What the Dog Saw
by Malcolm Gladwell
Lowdown: Loved it. Gladwell is one of my favorite writers. This collection of stories written for The New Yorker magazine do not disappoint. I was drawn into each one. It seems strange to describe a book of non-fiction as a page turner, but it is. Fascinating.
Radiolab introduced me to Malcolm Gladwell. I believe it was the episode on race and a subsequent episode on choice. A few months later, I read his book Blink while on vacation and he instantly became one of my favorite writers.
Gladwell weaves the elements of his stories to focus on why humans do the things we do. Although partly anecdotal, there is also a lot of good, fascinating science thrown in. They are all wonderful trips into our collective (and invidivual) minds and behaviors.
There are great stories on homelessness as a power law problem, (Million-Dollar Murray), effective teaching (Most Likely to Succeed), effective interviewing (The New-Boy Network), understanding that geniuses aren’t always young (Late Bloomers), and understanding why we fail in high-pressure situations (The Art of Failure).
You don’t have to buy his book. All the stories can be read online at Gladwell’s online archive.
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