Yeoh Siew Hoon dares you to read this article without blinking, sorry, thinking.

When I was a child, I used to blink a lot. So much so that my teacher would warn me that if I didn't stop blinking, I'd become cross-eyed and who, she asked, would want to marry a cross-eyed, bespectacled girl?

I stopped blinking, and started winking instead at boys. It didn't do much good because no one could tell whether I was winking or blinking through my thick glasses.

Now, at the age where no amount of winking or blinking will do any good when it comes to attracting the opposite sex, I've just read a book which tells me to blink or rather, think in a blink and I could end up cleverer, richer, healthier or happier at a wink.

Blink, the latest book by Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote The Tipping Point, is all about the power of thinking without thinking. It is about the first two seconds of looking – the decisive glance that knows in an instant.

You know, all that love at first sight, and sigh later, jazz?

Anyway, he believes we should tap more into our "adaptive unconscious" – our 24x7 mental valet – that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.

As someone who thinks faster than I can blink, I love the theory of it.

Want to do something really badly? Do it. Don't analyse it.

Meet somebody you took an instant dislike to? Walk away. Don't even exchange name cards.

Meet someone you feel an instant connection with? Don't lose the moment. Make the connection.

All this I have done, and more …

In business, does this mean doing away with focus groups, committees and endless research? Hooray. You mean, someone actually has to take responsibility for decisions?

In love, does this mean doing away with countless dates and the prolonged getting-to-know-each-other phase? Because surely we should be able to choose our love mates at the blink of an eye?

Perhaps that's why speed dating is so popular these days. In one service, couples are given three minutes each to make up their minds if they wish to see more of each other.

People who are indecisive and fickle are warned to stay away from such services.

Back to the book: Gladwell builds his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars and military maneuvers.

Think small, he says, and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behaviour.

Anyway, as much as I am a blinking fan, I suspect that if you followed Blink blindly, you could end up in major trouble.

Either that or very broke.

Imagined if every woman just blinked when they shopped? Her credit card limit would be exceeded in the blink of an eye.

Imagine if every man just blinked when they were at a bar, sorry, car showroom? Their bank account would soon be blank.

It could be paradise though for us in the travel industry.

Customers would just blink and buy from us, if they liked us, instead of shopping around, comparing prices and then coming back and beating us down on price.

They'd blink their way through their flight, stay and trip, and would not analyse why we do things the way we do – why do we have so many air fares on one flight, for example? Why do hotels have so many types of rates, and the rates would depend on where they are being sold?

Anyway, I finished Blink in a blink – it's that kind of book where you don't have to think too hard through it.

I am now reading "Sun Tzu Was a Sissy". When I saw the title, I just blinked and bought it.


The SHY Report
A regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry by one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her company's mission is "Content, Communication, Connection". She is a writer, speaker, facilitator, trainer and events producer. She is also an author, having published "Around Asia In 1 Hr: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries". Her motto is ‘free to do, and be'.
Contacts: Tel: 65-63424934, Mobile: 65-96801460