What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is a collection of stories by Malcolm Gladwell published in the New Yorker in the 90s. It caught my eye because I enjoyed Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” and have been wanting to read “The Outliers”. The person who lent it to me wasn’t terribly thrilled with it, but past experiences have shown that’s no reason not to give it a chance.
Like his books, this collection contained some big hits and major misses. I’m one of those freaks who reads everything cover-to-cover, so I’m going to play expert and break down these stories into three categories. If you find yourself with both this book and a finite amount of spare time on your hands, you may find this helpful.
BEST
The Pitchman – If you have a Ronco Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ or even a George Foreman Grill, you’ll probably enjoy this story of Ron Popeil’s life of innovation and salesmanship. It starts off with the history of the TV sales pitch and includes some family drama I don’t really care about, but I’m intrigued by people gifted in the art of selling. The story discusses why his inventions and demos were so successful, cutely suggesting if he had invented the VCR, it would be called the Ronco Tape-O-Matic and it would be clear so you could see how everything worked.
The Ketchup Conundrum – What’s the problem, you ask? Ketchup is way too awesome for its own good. That’s the problem.
What the Dog Saw – Most people are familiar with Cesar Millan on “The Dog Whisperer,” or at least the concept of the show. This story describes a few clients of Caesar’s and deconstructs the techniques he uses on them.
Million-Dollar Murray – This is a good discussion of homelessness and why we’re going about solving it the wrong way. However, his interview subjects think the best way to solve it is to give the most costly ones (mostly measured by hospital bills) their own apartments and dedicated social workers to make sure they’re flying right. This is really unfair to people who are just poor and have always been flying right. An interesting read nonetheless.
Something Borrowed – I am all ears (or eyes) when it comes to plagiarism because I’m a writer. Other people might not be, but I think the author’s own involvement in the story gives it more weight. As a former magazine editor, I had to deal with a writer who plagiarized, and it sucked. Since it’s such a multifaceted misdeed and every case is different, it’s hard to know what to feel or how to deal with it, and Gladwell emotes that very well.
Most Likely to Succeed – It looks like there are similarities between hiring the best football players and hiring the best secondary school teachers. Education is another of my big topics, but even if it’s not one of yours, this article is sports-heavy too, so knock yourself out.
The New-Boy Network – We can tell almost nothing about how a person is going to behave in a given context based on an hour-long interview. No matter what questions we ask, it usually ends up being a gut decision. And to paraphrase, structured interviewing is like a desexualized first date. Amen.
Troublemakers – Pitbulls are considered a “bad breed” but they actually comprise a number of related breeds with similar traits. Some laws against them are so vaguely written that an interview subject admits “pit bulls are whatever they say they are.” My lab-lookin’ dog is part pit bull, and I now feel silly for saying that because it doesn’t really mean anything. Yeah, she’s temperamental, but I blame the assholes who had her the first four years of her life then threw her out to be claimed by an animal shelter. Who wouldn’t be a little difficult after that?
MEH
True Colors – I was mildly interested in this because I dye my hair. And I’m intrigued by how easily manipulated people are.
The Picture Problem – The idea that touching may be a better indicator than looking in some instances, particularly mammograms. Leave it to this guy to make a story about touching boobs forgettable.
Connecting the Dots – This one almost ended up in the Worst category, but I may be a little biased because I’m decidedly not interested in government intelligence. In fact, like most people who still remember 9/11, I consider it an oxymoron. The story read better than I thought it would upon first glance.
The Art of Failure – Some people choke because they think too much. Some people panic because they think too little. It’s emotional, but pretty cut-and-dried.
Late Bloomers – I appreciate this effort to disconnect the idea that you either “have it” or you don’t. Some people take decades to perfect their talent, while others appear as naturals early in their lives. I think our ever-hastening need for instant gratification makes it tough for the late bloomers to be appreciated for who they are before they hit their stride, which is sad. This story sort of hit home for me in a bittersweet way. The idea that I may not be great until I’m 50 is almost equivalent to the idea that I may never be great at all. I thank my “patrons” for being patient while I try anyway.
WORST
Blowing Up – It’s about investing and it’s boring as fuck.
Open Secrets – He uses Enron’s shady practices to introduce the topic of how much information is enough. At one point he compared Enron to Watergate, and I wanted to fly back to NYC and pinch his ear really hard.
Blowup – The Challenger Explosion shows us how we can’t always learn from past mistakes. Lots of fields exercise levels of acceptable risk, so problems aren’t always caught. The explanation of all this was boring.
Dangerous Minds – I like stories about catching killers, but this basically confirms what most people believe about how far police investigators have their heads stuck up their asses. The obvious stabs in the dark are so rube, I’d like to go out and commit murder, just for grins. (Okay, not really.)
The Talent Myth – More Enron. This time it’s about their hiring practices. It’s not so much a bad story as it is irrelevant.
PURPOSELY LEFT OUT
John Rock’s Error – I think most women will find this interesting because it contains some valuable information about the development of the birth control pill and women’s health in general. There’s a fairly descriptive part pertaining to menstruation that might make some of you big ol’ tough guys squeamish. Pardon me while I ponder the thought of MY vagina being equipped to let an ENTIRE PERSON pass through. Poor baby, indeed.
Okay, that was four categories. And now you have a lot of information about information.
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