Living a long life, the conventional wisdom at the time said, depended to a great extent on who we were—that is, our genes. It depended on the decisions we made—on what we chose to eat, and how much we chose to exercise, and how effectively we were treated by the medical system. No one was used to thinking about health in terms of community.

Gladwell's hair was the inspiration for Blink. It has been claimed[who?] that fees paid by organizations he writes about has affected his journalism. " Farhad Manjoo at Salon described the book as "a real pleasure.

Gladwell CM (born September 3 1963) is a British-Canadian journalist bestselling author and speaker. He has written four books The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000) Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005) Outliers: The Story of Success (2008) and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009) a collection of his journalism.