I just watched the pilot of Lie to Me, a new CSI-esque show about a psychologist that studies “microexpressions” to tell when someone is lying or telling the truth.

The show was suggested to me by a friend because one of the supporting characters practices the idea of radical honesty. However, I was more intrigued after the introduction to the show because everything he was saying sounded familiar.

After a bit of Googling, I realized that the main character’s background was being set up almost exactly the same as the life of Paul Ekman, who got a chapter-long profile in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink, which I just read recently.

Nothing deep to say; I just thought it was a funny collection of coincidences. The show is fun and interesting and I’m curious to see where it goes. And I really hope they signed off with Ekman and Gladwell about this, because it’s practically plagiarism.

The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink

A decent, boiled-down pop psychology book that basically comes down to that point. We trust our judgment and critical thinking skills too much based on the endless supply of information at our disposal, then forget that the time investment required to understand that information is where the best, instinctive discernment comes from.

At least that’s what I got out of it.