Thin-Slicing

I'm reading this book right now called Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. Many of you may have read the book or some of Gladwell's other best-sellers, The Tipping Point and the most recent release, Outliers. In Blink, Gladwell often refers to something he calls "thin-slicing." In his words, " 'thin-slicing' refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience."

Having just gone over the half-way point, I'll refuse to prognosticate on any sort of merits of the book (although, it has been a rediculously fascinating and informative read thus far). What I will do, however, is offer an example I've experienced that I think qualifies as thin-slicing.

Jobs: I wouldn't be writing this blog right now if I hadn't done some serious thin-slicing in my past work life. Only 23, I've run a gammit of tormenting positions: McDonald's fry guy (my dad called this one a real 'character-builder'), non-profits, busboy, host, dishwasher, waiter, administrative office position at Florida State University, Project Coordinator on a DOE-funded research project, Production Assistant in reality TV, telemarketer, tutor, bank teller, and now coach, comedian, and whatever you call this.

Where's the thin-slicing? Has the thin-slicing helped or hindered me?

First off, there's no way I could tear through that many positions if it weren't for a "this job doesn't feel right" thing occurring in my brain. From my interpretation, that's a lot of what thin-slicing is. Intuition and feeling. At many points, and still now, I have trouble verbalizing exactly why the job wasn't for me or why I found them tortuous at times. When I think about it, telemarketing isn't that bad. Even waiting tables or working for a TV show or in an office. But I hated them. And when I try to describe them, maybe my words don't necessarily match how I feel. By the way, Gladwell says that verbalizing can block the picture that pops in our brain and leads to intuition. This he says, is a right vs. left brain thing.

I tend to not believe so much in regrets. But looking back, maybe I'd have thin-sliced more often when it came to jobs. Or at least followed through on my thin-slicing and instead of fallen back into a job that was similar to the one before (restaurant-to-restuarant or office-to-office), maybe I would have been more aggressive with following my intuition. What held me back? Traditional dogma certainly played a role (i.e. make it a goal to not spend a lifetime or multiple jobs "character-building"). What I've found through tutoring, through coaching, through comedy, people pay for things that are good. If you like what you're doing, you'll get good at it. People will pay for it. Don't ever be content with something that isn't making you happy, and if you have to pay the bills, then stick with it, but work to get out of ASAP! Why? You're wasting the only thing you have, life. Not to mention, you bring your miseries onto others. And that's just mean.

Now, is this to say we should always make snap decisions over analytic-type planning? Probably not. I don't know. Read Blink and other stuff out there. Fall on your past experiences, maybe. But I do believe in the power of listening to how you feel. How you feel is unconscious, but listening and interpreting those feelings is conscious. I think the more we can combine our unconscious and conscious and utilize the power of them, or in other words, utilizing the power of rational analysis with gut intuition at appropriate times and places, the better decisions we make.

I had this explained in a very simple way to me. This person told me: recall back to an experience, whether its a specific event or just a specific environment or circumstance. Again, maybe its a theme park or a beach or just sunny days or the feeling of truly accomplishing something you're proud of. Let that sink in. Think to that often and refer to it constantly. Eventually your unconscious mind, where those feelings resonate, will start to translate into unconscious and conscious actions. You'll wind up in your happy place much, much more often.

And I can say, after applying this method for a couple months, it does start to work. And no matter what they say about getting to your happy place, illicit drug use isn't necessary.

"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XDY2UyMTYE - John Lennon, Beautiful Boy