This last Saturday, November 11th, I had a total blast listening to Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, chat about who they were, how they'd gotten where they are and how they worked together (if you're a geek or just like stories about blowing stuff up, these guys are a must see).

I was struck by their nearly total dissimilarities with respect to temperament, stage presence, and working styles.

They were pretty clear that, although they respected and trusted one another, they were not friends in any traditional sense: they don't hang out with each other when work is over.

To me this was an exceptional example of blink/non-blink pairing.

Adam described himself as 'chaotic'; Jamie said he was 'methodical'; Adam suggested he was impulsive; Jamie was 'thoughtful'.

To do a complete disservice to Malcolm Gladwell, I'm going to paraphrase and summarize a blink person in just a few words: one who blinks is someone who acts on 'intuition' and figures out why later; they are frequently right because the blink is actually shortcut processing of a great deal of information that they keep in their heads.

Sadly, there's no pithy one word term for a non-blink person.

I have had similar partnerships in my days and if they are recognized and nurtured, the combination can be a powerful creative, productive, decisive and high-quality one.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking author: Malcolm Gladwell asin: 0316010669