Book Report: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (c)2008

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (c)2008

Background Information: "Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink,Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. Gladwell has been included in the TIME 100 Most Influential People list and touted as one of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers." (from the Author's web page: https://www.gladwellbooks.com/)

"Outliers" are those people and things that are outside of the normal range of things, the statistically improbable, the rarities. There are a lot of books highlighting the stories of successful people, their struggles and skills and luck, but here, the author has noticed that in every sphere there are some small coincidences. Why were Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and other revolutionaries of the microcomputer age all born within a few years of each other? Why are all the great hockey players born in the Spring, why was Germany vital to the Beatles' success, and why is it so important to consider the events surrounding plane crashes in figuring all this out?

Here's a hint: success isn't just a matter of genius or hard work (although you're read about why the famous "10,000 hour rule of mastery is so important). A person has to enter the scene at the right time and place for that genius to have an opportunity to take root. and that situation has to have the resources to nurture that talent, too. If you're not sure if this is so, be sure to read about the worlds smartest man that you never heard of to put it in perspective.

Not only is the topic clearly presented and researched, but Gladwell's writing skills are both powerful and entertaining. The book is enormously entertaining and readable, and hes careful to continue to fit all the facts he presents into one solid, continuous discussion. There are some books that present facts in a way that you feel you need to keep notes from the previous chapters, but in Gladwell's books, it's a continual build up and reflection so that it's an effortless read.

This book will expand your understanding of how these outliers are both unique talents and products of their environment at the same time.

Book Report: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (c)2007

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (c)2007

Background Information: "Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink,Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. Gladwell has been included in the TIME 100 Most Influential People list and touted as one of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers." (from the Author's web page: https://www.gladwellbooks.com/)

Another national bestseller that I really wanted to include because it is SO pertinent to people who are interested in the day-to-day functioning of the subconscious mind. 

The catchy subtitle to this book is "the Power of Thinking Without Thinking" but more specifically, it's about the way our subconscious mind makes "intuitive" decisions in the blink of an eye, when they work and when they don't. Gladwell's writing is direct and engaging, which makes the book a breezy read even though he touches on a lot of data and from scientific studies and interviews with the experts. 

Utilizing a series of situations where important decisions had to be made in the blink of an eye, he first presents that instantaneous decision, and gradually delves deeper into what is going on psychologically that makes this kind of decision so much more than random. Rather, he uses the term "thin slice" to refer to the way we are able to make an appropriate decision based on a thin slice of the information. In many of these cases, the thin-slice decision is contrary to more well-informed and long-deliberated decisions, and is often the right one. 

We start a well-authenticated ancient sculpture that just rubbed some of the experts the wrong way, and indeed, turned out to be a forgery, though at the time, the experts were hard-pressed to say why it felt wrong. We'll soon be introduced to scientists, relationship experts, military brass and police who can make snap decisions and seeming mind-reading, and discover what the qualities and criteria are that lets them do it accurately and what causes them to screw up. 

Some of the discussions will examine the effect of prior experience on decision making, deliberate research that prepares one for making snap decisions accurately, the effect of too much information on decision making, and how subconscious influences can change our decisions.

This book makes a great companion to Shankar Vedantam's "The Hidden Brain" and even includes some crossover information.
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