Malcolm-Gladwell

Book: Talking to Strangers
Author: Malcolm Gladwell

This book has a lot of stories that include a police stop gone wrong, pyramid scheme, Cuban spies, drinking, sexual assault, and torture. A bit hard to follow all the different stories and pick out a theme for the book. At least for me.

My biggest takeaway was finding the balance between trust and doubt. The book points out that most humans are wired to trust by default. We believe what others say and this trust can override nagging doubts.

Book: David and Goliath
Author: Malcolm Gladwell

The subtitle for the book is “Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” and as you would expect it has many examples of an underdog beating a giant. Often the underdogs have to use unconventional approaches as facing the giant head one would result in their defeat.

An item that almost became my takeaway is that sometimes the underdog is not really the underdog. Instead sometimes the underdog is more powerful then they appear. A good example of this is the title story of David and Goliath as examined by Gladwell. He argues that David was armed with a superior weapon, the sling. The sling with it’s much longer range and stopping power then the sword wielded by Goliath. Basically David brought a gun to a knife fight and unsurprisingly won.