n Part I of this article, I wrote about how Malcolm Gladwell's new book, Blink, could help us be better officials. Now, I will get into how the book can keep us from being bad.

Exclude the important

As I wrote earlier, Gladwell explains how successful "thin slicers" did not become successful by taking in all the data but by taking in only select information. Those good at making quick judgments are good at not looking at information. They know what they need to know, and they don't look at anything else.

Gladwell talks about a program at Cook County General Hospital. At the emergency room, they had troubles with the volume of visitors. One key element was having so many people in the ER who appeared to be suffering from a heart attack. It turns out that very few people who think they are having a heart attack actually are. However, most doctors err on the side of caution, thus clogging up key space in cardiac monitoring rooms and in emergency rooms in general.

Continued...