Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 30,762 ratings · 2,458 reviews

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?
In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed...more

ebook, 319 pages

Published October 20th 2009 by Little, Brown and Company (first published 2009)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Gulf War Did Not Take Place by Jean Baudrillard

In Your Pants

18th out of 379 books — 137 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Nov 02, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: business, nonfiction, pop-psyche, sociology

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's obsessed w...more

20 likes · like · see review

Sep 03, 2012 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

"One day, I'll find a lively, out-of-context anecdote that superficially explains why Malcolm Gladwell bugs me. Until then? I guess he wins."
— Merlin Mann
- - -

What The Dog Saw is a series of catchy social-science essays by Malcom Gladwell, best known for his long-form books The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. The book's essays are culled from a decade worth of his writing in The New Yorker.

I'm on the fence about Malcolm Gladwell. On one hand, his books are thought-provoking and enjoyable. O...more

8 likes · like · see review

Feb 10, 2010 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Richard by: Trevor McCandless

Shelves: cognition, non-fiction

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

...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 22, 2013 Ryan Hansen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a collection of Gladwell articles from The New Yorker. I enjoyed some of the articles more than others. Some of them I'd give a 2 or 3 star rating to and some of them I'd give a 5 star rating to. This is how I came up with my 4 star rating. I've always enjoyed Gladwell's writing and this book is no exception, I found it to be very thought provoking and interesting overall.

1 like · like · see review

Apr 13, 2011 Tania Lukinyuk rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

9 likes · like · see review

Dec 06, 2011 Loy Machedo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 make his read...more 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 make his readers think and think really deep.

Gladwell’s latest concoction of articles that he mixed into this recipe titled ‘What the dog saw’ is not just another master-piece in itself, it boarder lines between absolute genius to total unwanted and unnecessary banal details of generalized points of view, leaving you with many more questions than you would hope for. I mean the guy is great in his observations but then again you would ask yourself, do you really want to know all what he has spend time researching on or is it better to just know a few bits and forget the rest? I think that is a question you would have to ask yourself.

So what do we have in this brilliant bible of articles? Here are a few thoughts..
Have you ever wondered why there is only one kind of ketchup but so many kinds of mustards?
What made the Veg-O-Matic so successful and why?
Cesar Millan, the American "Dog Whisperer" – How did he manage to tame any ferocious wild dog by just ‘whispering’ to the dog…Or rather…what did the dog see that the dog choose to listen to an unknown human being?

All this and much more with the shards of Nassim Taleb (author of the best seller ‘Black Swan’ and ‘Fooled by Randomness’) to where Led Zeppelin got his magic note in ‘Whole Lotta Love’, to the toxic historical disasters of Enron, the envious success of George Soros and Warren Buffet and finally to why it is a venial sin to prognosticate either breeds of dogs, serial killers or for that matter successful corporate honchos.

The book is filled with all these brilliant findings that make you think and at times give you an awful headache as to how much there is to know. But you have to admit – the indefatigably curious journalist and writer whose brand today is defined in terms of ‘counter intuitive findings from little known experts’, I have to admit, I love reading his work.
The only criticism Malcolm Gladwell can face is being categorized as an eccentric essayist and a dilettante who postulates inconspicuous statistical data spiced up with misleading definitions and magnifies it to sound very credible and convincing yet banal, boring and bluntly ineffective.

I would only tell those critics – Shut up dude. I honestly didn’t understand what you said. But I did understand what Malcolm is trying to say (though deep down I still wonder if I did…)

All in all, brilliant read and a worth while addition to your collection of books though many a times, it can be boring having stacked up with excessive information which you may not want to know about.

Overall rating – 6 out of 10.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 07, 2011 Kenny Tang added it · review of another edition

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

4 likes · like · see review

Apr 30, 2013 E.H. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, theboxmarkeddone

I picked up this book in the Montreal airport because I had some time to kill and I had enjoyed the title essay (a profile of Cesar Milan) when it came out in The New Yorker. But now that I have finished the book, it is his two essays on Enron ("Open Secrets" and "The Talent Myth") that I keep returning to. Corporations are such a part of our everyday life that we scarcely give them much thought, yet most people spend half their lives at work, so institutional intelligence is something worthy of...more

like · see review

Nov 17, 2012 Simon Yu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: advisory-2012-2013

"What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures" by Gladwell is a book of writing collections that Gladwell wrote. He loves to read people’s minds and hearts, and in his essay collection, What the Dog Saw, he picks out certain individuals and aims to study, solve, and explain their various successes. Gladwell is a well-trained detective, but also an agreeable newspaper reporter. His essays resemble what you see in newspaper articles. They often depict famous people around the world, and tend to render s...more "What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures" by Gladwell is a book of writing collections that Gladwell wrote. He loves to read people’s minds and hearts, and in his essay collection, What the Dog Saw, he picks out certain individuals and aims to study, solve, and explain their various successes. Gladwell is a well-trained detective, but also an agreeable newspaper reporter. His essays resemble what you see in newspaper articles. They often depict famous people around the world, and tend to render significant events and experiences these people have. He starts from sketches of these people, moving from simple details and observations like beginning with the products/inventions that particular famous people made or describing their physical appearance.
My favorite essay is "The Pitchman." He gives a clear example of a successful pitchman named Popeil in the essay, “The Pitchman,” guiding the reader through his childhood as well as Popeil’s invention, “The Showtime Rotisserie.” Popeil’s childhood is pretty horrifying. As he was a child, he lived with his grandparents for a long time, and was never able to talk or meet with his parents. Popeil also used to get beat by his grandfather and abused. At first, Gladwell tells us that Popeil was going to give up his life and never succeed, but Popeil proved everyone else wrong. He became a widely known pitchman, able to make “The Showtime Rotisserie,” all while being on live television.
Gladwell knows that there are people who encountered loneliness and pressure in their lives. However, success doesn’t come to an individual directly. It arrives in an individual’s life only when they can handle all those negative feelings, such as fear, loneliness, and pressure. Once a person passes that stage, they need to run though what might be called the “non-comfort zone.” The non-comfort zone is defined as willing to take risks and to work hard. Once all their fears and negative feelings disappear and they are brave enough to step it up, then they have reached to the final stage, “Victory and Success.”
I would recommend this book of writing collections by Gladwell to many young readers. (less)

like · see review

Nov 17, 2012 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

A collection of Gladwell’s articles from “The New Yorker” – musings on what makes people tick, why some ideas fail, and how well we can predict a person’s success in a particular field, profiles of leaders, “obsessives,” and quirky geniuses. As with all of Gladwell’s books, he turns every story into a human-interest story, every idea into a lesson about what humans believe in their innermost souls. So the tireless Ron Popeil (of Ronco fame) and Cesar Milan and the female copy writers behind hair...more A collection of Gladwell’s articles from “The New Yorker” – musings on what makes people tick, why some ideas fail, and how well we can predict a person’s success in a particular field, profiles of leaders, “obsessives,” and quirky geniuses. As with all of Gladwell’s books, he turns every story into a human-interest story, every idea into a lesson about what humans believe in their innermost souls. So the tireless Ron Popeil (of Ronco fame) and Cesar Milan and the female copy writers behind hair dye ad campaigns have in common not just “obsessiveness” and passion, but also a knowledge about what makes the world tick that makes their success seem inevitable. He investigates the unusual approach to the stock market of Nassim Taleb (of Black Swan fame, although the profile predates that best-seller), the Enron collapse, the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster, not by rehashing old stories but by looking at them through the eyes of his subjects.

This is the main point shared by the various stories: can we learn from those who see things differently? What is Cesar Milan thinking when he trains a dog? (He seems to be thinking you’re not a very intelligent person if you fawn over a dog after it misbehaves.) More to the point, what is the dog thinking? (Here is someone who will tell me what to do, at last.) What were the Enron executives thinking? (As it turns out, they were victims of what Carol Dweck called the “fixed” mindset in her very good book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success). Why don’t we manage hopeless cases of alcoholism and homelessness better, by setting them up to succeed rather than picking them up and hospitalizing them every time they fall? (Because we don’t find the idea fair, although it would be cheaper.) Not everything in the book is pure genius. The section on what it takes to be a good teacher, while well-intentioned, is so ignorant of the subject (he swallows what the “experts” tell him without question) that I wondered what else he might have missed that I don’t know enough about to catch. But even when Gladwell’s conclusions are a bit off, the book still beguiles. Gladwell’s moody, affable, warm prose is a huge help, but his real skill is in social psychology, of making even the most discussed events (such as Enron and Challenger) fresh by looking at them as a human story: not populated by villains and victims but by flawed people who fall into patterns and make mistakes and start getting lax about the future because things have worked out in the past. By turning dry news stories into compelling tales of everyday life that can teach us about what we like and don’t like (why doesn’t ketchup come in varieties?), Gladwell makes us think about cause and effect, and may just make us think about why we do the things we do. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 20, 2012 Alan Hughes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century? In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: "The Tipping Point"; "Blink"; and "Outliers." Now, in "What the Dog Saw", he brings together, for the first

...more

like · see review

Feb 25, 2012 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

*The Heinz of Non-fiction*

In "The Ketchup Conundrum" essay of this book, Malcom Gladwell deconstructs ketchup in an attempt to fathom why its composition--unlike that of its mustard condiment counterpart--has stayed the same the throughout the years. The secret behind ketchup's success rests in its precise combination of ingredients which together hit all of the "primal buttons" of the tongue, producing a high amplitude, full sensory experience.

Malcom Gladwell's writing in _What the Dog Saw_pro...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 11, 2011 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

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 the w...more

4 likes · like · see review

Aug 21, 2011 Zahwil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“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 following....more “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 following. Another of the niceties of Gladwell’s approach is that you can often think of parallel situations to which his insights might be applied.
1. Picking good teachers has a huge impact on the quality of the education that our children receive. A good teacher teaches 1.5x the curriculum in the school year, while a poor teacher teaches only 0.5x. What separates the good from the bad has very little to do with the measures currently used to screen entry into the teaching profession, namely a masters and/or education degree. It turns out that what determines how well teachers teach turns on their interpersonal skills and their ability to engage students on their own terms and provide individual feedback. Gladwell likens the problem to that faced by NFL scouts scouring the ranks of college football. In both cases, there is a problem of predicting in advance who has the qualities necessary to succeed. The solution, argues Gladwell convincingly, is that the teaching profession should open up the flood gates for entry by anyone, and then subject all teachers to a rigorous selection process as interns or trainees. This process would be modeled, for example, after the investment advisor profession. Teachers who are chosen should then be paid well to create the necessary incentives for people to take the risk of entering such a process with high competition.
A parallel example is occupational licensure in general. We live in a time that overlays licensing requirements on hundreds of different professions/personal services, including medicine, law, dentistry, paramedical services, the trades, and even more ordinary vocations like taxi services, real estate and hairdressing. The licenses required for these professions block entry to many individuals based on testing and criteria that may not have much bearing on long-term success within these professions. Allowing broad entry by the many, and then letting the market sort out the few that deserve high compensation would likely increase the quality of the corresponding services while lowering the price of such services to the consumer.

2. When it comes to recruiting by the private sector, Gladwell puts a lot less emphasis on incentives. Here, he argues that we overplay, and thus overpay, the role of individuals in organizations. He provides the example of Enron, where “The War for Talent” was fully internalized through the ranks of management, putting individual fulfillment above all else. Psychology shows us that people who receive praise for their intelligence will tend to define themselves by that identity, and are then more likely to inflate it when asked. These are people who will not own up to their mistakes, and will lie rather than admit failure. In contrast, the trait that spells success in an organizational context is the ability to work well with others. Companies like Southwest Airlines or WalMart, says Gladwell, pay their managers modestly and they succeed because the organization enables them to.

3. Persistent problems, such as homelessness or police brutality, often cannot be remedied by traditional measures because such measures are aimed at the middle of the distribution. However, the Power Law Distribution means that there a few hard cases at the tail of the distribution where the problem is concentrated. For example, soup kitchens and shelters will not derail those with serious drug or alcohol addictions. Those people cost the state enormous sums in medical costs when their problems elevate, and mental illness or physical disability often makes them untreatable in a standard way. These cases, Gladwell suggests, often involve people who need constant supervision and structure to stay on track. Gladwell suggests providing such people with free apartments and the kind of focused intervention that has a real chance of denting the problem of homelessness. This is original thinking because most people tend to think of homelessness according to the stereotypical image of a pan handler or single parent fallen on hard times rather than the real hard cases. The policy remedies are very different in each case.

4. Gladwell differentiates between puzzles and mysteries. In a puzzle, the problem is that we have too little information and we need intelligence to connect the dots and complete the picture. In a mystery, we have too much information and the problem is one of navigating ambiguity or skilled interpretation. In the case of Enron, Gladwell presents the company’s downfall as a landmark case in the Age of Information. Enron did disclose all of the information about its self-dealings with special purpose entities; however, the sheer volume and complexity of these transactions made it difficult for even the experts to interpret.

5. Gladwell differentiates between stable and unstable generalizations. An example of the latter is pitbull dogs, who have been outlawed in several countries and local jurisdictions. However, the number of serious bites linked to pitbulls in unstable over time, and may reflect the total population of pitbulls rather than the harm they cause. Owners may want to keep dangerous animals, and the peculiarities of pitbulls in satisfying these preferences are just a function of their availability and notoriety. But if pitbulls are banned, such owners just switch to new “breeds” and continue to create environments conducive to aggressive dog behavior (starving, chaining, depriving of medical attention, etc.). It’s the care for the dogs by the owners and other safety measures (neutering, fence laws) that can make a more substantive difference than outlawing particular breeds.

By focusing on stable generalizations, correlations that persist over time, we can make our systems of public policy a lot more efficient and effective. Gladwell gives the example of drug enforcement, where unstable generalizations such as number of bags carried, and paying cash for a ticket at the airport have been replaced with stable generalizations such as displayed nervousness or identified contraband.

6. Safety innovations in a commonsense way should result in greater safety – few accidents and casualties. However, Gladwell shows that this is often not the case, as the benefit of the safety innovation is “consumed” rather than saved. By “consumed”, Gladwell means that consumers offset the risk reduction from the safety innovation by taking greater risk in other areas. In the example of antilock breaks, drivers were found to switch lanes more frequently, drive closer to the cars in front of them, and otherwise compensate for the increased safety with more aggressive driving.

This is a very interesting observation because it suggests that reducing the rate of accidents/casualties beyond a certain point may not be possible or desirable. People are comfortable taking on a given level of risk from an activity, and when faced with safety improvements, will consume part of the risk reduction by showing less caution than they otherwise would.

Gladwell also gives the example of flight safety improvements that have been partially offset by offering more flights, more bad weather take-offs and landings, and greater air traffic. These offsets make flying more available and efficient for the many, but prevent the accident rates from going down as much as may have been predicted in the absence of such behavior.

A parallel to this insight, more generally, is “moral hazard”. That is, when people know that the cost or risks of a behavior will be borne by someone else, they tend to engage in it more. So the costs/risks can be transferred to a technological innovation, as in antilock brakes, or to society more generally, as in insurance for homes on floodplains or government bailouts. In both types of situations, the transfer of costs/risks lowers the price of the activity and increases people’s demand/consumption of it.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jul 24, 2011 Cortney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

5 likes · like · see review

Jun 15, 2011 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 lat...more

like · see review

Jun 06, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essays

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 thought this b...more

like · see review

May 29, 2011 cat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 100-in-2011

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 he shares. A...more

1 like · like · see review

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. except for very few...more

like · see review

Jan 25, 2011 Josh Meares rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 interested in the cu...more 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 interested in the culture of the first century A.D. Strangely enough, Gladwell's essay on modern birth control directly affects how I interpret the events of the first century A.D. as recorded in the Bible.

The major idea that I took from Gladwell's research is that the age of puberty has dramatically decreased in Western societies in the modern age because of advances in medicine and nutrition. Similar changes have been documented in several developing countries, including the Kikuyu tribe of Kenya and several tribes in Papua New Guinea. In our country, teenagers reach sexual maturity (as evidenced by menarche and spermache) at about 13. Girls tend to mature about 6 months earlier than boys. In developing countries, however, the average age at which teenagers reach sexual maturity can be as high as 18 years old! These teenagers reach puberty later (about a year later), then go through puberty much more slowly.

Now, anthropologists knew that girls married very soon after menarche. However, figuring out exactly how much later menarche occurred is a relatively recent development. When it comes to biblical studies, it helps me understand Luke 1:46-55. This passage is called Mary's Song, and I have been trying to wrap my head around how a 13 or 14 year old girl could possibly have composed it. I have been trying to understand how such a young girl could manage the journey to Bethlehem, could convince her parents that an angel visited her, or manage her own household. However, if we take Gladwell's research seriously, it is very unlikely that Mary was 15 when she conceived. Statistically speaking, if Mary conceived as soon as she was physically able, and delivered after nine months, she was probably around 18 or a little older. In that culture, given common marriage customs, she was probably no older than 20 (though we can't say for sure, of course). And that makes Mary's song, and her maturity, a lot easier to interpret.

This research may also have implications on youth ministry and child raising. It seems that the intensity of the hormonal storm of the teenage years is much stronger because of the sheer amount and quality of the food we eat, the scarcity of physical labor (and disease), along with a host of unknown factors. Should we be trying to figure out how to prolong and temper puberty through nutrition? The article is also interesting for its impact on how and why we use birth control, but I don't really have anything to add to that conversation.

On the negative side, Gladwell continues his enmity with innate talent. Gladwell appears to be a moderate Blank Slater (to borrow Pinker's terminology). In other words, people can be whatever they want to be. My own position is that the brain is just like any other physical characteristic. Some people are tall, some are short, some are white, some are black, some are smart, and some aren't. That doesn't make anybody better than anybody else. Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 "For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" When it comes to intelligence, everyone is afraid that it means people ARE less if they aren't as intelligent. That is not true. We all have our own gifts. Now, I do agree with Gladwell that intelligence or talent does not guarantee success. I also agree that we have an unhealthy fascination with talent. But the solution is not to show that talent is unimportant, it is to understand what talent is.

What do you think?
(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 05, 2011 Kerstin Olcott rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

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

like · see review

Jan 01, 2011 Sandra Strange rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history-and-nonfiction

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 s...more

like · see review

Sep 15, 2010 Kiwiflora rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 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 are so good at maths. This is something we all generally know, but how many of us have actually given it any deep thought? Or in 'The Tipping Point', we accept fashion trends as something we follow because that is what in the shops. But Gladwell takes the example of the sudden and unexpected increase in popularity of people wearing Hush Puppies shoes, of all things.

His latest book is a collection of essays he wrote between 1996 and 2008 while he was working for 'The New Yorker' magazine. Should we really be banning pit-bull terriers, are they really as dangerous as they seem? Why do some people choke or panic when under stress, and what is the difference between choking and panicking anyway? Why are mammograms not necessarily as reliable as we think they are? And why, in the 1950s, did it suddenly become socially acceptable for women to start dyeing their hair when it had always been the domain of hookers and chorus girls? Malcolm Gladwell attempts to find out the answers to these curly questions and a host of others.

It is, of course, intriguing reading, funny, interesting, 'well fancy that'. And he writes it all in such an easy to follow fashion, despite all the facts, figures, reports, trials, examples, interviews that he uses to illustrate and prove his points.

If you look at the review in an esteemed publication such as the New York Times Gladwell does come in for some criticism over the lack of 'technical grounding' on his subjects, his tendency to be genarlise in his writing and to include the reader in his reasonings: the royal 'we'. But as another review observed, he does not profess to be an expert in any of the subjects he writes about. His overwhelming curiosity and writing ability are more than enough to keep the reader engaged, to make us think further about the world we live in and how we try to rationlise what is going on around us.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 15, 2010 Spencer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, other-science-current-affairs-etc

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. Differ...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 03, 2010 Cindy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 “Personalit...more

like · see review

Jun 29, 2010 Benjaminxjackson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 articles here is not in th...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 06, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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.

It’s hard to quant...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jun 01, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction-other

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 the "Dog Whisp...more

2 likes · like · see review

May 19, 2010 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 if you think abo...more 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 if you think about it too hard. An example from this collection: the overall point of the Enron essay is that more of our diagnostic challenges these days are "mysteries" (we're drowning in info but have a hard time interpreting it, in this case publicly available financial statements about enron before they were exposed) rather than "puzzles" (we need more pieces of info to complete the picture -- exs. Watergate coverup, Bin Laden whereabouts). Not doing it justice here in this brief review, but reading the whole essay you start to think "hey, good point. crisp distinction, Malcolm. You da man". But....to test this in any meaningful way, you'd need (a) a reliable coding scheme for mystery vs. puzzle, (b) some way of delimiting, and then counting, the cases in the field of inquiry we're talking about, (c) a survey of whether the mysteries are indeed more prevalent in recent years. Anybody going to do that study? Not likely. So it's more entertaining (to me) than just reading another editorial saying that Jeffrey Skilling and his enron colleagues were immoral jerks, or that the workers should have had diversified retirement accounts, but in the end it's not a thesis of which you can be confident.

Even when the problem is much more tractable (e.g., in discussing the problem of predicting future performance by employees, he labels "the quarterback problem" the fact that a college QB can look great against college defenses but fail to develop as an NFL star because the same stuff doesn't work against bigger, faster defenders), Gladwell doesn't ground what he's saying in any sort of empirical study (have there been more Tim Couch/Ryan Leaf-type QB busts or more Tony Mandarich-level lineman busts? -- this should be figure-out-able, but he just labels and it and moves on to whatever other phenomena this trend supposedly illuminates.)

So that's my Gladwell quibble, but on the whole it's an informative, original, interesting read.
(less)

like · see review

May 18, 2010 Melani rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 interestin...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Pulpit Fiction : Favourite Quotes	1	1	Feb 03, 2012 02:15pm

combine
Other Editions (31)

More editions...

Genres

Non Fiction

292 users

Business

109 users

Sociology

86 users

Economics

42 users

Short Stories

26 users

Writing > Journalism

25 users

Social Science

21 users

Book Club

20 users

Adult

17 users

Culture

16 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is a United Kingdom-born, Canadian-raised journalist now based in New York City. He is a former business and science writer at the Washington Post. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He is best known as the author of the books The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), and Outl...more

More about Malcolm Gladwell...

Books by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses: Part Two from What the Dog Saw

Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius: Part One from What the Dog Saw

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About What the Dog Saw ...

7 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from What the Dog Saw and O...

“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuede. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone elses head.
” — 81 people liked it

“Nothing frustrates me more than someone who reads something of mine or anyone else's and says, angrily, 'I don't buy it.' Why are they angry? Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head—even if in the end you conclude that someone else's head is not a place you'd really like to be.” — 10 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
avg rating	preview: What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures Goodreads rating: 3.77 (30762 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6989641-what-the-dog-saw?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1255987854l/6989641.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6989641-what-the-dog-saw?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell[/url]

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website