Still... "Blink"-ing

I finished "BLINK" by Malcolm Gladwell whilst in SF. ::Blush:: - I stayed in one night because I was so compelled with the book; I couldn't put it down. In a nutshell, Malcolm investigates reasons why people's opinions can't be trusted. The rationale being we don't possess the language to convey our feelings.

The first personal example that came to my mind regarded a free web based email system. I was speaking with two peers of mine about this system several months ago. One of my friends asked my opinion on it. At that time, I had only used it once to send and read a couple emails. I told him I didn't like it and couldn't intelligently defend my reasons why. My friend, who was currently writing his own email storagehouse/warehouse program, understood the technology and preferred it over the other web based email systems. If I had taken a poll at that exact moment, I would have rated it really poorly.

However, w/o my conscious knowledge, I began to use it over my existing web based email system. Within a month, it became my sole email provider of choice. The very reasons why I didn't like it before were the reasons I'd be fecundless w/o it - threading of emails rather than displaying them as individual emails. I didn't like it before because I wasn't used to it.

I don't believe I will be a great decision maker over night. I know this is a microscopic example, but it's helping me question the way I think. Most importantly, I am questioning the criterias (personal experiences, outside influences, recognizing biases) that I am using to form my opinions.