Context Book: If you don’t “Blink,” you might miss something.

I do not consider getting a degree in Library Science to be an intellectual pursuit. I do think an epistemological understanding is the required disposition for anyone in this field. However, seeking my MLIS is more a vocational exercise than anything else. The pursuit of an MLIS involves the mastery of authority; it involves honing one’s sense of judgment with regard to information; it also involves refining one’s unconscious through the constant, conscious analysis of the reams of data with which we interact daily.

This idea is heavily reinforced in the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Throughout the text, Gladwell posits that instinct and intuition are better and more effective tools than activating one’s knowledge of a situation. He, in many anecdotal and scientific scenarios, proves that, in fact, too much knowledge can be detrimental to the instantaneous process of decision-making. “The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter” (265). Unfortunately, and counterintuitively, it is the kind of knowledge we can hold in our hands (i.e. analysis, data, spreadsheets, charts, polls) that interferes with our unconscious mind’s ability to act correctly and accurately.

Fortunately, we can develop our unconscious to turn knowledge into understanding. In this way, Gladwell likens the unconscious mind to a database we can draw upon in situations that require immediacy (272). This is what I feel my 12 classes in this program have implicitly encouraged me to do. While the pursuit of information is a characteristic that comes naturally to people entering this field, what I – as a born left-brainer – need to do is practice “understand[ing] how to combine rational analysis with instinctive judgment” (272). Perhaps library programs should be more assertive in promoting this ideology. It appears to marry better to the fast-paced world technology has allowed us to become.

~ by sdribin on October 26, 2008.