over-analysis

 "Just think about it, deeply. Then forget it. That’s when an idea will jump out at you."

-Don Draper 

Mad Men Season 1, Episode 11

Since I’m on a big self-improvement kick these days (I guess that’s natural for January), a while ago I decided I should read more non-fiction. 

I'm normally a believer that good fiction can teach us things reality can’t, but I have to admit that the two non-fiction works I recently tore through taught me more valuable life lessons than the last 10 or so novels put together. 

One of these books was Malcom Gladwell’s eclectic but compelling treatise on the power of snap judgment, Blink: Thinking Without Thought. His thesis is that, “In the act of tearing something apart, you lose its meaning.” That is to say, decisions made in two seconds can be just as effective as those in which the pros and cons are laboriously weighed. As creators, we spend all day every day making decisions, so you can imagine how great it would be if we could only spend two seconds instead of two days (or weeks, or months) coming to a conclusion.

Although Gladwell’s argument is sometimes a little shaky, his case studies are fascinating. Ranging from marriage counselors who have learned to tell within three minutes of listening to a couple’s argument whether they will still be together in 15 years, to art historians whose instincts instantly alert them to the presence of forgery, Gladwell’s “experts” have harnessed the lightning-fast power of their subconscious minds.  

The only problem is that it takes a long time to get to the point where your snap judgments become reliable. These people worked for years, training their brains through repetition and study. In other words, it takes extreme patience to reach the point where things become effortless. You can’t become the Don Draper of your field overnight, but you can get there someday with practice.