous system and produces rapid-fire, appropriate responses. Without such high-speed, adaptive computing power, humans would be easy prey for enemies and predators. With it, people can navigate sudden changes in the world around them, making quick judgments and responding effortlessly to other people and new situations.

Telegraphers tap out messages in Morse Code—a series of dots and dashes that represent letters and words—and each operator has a distinctive style, or “fist," that can be detected by listeners. During World War II, British women learned to recognize enemy code senders by their “fists," which helped the Allies learn about enemy troop movements. The idea of a “fist” is transferable to other areas as well, such as the unique communication styles of married couples.

Developed in the 1970s by cardiologist Lee Goldman, the Goldman algorithm simplified the diagnosis of heart ailments by using a four-point test, including the patient’s ECG record and three questions: “(1) Is the pain felt by the patient unstable angina? (2) Is there fluid in the patient’s lungs? and (3) Is the patient’s systolic blood pressure below 100?" (230). Brendan Reilly, chairman of Cook County Hospital’s medicine department in the 1990s, applied the Goldman system to patient intake interviews and improved diagnostic accuracy by 70%.