What the Dog Saw
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What the Dog Saw
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3.73 of 5 stars
What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketc... read full description

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Jun 11, 2011
Karen rated it: 4 of 5 stars
In What the Dog Saw, Gladwell offers a treasure chest of gems, each shining brightly on their own. In each essay, Gladwell usually starts with one puzzling situation and then adds information and other narratives to complicate the topic. Then the first situation resurfaces midway and at the conclusion, helping to bring the topic to closure. Most of the time, his underlying thesis runs along the lines of "Wow, things are a lot more complicated or a lot more simple than they seem." He More...
4 comments like (10 people liked it)
May 20, 2010
Richard rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I hadn't realized this was a collection of Gladwell's essays, many (most? all?) have seen publication in the New Yorker. I found this out while reading the New York Times essay on the book, Malcolm Gladwell, Eclectic Detective, by none other than Steven Pinker. His evaluation of What the Dog Saw is mostly laudatory pretty hostile*, although and he takes the opportunity to get a dig in at Outliers:
The reasoning in “Outliers,” which consists of cherry-picked anecdotes, post-hoc sophistry and false
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9 comments like (4 people liked it)
Apr 13, 2011
Tania rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I finally-finally finished it! But not because it is boring - it is collection of articles by Gladwell, so it does not go down like one single book. All articles clearly demonstrate inquisitive mind and quick wit of Gladwell, but not all of them are of equal interest and thrill. Some articles feel like they are concocted out of thin air, some are too plain and unexcited. But I was fascinated by the stories of colorant revolution in the US, value of talent and specifics of human perceptions at jo More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Dec 06, 2011
Loy rated it: 3 of 5 stars
After being rejected by more than a dozen advertising agencies, Malcolm Gladwell went from obscurity to literary reverence. I mean the guy can write. Not just write but write about stuff we take so for granted and wish we had asked the same questions he asks.

One of the most imaginative non-fiction writers of our times, a man who not has had 3 best sellers and a title to die for (being judged as the Time magazine’s 100 most influential people) – his strength is his innate ability to mak More...
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Aug 07, 2011
Kenny added it
MMmmm... Leftover scraps... This book felt like a forced dish of leftovers from other books or articles. It lacked a clear central theme to derive a clear lesson unlike other books in Gladwell's collection like Tipping Point (Small things builds critical mass and changes norm), Blink (Small samples can help make valuable decisions), Outliers (10,000 hours of practice to achieve greatness). This book was just a mish-mash of stories, some good, some so so, but mostly unrelated or at least I was to More...
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Feb 04, 2012
Carol is currently reading it
Another interesting read about fascinating people and their grandiose accomplishments. Just one of Ron Popiel's kitchen gadgets grossed a billion dollars. Ron never stops tinkering in his sprawling Cold Water Canyon home and is the ultimate pitchman. His Dad made and sold the gadgets before him but never recognized his son's work and had multiple wives, so Ron's childhood was far from ideal. But never mind, his sales have far outstripped his Dad's success. When Popiel blew out all records fo More...
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Oct 28, 2011
Greg rated it: 4 of 5 stars
What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures is a compilation of Malcolm Gladwell's favorite essays that have been published in the New Yorker. Of course, a common critique of the book is that one could dig up the articles individually for free, but I still enjoyed the format. Gladwell has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1996 so he had quite a bit of material to choose from. I've read all three of Gladwell's previous books (The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers) and he is a provocativ More...
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Sep 11, 2011
Robert rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I didn't buy this book because it is a collection of already published articles, nearly all of which I have read already. But I saw it at the library and decided to read it anyway. What a wonderfully fun experience.
There are quite a few criticism I could make of these articles. Gladwell is a storyteller and sometimes lets telling a good story take precedence over reality. In his case, this usually means making all of the pieces fit together just so, instead of revealing the messy way that More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 21, 2011
Zahwil rated it: 4 of 5 stars
“What the Dog Saw” by Malcom Gladwell is a really superb collection of essays. The topics covered are diverse, yet deeply insightful and interesting in each case.
The insights that emerge from his essays represent clear and novel thinking applied to situations where there is often a predominant way of thinking that is blinding practitioners, policy makers, and others from seeing the clear solutions that Gladwell presents.
Some examples of the insights that resonated with me include the More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jul 24, 2011
Cortney rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I know, I know. Malcolm Gladwell brings out extremes in readers. In one camp, you have rabid fans who think he is a transcendent genius, who will change previously held beliefs on the strength of one carefully crafted and engaging TED talk. On the other, you have cynics who sneer at the lemmings who behave as I previously described and dismiss him as a pop psychologist. Ok, perhaps that was even more extreme in my description, but the point is I'm in the middle. If one thinks of him as a philoso More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jun 15, 2011
Mike rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Most of these articles are entertaining. They cover an array of topics – birth control, dog-training, healthcare for the homeless, ketchup, intelligence agencies, NFL quarterbacks, Enron, and many more. If there is a single unifying theme, I missed it. However, many of the articles address one or the other side of a coin: reasons for failures/mistakes (e.g., space shuttle mishaps, plane crashes, dud draft picks in professional sports, business crashes) and reasons for success – but even this More...
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Jun 06, 2011
Jennifer rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Brief Description: This book is a collection of essays on a wide variety of topics (ranging from Ron Popeil to the Challenger explosion to pit bulls) by New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell.

My Thoughts: This was my first extended experience with Malcolm Gladwell, whose longer form books I keep seeing everywhere (Blink, Outliers). His very ubiquity (is that even a word? It seems like it is.) made him an author that I thought I should try. Because I’m also a big fan of essays, I thou More...
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May 29, 2011
cat rated it: 3 of 5 stars
2011 Book 58/100

The one thing that I will say for Malcolm Gladwell is that I am rarely bored. In fact, I am often interested in things and concepts that I never even knew existed before hearing them through his eyes. I have certainly heard the discussions that Gladwell is glib, plays fast and loose with facts, and often knows just enough about a topic to write his essay and not an ounce more, yet I am willing to overlook all of that for the interesting facts and strange details that More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Apr 17, 2011
James rated it: 3 of 5 stars
this was an entertaining read, easily doable from the comfort of a toilet seat. to be sure, that is definitely not a bad thing; it's more a comment on the disjointedness of the essays. there is some effort put into weaving these already published essays into a book, however that seems more to justify their inclusion and republication as a book. gladwell is rebranding his prior work in "what the dog saw."

i haven't read any of his New Yorker articles, so that's not a bad thing. More...
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Jan 25, 2011
Josh rated it: 4 of 5 stars
What the Dog Saw is a compilation of Malcolm Gladwell's best writing for the New Yorker. As always, Gladwell's work is informative, provocative, and fun to read. While I don't always agree with Gladwell's opinions, I always enjoy reading them.

In this work, my favorite piece was called "John Rocks Error: What the Inventor of Birth Control Didn't Know About Women's Health". This may surprise you because I'm not a woman, and I'm not really interested in birth control. I am very More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jan 05, 2011
Kerstin rated it: 3 of 5 stars
What the Dog Saw is a collection of Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker columns written during the same time period as his first three books. I have a bit of love/hate relationship with books made up of newspaper or magazine columns. I always end up bored and enthralled even by the best writers. The first three chapters of this book nearly bored me to tears but then there were chapters I found absolutely fascinating. The chapter on hair dye and its impact on feminism was great. The chapter on the cost More...
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Jan 01, 2011
Sandra rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Another great nonfiction read from Gladwell, this book doesn't have a central thesis, but wanders through people who create such products as hair dye and the birth control pill, through problems and paradoxes of such topics as enron, homelessness, intelligence, and the Challenger explosion, ending with criminal profiling, the relationship of genius and precocity, and some of the fallacies that come with hiring practices, pit bulls, and intelligence measures. The first few accounts were kind of More...
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Sep 15, 2010
Kiwiflora rated it: 3 of 5 stars
What makes the writing of Malcolm Gladwell so interesting and compelling to read is that he looks at the everyday stuff of life just a little bit differently from the rest of us. He must have been an incredibly curious child, probably driving his parents completely crazy with question after question about absolutely everything. And most of the stuff he writes about is stuff that from time to time may flash through our minds, but there it stops. In 'Outliers', for example, he looks at why Asians More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Sep 15, 2010
Spencer rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book is the most recent from Malcolm Gladwell, and just as with his other 3 books, I loved it. Gladwell is a brillant thinker. He is able to make remarkable connections between seemingly unrelated things and events, and in the process allows us to view things we are familiar with in an entirely new way. He brings us along on his adventures, carefully drawing us into each story, expertly guiding us through the scientific studies, finally to present us with his fascinating conclusions. Di More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Aug 03, 2010
Cindy rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This is a collection of essays Gladwell has written for The New Yorker, all of whom follow his distinct style and knack for taking the stories of people and formulating a perspective that is always intriguing and fresh. I think the way he writes is kind of a very accessible example of sociological study, an area which I’m forever interested in.

The book is divided into three parts: “Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius”, “Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses”, and More...
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Jun 29, 2010
Benjaminxjackson rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Every time I read Malcolm Gladwell's work, it makes me think about my life and what is going on around me with a slightly bigger lens. Often, there is something in his work that makes me want to sit up a little straighter and work a little harder.

This book was a collection of his articles written for the New Yorker magazine. All of these pieces were interesting and fun to read. You don't necessarily need to agree with everything in them to enjoy them.

The value of the ar More...
1 comment like (3 people liked it)
Jun 06, 2010
Elizabeth rated it: 4 of 5 stars
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (pp.432)

Malcolm Gladwell may be one of the most consistently fair and accessible popular non-fiction writers today. In his fourth book, Gladwell capitalizes on the fame of his previous bestsellers (Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers) by publishing 22 articles previously printed in the New Yorker. Where his last books have had a central theme, the articles in What the Dog Saw are loosely categorized by theme, but cover a wider span of topics.
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0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jun 01, 2010
Elizabeth rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I'm a fan of Malcolm Gladwell--not because he's always right or because his research is flawless--but because I love to follow his insatiable curiosity about life and how things happen and how things work. Every book of his has caused me to think more deeply or differently about something fairly commonplace, and that's good for me!

The title of this book comes from his modus operendi of just being curious about all sorts of random things and asking questions. In his exploration of th More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
May 19, 2010
David rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Collection of his essays from the New Yorker. As I seldom read the New Yorker, it felt like a new book to me. I like Gladwell a lot, and judging from the sales of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers I am not alone. He's funny, writes well and clearly, takes on interesting subjects, and makes unusual connections of disparate phenomena.

As various critics have pointed out, though, his style of marshaling anecdotes in support of a (typically contrarian) thesis can be unconvincing i More...
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May 18, 2010
Melani rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Okay, so I really enjoyed this Malcolm Galdwell book too... I found myself always saying things about it and referencing it in what I am sure was a very tiresome way for my associates. I am sure that they would say that I have already said enough about the book. However, I cannot resist saying here how pertinent and readable these essays were to me. I especially enjoyed the Ronco one... very interesting. I think that Gladwell does a very good job of making everything and everyone seem intere More...
1 comment like
May 14, 2010
Tim rated it: 3 of 5 stars
3 stars

Malcolm Gladwell is at his best when he's questioning conventional wisdom, making compelling, seemingly counterintuitive arguments that the way we look at a certain issue (genius, viral trends, decision making) is not the only way or the best way to look at it. Several of the essays in this collection do just that--they point out the dangerous similarities between criminal psychological profiling and small-time magician mind reading tricks, argue that plagiarism may not be as More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Mar 23, 2010
Erik rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Gladwell, the clever mind behind The Tipping Point and Outliers, returns with a collection of essays culled from his decade-or-so-long work in The New Yorker. Although the first half is luke-warm, compared to what I’ve previously read of his, he truly does save the best for last.

In “Connecting the Dots”, Gladwell tackles the poltically thorny question of why counter-terrorism intelligence is mediocre at best. Putting failed intelligence in context with the failure to prevent the US More...
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Mar 12, 2010
Jamie rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Unlike Outliers, The Tipping Point, or Blink, Malcom Gladwell's newest book What the Dog Saw isn't an examination of one topic cut from whole cloth, but rather an eclectic mix of articles that originally appeared in The New Yorker. In it he examines everything from why it's impossible to improve on Ketchup, why Enron's failure was a mystery but not a puzzle, what makes for a good dog trainer, and what FBI criminal profilers have in common with psychics. It's good stuff.

The format of More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Mar 03, 2010
Julie rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I've got to hand it to Malcolm Gladwell; the man knows how to engage his reader. What the Dog Saw is a collection of articles Gladwell has written over the last ten years or so, each about 20-30 pages. Frankly, I think this is the perfect length for his writings, long enough to delve into the topic, but not so long that it feels he's making the same point over and over. The Time review called Gladwell "an omniscient, many-armed Hindu god of anecdotes," and that's actually what it feels More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Feb 14, 2010
Briano rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Malcolm Gladwell is not a true social scientist. He's a pop-intellectual. If you read his work expecting a thorough scientific investigation of a topic or the careful formulation of a new theory, you will be disappointed. What Gladwell does do well though is make sociological, scientific, or psychological concepts easily accessible through well-researched and interesting examples. In fact, his greatest gift is his ability to find curious examples and/or data that don't seem obviously connect More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)