Book Review: What the Dog Saw and other adventures by Malcolm Gladwell

‘What the dog saw and other adventures’

By: Malcolm Gladwell

Allen Lane (an imprint of Penguin Books)

ISBN: 978-1-846-14294-9

This has been one of the most revealing books I have ever read. In this book, the author goes so deep researching into things so diverse, that one can only feel awestruck at his intellectual capability. Reading this, and slightly starting to look beyond the obvious, as the author does, we would see a whole new world in front of us. The theme of this book is to find answers to all small and big questions in our minds. Getting into the mold, we develop amazing new ways to look at things.

I simply can’t afford to write a full review of this book of over 400 pages with content as wide and diverse and researched as deep into. I would simply list the “contents” summary, for my own reference and in case you feel curious enough, just reach out to Malcolm Gladwell.

Part-I: Obsessives, pioneers and other varieties of minor genius

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1. The Pitchman: Ron Popeil and the Conquest of the American Kitchen
2. The Ketchup conundrum: Mustard now comes in dozens of varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?
3. Blowing up: How Nassim Taleb turned the inevitability of disaster into an investment strategy
4. True colors: Hair dye and the hidden history of postwar America
5. John Rock’s error: What the inventor of the Birth Control Pill didn’t know about women’s health
6. What the dog saw: Cesar Millan and the movements of mastery

Part-II: Theories, predictions and diagnoses

1. Open secrets: Enron, intelligence, and the perils of too much information.
2. Millian dollar Murray: Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage.
3. The picture problem: Mammography, air power and the limits of looking.
4. Something borrowed: Should a charge of plagiarism ruin your life?
5. Connecting the dots: The paradoxes of intelligence reform
6. The art of failure: Why some people choke and others panic
7. Blowup: Who can be blamed for a disaster like the Challenger explosion? No one, and we would better get used to it

Part-III: Personality, character and intelligence

1. Late bloomers: Why do we equate genius with precocity?
2. Most likely to succeed: How do we hire when we can’t tell why is right for the job?
3. Dangerous minds: Criminal profiling made easy
4. The talent myth: Are smart people overrated?
5. The new-boy network: What do job interviews really tell us?
6. Troublemakers: What pit bulls can teach us about crime?

- Rahul

‘Outliers’

‘Outliers: The Story of Success’

By: Malcolm Gladwell

Little, Brown and Company

ISBN 9780316017923

‘Outliers’ is a wonderful book which can change our opinion on how we see success and the successful. The bottom-line of what the author wants to say is that the successful don’t become so only because of either their talent or their hard labour. They succeed also because of the environment and circumstances in their life when they were trying. The author picks up examples of many business legends and celebrities including Bill Gates, Mozart, and the Beatles, and proves his point.

Is there any ‘perfect’ month of birth for a Hockey player? Is there any particular hours of practice needed for success? Could Bill Gates succeed if he was born two years after his birth-year; or his school didn’t purchase a computer? Did being children of Jew immigrant garment workers help succeed in legal services in NY? How does culture of an immigrant’s native place influence his success? Could plane crash be explained by understanding the culture of the pilots? Why Asian kids are better in Maths than the English? What is called ‘Culture of Pride’ and what is its origin? Does absolute merit matter or is there any ‘threshold’ of that to succeed? What is difference between IQ and practical intelligence? All these questions are answered and explained in this book.

The author definitely has a good power of observation and logic to explain things. He also makes use of the studies and observations of a lot of other researchers and academicians. I would recommend this book to all.

- Rahul