Yesterday I chose humor and read Blank by Noah Tall, chosen randomly by my oldest son and proving the point made by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink whichBlank (“a mindless parody“) messes with: sometimes our snap judgments are right on — and sometimes they’re not (Blank‘s point). This book is pretty darn funny, occasionally stupid-silly, and rarely (but still!) just gross. For a good laugh, the introduction and the first three chapters deliver. Jokes and gags and parody then start to break down over the next few chapters but with a quick jerk on the leash, the conclusion rocks, giving us an ending marked with the pleasure of resounding chuckles.
Reading this book allows you to poke fun at yourself for taking Blink so seriously while at the same time convincing “you that the power of knowing without thinking is not some wild, untamable force of nature like the sex drive of Colin Farrell but a talent that can be nurtured, managed, and utilized in normal, everyday situations that will enable you to destroy your enemies, shove the slow and witless out of your way, and dominate your spouse.“ Okey-dokey.
Speaking of marriage, Tall shares what he learned about marriage success from the impressive Dr. Godsense: “[i]n any healthy marriage the couple occupies at least two states”: if wifey lives in Florida, and hubby in any state north of the Mason-Dixon line things are bound to work out.
A really funny parody of the research subjects discussed by Gladwell to buttress his conclusions in Blink is found in Tall’s clever professor who uses research to buttress not conclusions but a life of crime. The prof in Blank has figured out that the questionnaires given to prospective research participants can be configured to find out the best time (“if you do leave the house, around which hours will you be gone?“) to break into said participants’ houses and rob them blind (“what is the code to your alarm system?“) , only after determining the value of the content of their house (“Do you spend your money on expensive kitchen equipment, art objets, and one of those flat-screen T.V.s?“). By following up with a few pertinent questions about the neighbors (any “vicious pets“?), success in burglary was almost (but not quite) guaranteed for this enterprising, out-of-the-box thinking professor.
So read Blank and bone up on your “Extra Lean Deli Slicing” skills of instant judgment and thoughtless action. Finding yourself flat on your butt having been whacked on the head by the one whose bra you snapped, mistaking it for your own judgment, you can then sit back and laugh. Until you tip over the point. But that’s another book.
