Back from New Orleans

I am back to Knoxville from New Orleans. It was a tough day today as Wednesday was really long for me. I had my poster presentation from 8:30 till noon. Then had lunch and headed off from New Orleans to Knoxville and reached at 12 in the night. So you all can imagine my stat of mind during work.

I really have much to write about this 5 day trip to New Orleans for attending IFT (Institute of Food Technologists, if it helps). This post will cover just the keynote speaker - Malcolm Gladwell. I am a big fan of this guy after I read his tipping point and here he was in front of me speaking about power of intuitive thinking. He made some points in his speech and more than that he spoke so well. I wish I could become a public speaker like him – very spontaneous and confident. Anyway that’s not the point, but the point was about his talk which was on the thinking with in few seconds.

He said experts often rely on instantaneous thinking for making any decision as that’s why they are called experts. He made his point by telling a story (I am not going to tell you the story here). But he had 4 lessons from the story

1. People rely on instantaneous thinking even when they are deliberate and rational

2. This kind of thinking is mysterious which means one can’t explain it. Its intuitive in nature. Ask Sachin Tendulkar how does he know when to get out his bat flat out to hit fours and he can’t tell you the exact reason. He just knows it when he is batting. I would rather day when he used to bat.

3. This kind of thinking is fragile which means it can be easily biased. If your friend is there singing on stage u will always judge him as the best even when he has sung for 2 seconds

4. Lastly, this kind of thinking is frugal which means it does not require lot many data and it can be blocked by information overload. Example u go to a shop to buy a shoe and u see 4 diff kinds of shoe – chance are u will like 1 among those 4 but if there is 40 kinds of shoe – I bet u can be there for 2 hrs without choosing a shoe for you.