Not many book reviewers will fess up to not having read the books they are reviewing. This reviewer will now make an exception. While they won't admit it, lots of reviewers read a few chapters, skim the rest and then, rush to meet their deadlines. Either that, or the reviewers that make me believe this to be the case are just complete morons. So, no, I didn't read the book I am about to comment on. Just being honest -- and I think the subject of my review actually justifies my actions (and daring honesty).

The book is the best-selling Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. The author is Malcom Gladwell, who last hit the charts with The Tipping Point. While he is an impressive and insightful writer, my first impression of this book is one of irritation.

As Gladwell explains on his web site, "It's a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, 'Blink' is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good."

There you go. That's all you needed to know, too. So what do you think of the book? You're an expert (just like the rest of us). All you really had to do was read a few sentences. Now you can hold forth for hours about the subject (and the book) at the next cocktail party you attend.

Actually, I did read a few reviews of the book. David Brooks of the New York Times, who seems to lack the fortitude to say anything really hard-hitting about anyone or anything, calls the book "boffo." He then goes on to, essentially, pan it and question the depth of its scholarship (in the gentlest of terms). Interestingly, Brooks makes a comparison that also came to my mind -- in a blink, you could say -- when I heard the book's premise. He compared it to Michael Lewis's Moneyball -- a book I did read.

If you are familiar with Moneyball, you will recall that its hypothesis -- tested by the Oakland A's, which manage to make the playoffs four years in a row despite being one of the poorest teams in baseball -- is that left-brain, fact-driven, analytical intelligence can be applied to trump intuitive, right-brain, conventional wisdom.

Well, this book seems (remember, I haven't actually read it) to go in the opposite direction. On his web site Gladwell explains, Blink "is concerned with the smallest components of our everyday lives -- with the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that bubble up whenever we meet a new person, or confront a complex situation, or have to make a decision under conditions of stress. I think its time we paid more attention to those fleeting moments. I think that if we did, it would change the way wars are fought, the kind of products we see on the shelves, the kinds of movies that get made, the way police officers are trained, the way couples are counseled, the way job interviews are conducted and on and on -- and if you combine all those little changes together you end up with a different and happier world."

That's really sweet. My problem is that I imagine this book is being lapped up by executives merely because the economy is reviving. It is in fast-growth economies that ambitious people begin to think they are the force that moves the ocean (even when they are merely riding the waves). At times like this, top execs trust their gut instincts and tend to ignore the evidence. Diligence and analysis are tossed aside. That's how folks acted all the time during the dotcom boom -- back when Gladwell's last book (about getting something for nothing) was climbing to the top of the charts.

You gotta give it to the guys who know how to catch the Zeitgeist. Lewis's best-seller, Moneyball (which teaches us we can do more with less if we think more), was a downturn economy book for a time when everyone had been laid low. Gladwell's Blink (which teaches us we can get more if we think less) is a book for a rebounding, post-election economy when any exec who's had a good quarter can dream he has the Midas Touch.

Perhaps some day someone will provide a synthesis that shows the power of combining analytical and intuitive intelligence with intelligent action. I think that would truly be a great book. But I haven't really thought about it all that much.