The “Blink” Factor

While unpacking some boxes today, I came across some old fraternity memorabilia from college days. In amongst the paddles and shingles, I found the 98-99 composite from the Mu Rho Chapter of Kappa Sigma. My daughter, Maddison, was rooting through the box with me and, upon finding the composite, she got real excited.

If you’re not familiar, a composite is a collection of pics of all the fraternity guys. Smack dab in the middle of everything was Dasher, my first Seeing Eye dog with the label, “Mascot” under his photo. Mascot? Not so much. We all know dogs are better behaved than humans..and that goes double for fraternity boys!

While Maddi looked over the pics of my brothers, there was the occassional, “Oo! He’s a cutie!” comment throwwn around. Then, as she looked at more, she’d say, “He looks like a jerk” or “He looks like he’d be a nice guy.” After several of these, I started noticing that she was almost always right. When she said a guy looked like a jerk, well, he really -was- a jerk.

I am a HUGE fan of “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. In “Blink”, the author tells us that there are a multitude of tips we get when we first meet someone. Some people get a feeling by these tips and call it intuition. Gladwell proposes that intuition issn’t mysterious-it’s a combination of many little hints that make up a general feeling…and we need to listen to that feeling.

I think Maddi proved this today. From just a glance at a 10 year old photo, she nailed several guys for who they were at that time. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe, but it seemed a little toooooo good to be happenstance.

Either way, get a copy of “Blink” for yourself and learn to trust your gut.