Book Review: Malcolm Gladwell’s Books: The Tipping Point; Blink; Outliers and What the Dog Saw.

My daughter said to me the other day “Whenever anyone asks me who I would like to have lunch with if I could invite anyone at all, I always say Malcolm Gladwell”. I have to agree with her. He is a great pop sociology/psychology writer. I have read all four of his books and delighted in the inquisitiveness revealed in his narrative. His view of the world is one of asking ‘why?’ Many of us say “Isn’t that nice?” and he says “How did that happen?”

All of his books have one thing in common – the author’s ability to spin a yarn. His mind is obviously always asking questions and searching through his prodigious mental database of seemingly trivial information to find examples, connections and situations that lend themselves to illustrating the observations he comes up with. He says that there are underlying reasons for why things are the way they are, and that thinking outside the box, honing our skills of observation, and considering factors that at first may not seem relevant will give us a better understanding of the social world around us.

Malcolm Gladwell, the son of an English father and Jamaican mother, grew up in Ontario and got his degree in history from the University of Toronto. He became a journalist, and in 1996 moved from the Washington Post to The New Yorker where he is now a staff writer. So far, we see nothing really unusual or notable there, including his being a transplanted Canadian. But, have a look at any of his four books and you will see an unusually active mind full of information that he has used to illustrate a number of insightful concepts.

The title of his first book ‘The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference’, says it all. Small things or incidents all by themselves may not seem of any importance, but when they appear in a particular context at a particular time, then the rest is history. One of the many examples in his book is the ride of Paul Revere and his success in mobilizing the population. Gladwell says that success was due to Revere’s knowledge of all the key people in the various towns. In essence he had a phone tree in his head and knew who to contact to get things done. He was also a man trusted by everyone so that when he brought news he had credibility.

The next book, ‘Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking’, tackles the idea of intuition. As Gladwell points out, it is the people who have perfected the art of ‘thin-slicing’, or filtering the significant clues from the myriad of variables flying at them, who display great intuition. He again used many examples to illustrate his point and one of them is the choice of Paul Van Riper, a Viet Nam War veteran, to lead the opposing team in a huge US military war-game. The premise was that an anti-American terrorist with support from four religious and ethnic groups was threatening to destabilize the Persian Gulf region. Gladwell goes on to relate the strategy of each side and the puzzling outcome. Of course, being Gladwell, he then explains what happened and what effect that had on US military war games.

His third book, ‘Outliers: the Story of Success’, reveals his analysis of why some people with potential became famous and wealthy and others do not. Examples here range from why many professional hockey players are born in January, why Bill Gates and Steve Jobs rose to software dominance, and what the Beatles and Mozart had in common. He points out that potential is important but so is time and place. You need all three in sync for that winning combination. Would the talents of Bill Gates been nurtured had he lived in the 1800’s, or in Patagonia? Probably not. I have always thought this and here Gladwell confirms it.

The most recent book ‘What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures’, is another take on factors behind the ‘why’ of a trend, an idea, a hit. A simple observation – lots of types of mustard, but only one ketchup (Heinz) – leads to an analysis of the few contenders for ketchup supremacy compared with Heinz. It turns out that Heinz has that perfect combination of tastes for our mouths that the others just have never matched. An interesting little anecdote here is Gladwell’s lunch date with two professional tasters and their constant parsing of the flavours in each dish they order.

These books are easy to read, entertaining, and informative. There is probably a certain amount of cherry-picking of examples but they do illustrate points the author is trying to make very well. They leave you with a new insight into the 'why' of things and a sense that the back story is as interesting as, and maybe even more informative than the headlines in the news. What would he make of the Tiger Woods story? Now there is a case crying for study and analysis.

Biddy Gloria