The world is a messy, scary place. And when you’re as intimidated by it as I am, you look for ways to help make it less intimidating – or at least make it make more sense.
An author named Malcolm Gladwell kept popping up on my radar who uses statistics, studies, and psychology in new, unique ways that turned old ideas on their head and helped to clarify how historic events, sociological concepts, and general human behaviors play out in a simple yet thorough ways.
I’ve read five of Gladwell’s books, and each one had specific chapters and ideas that stuck out to me. As someone who reads a lot, it’s hard for the things I read to stick in my head. But I’ve retained several important ideas from each of these books. Below are five lessons that I’ve learned from reading Malcolm Gladwell’s books.
Outliers
In the creative world, your chances of success are a mixture of luck and skill. You perfect your craft with hard work, and then you keep at it until you either succeed or quit.
In Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he writes about success in terms of birthplace, year, and even month. No one knows what will happen in the lifetime of each baby that is born. It’s only in hindsight that we see the advantages and disadvantages that a person’s birthday carries with them. Gladwell writes about the accidental discovery that professional Canadian hockey players tend to be born in the first three months of the year because when they are just starting out, the cut off in age class for the children who sign up for hockey leagues gives children born in January, February, and March, more practice time, a longer physical development, and more playing time.
This book also taught me about where the 10,000-hour rule came from, an idea that I’d heard about before reading this book and really latched onto. Gladwell uses Bill Gates as an example of someone who was born at a time that allowed him access to computers, in terms of when he came of age, the fact that he was presented with the opportunity to use a computer, and that he spent much of his available time teaching himself how to use it. This contributed to his mega success in the computer world.
Incidentally, these chance circumstances did not deter my motivation in terms of pursuing my goals. Instead, they show there are so many hidden advantages to our birthplace and time of birth that we don’t even realize. It’s what shapes our interests, pursuits, and abilities, making it an interesting step in our journey rather than a defining one.
Talking to Strangers
Everything thinks they’re a mind reader. We’re constantly making split second decisions and opinions based on little bits of vague information.
I’m admittedly not good at reading people, and it makes interacting with people very intimidating and also fascinating. There’s also a fear about the perception that I’m putting into the world. I’m always alarmed when people read my poker faces and even more alarmed when they misinterpret them.
The most interesting concept that I pulled from Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers is the perception that we think we can predict that we know what people will do based on practical common sense. The Sylvia Plath chapter especially blew my mind when I learned how the suicide rates in the United Kingdom dropped dramatically when Plath’s method of suicide, sticking your head in the oven, was eradicated simply by updating their ovens to make it nearly impossible to use for this purpose.
It was practical to think that people who want to die will look for another way to kill themselves if their first option isn’t available. But we were wrong. People want control in the way they die, and not having that control makes them think twice about their decision. It shows that we have to stop assuming that we know what makes people tick. Instead, we need to look at data and test simple yet effective solutions to our problems that will change the world for the better.
Blink
Gladwell’s Blink is another look at people’s decision-making skills, more specifically with our unconscious biases. And, obviously, the less time we have to make a decision, the more mistakes we tend to make.
What I like about Blink is that it shows how simple these fixes are if we just recognize them and course correct. Gladwell writes about how cops work better in pairs because it causes them to slow down and consider their partner before making a decision. Better musicians are selected for orchestras when they undergo blind auditions where their appearance can’t factor into the decision.
One chapter that really stuck out at me was the idea that it’s not bad doctors who are most likely to be sued, it’s doctors who aren’t as personable. We tend to like doctors who will laugh, comfort, and cry with us. We don’t like the ones who act robotic and cold. So, if they make a mistake, you aren’t as forgiving of them as you are with those who like to crack jokes to break your tension or console you when you receive bad news.
How someone makes you feel is just as important, if not more, than how well they do their job. And those feelings play into how you will treat them.
David and Goliath
David and Goliath rewrites history for the underdog. In it, Gladwell shows us how the disadvantaged actually have advantages. His main point is made in the biblical story of David and Goliath in which he explains how historically, David was obviously favored to win because he had an advantage in terrain and skill. He didn’t just get lucky and take down a giant. He came prepared with a large skillset and a literal high ground in terms of where his showdown with Goliath took place.
This book is full of similar stories from the idea that dyslexia is a gift as much as it’s a disability to the fact that almost 30 percent of the time, smaller countries will win a war against a larger country. It narrows the gap of disadvantages and shows us that bigger isn’t always better and that outside the box thinking can lead to success.
The Tipping Point
I’ve saved my favorite Gladwell book for last. The Tipping Point is the first Malcolm Gladwell book that I read, and it helped me to make sense of society and how trends and culture get pushed into specific directions. It’s the combined efforts of connectors, mavens, and salesmen that help to spread the word about ideas and then make those ideas click, whether it’s the type of shoe that people are wearing to clubs or how to make children’s programming more effective.
I also like how it’s small changes that can make a difference. One chapter that stuck out to me was the idea that simply cleaning the graffiti off of the New York City subways was a giant step towards significantly decreasing the city’s crime rate over several years. It makes picking up a piece of litter or doing a good deed feel like it’s making more of a difference. Even if you’re not one of the influential people in our society, if you can influence one of them, you can get them to influence others into making the world a better place.
Which Malcolm Gladwell books have you read, and what lessons did you take away from them? Leave your answers in the comments below!
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