So I spent my Valentine's Day listening to the New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell speak at the University at Toronto.

He was talking about his new book Blink, about snap judgements and how by reducing information intake "experts" can make better decisions made in the blink of an eye. (As an aside he distanced this book from his previous one, The Tipping Point. He said he didn't want to be known as the "Tipping Point" guy.)

In any case he talked about how maestros had forever argued that men were superior musicians, until a woman was picked to play in a symphony after an audition where the judges were separated from the musician by a screen. And while maestros still argued that men were superior, he said that women now make up almost 50% of symphonists hired due to the anonymous auditions.

He then segued into the Amadou Diallo killing by New York City police in 1999. You have to change the context, Malcolm argued, and not the hearts and minds of the people making the decision, in order for them to make better judgements. To apply it to the Diallo case, Malcolm said that four rookie cops cannot be paired together because the mob mentality fueled by "physiological arousal" can only lead to one thing: an innocent 22-year-old black man shot 41 times in under seven seconds. Pretty powerful stuff.

Definitely worth a read, though I did pass on the 20% off sale. I'm hoping to get a promotional copy from work... heh.