Blink and the Cave Mommy

Blink is a book by the author of Tipping Point… that describes how we would all be better off if we followed our instincts. This is something I believe in from a Cave Mommy perspective. Just like Eskimos can identify thousands of different kinds of snowflakes (when the rest of us only see snow), mommies can distinguish nuances in her baby’s cry. In an instant we have an instinct whether he is hungry, tired, bored, sleepy, frustrated, or hurt.

It intuitively makes sense WHAT happens… almost like pattern finding. We get a series of sensory inputs that we run against data points we collect each day. We make quick multivariate correlations and force rank possible solutions — all in an instant. Explaining HOW and defending my instinct is more difficult… like explaining how to ride a bike. On a conscious level, I have no idea what variables I used. Was it a hand movement or facial expression or sound?

The WHY is based on natural selection. Any cave man or woman has an advantage if they can make good decisions quickly. This before databases, power point, and of course analysis paralysis. Cave Mommies had to do the number crunching and get to a conclusion in their head, quickly.

We rely on our instincts every minute of every day whether it is for caring for our child, identifying trouble as our toddler walks in park, or picking a new nanny. What’s most important and the book Blink articulates so well… is that we’ve got to trust these Cave Mommy instincts. As soon as your thinking and reasoning mind take over you are very likely to come up with a different, reasonable, defensible, rational but wrong conclusion.