Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know

by Malcolm Gladwell

We’re truth-biased. For what turn out to be good reasons, we give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that the people we’re talking to are being honest.

Poets die young. That is not just a cliché. The life expectancy of poets, as a group, trails playwrights, novelists, and nonfiction writers by a considerable margin. They have higher rates of “emotional disorders” than actors, musicians, composers, and novelists.

Coupling teaches us the opposite. Don’t look at the stranger and jump to conclusions. Look at the stranger’s world.