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The 5 Best Books of Malcolm Gladwell
Table of Contents
If you’ve ever wondered how to achieve success, you’ve probably found something about Malcolm Gladwell. The Canadian journalist and writer has a unique perspective on popular culture and has written a series of theories that purport to explain the dynamics of success. This article will cover a list of Malcolm Gladwell best books.
About Malcolm Gladwell
Born in London, England, on September 3, 1963, Malcolm Gladwell was a Canadian journalist and writer. He walked a unique path between the intellectual and popularizer world after writing the books “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” in 2000 and the Best Seller “In Outliers: The Story of Success” in 2008. The following year, in 2009, Gladwell compiled in his book “What the Dog Saw, and Other Adventures,” taken from columns in the New Yorker.
In addition to Gladwell’s numerous written works, he started hosting a podcast, “Revisionist History,” in 2016. And nonetheless, he founded the audio production company “Pushkin Industries in 2018.” It would take an article to tell Malcolm’s story, as his innovative way of living has not prevented him from evolving over the years. In that sense, we can find valuable lessons in his books, which will be covered below.
David and Goliath
In this book by Malcolm Gladwell, we are confronted with how we deal comfortably with challenges and disadvantages. We are presented with situations where mathematical probability shows no way to win, yet these disadvantaged people persevere and succeed. Gladwell teaches us precious knowledge of how to deal with problems of adversity and to be like a child who wants to grow and mature so that he can conquer his desired world.
The author tells stories of amazingly talented people, such as lawyer David Boies, founder of IKEA, and child leukemia researcher Jay Freireich. It is showsn difficulties that are not desirable to anyone, such as difficulty in learning, family problems, or deprived childhoods. These problems require you to adapt to reality to achieve good development for a bright future.
We should not focus on the problem, but we should consider our qualities and how they can benefit us to overcome these problems. This work, also called the Goliath Book, demonstrates how psychology can help us to better see the world and our place in it. According to the author, grief can be an essential ally for your success. In short, you don’t have to accept that the game should only be played by the rules of the giants. You must know that even the smallest have great qualities that will help them on their journey.
Blink: The Power of Thinking
Decision-making took a lot of work. Gladwell takes it upon himself in this manuscript to help his readers with this subject: understanding decision-making. Trusting our instincts results in more victories than defeats. But it is also necessary to understand that some quick decisions can lead to failure.
The author denotes how our brain works when we make decisions in high-stress situations and why our best decisions are the most difficult to explain to others. Improving our ability to reduce the noise in our minds is fundamental. This factor will lead us to take better directions in our videos and, therefore, better decisions.
Whether you are an ordinary person, a politician, or an activist, the applied study of your decision-making is essential for your livelihood. If you agree with the previous sentence in this paragraph, you will be quickly drawn to read this book. After all, what makes you a good decision-maker? When should we make decisions? You will find these answers and much more in “Blink: The Power of Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell.
What the Dog Saw
A book that makes you feel like you are involuntarily participating in a social experiment. Its depth is in three book sections: the first is about obsessives and little geniuses; the second is about the wrong way of thinking. And the third is about making predictions about the people around us: will they be great artists? Will they be good employees? Or will they be a terrible serial killer?
During the work, the most diverse subjects and stories were approached. Like the question, you need 150 IQs to lead the stock market. Or about the birth control pill, whose inventor instigated the Catholic Church to spread medicine as natural birth control.
The book highlights one of the author’s best qualities: to expose new perspectives and unearth stories that had never been told before. It relies on all his wisdom and unbridled curiosity that make Malcolm an extraordinary writer.
Talking to Strangers
Judgment accompanies our thoughts as we go through our days. Not to judge a book by its cover is a well-known expression, but what does it mean anyway? As we read this excellent book, we will discover more about how making assumptions based on our shallow thoughts is inappropriate.
Following the line of thought of the book’s title, talking to strangers brings us a new human perspective on the other. These conversations help us understand and judge more concisely, keeping calm to comprehend and consider more concisely. Concise, keeping the peace, so we don’t lose our temper, and increasing our tolerance for others.
Throughout this work, the author provides us with some valuable lessons, such as:
- People’s different ways of expressing themselves make our job of finding out what they think more difficult, no matter how hard you try to understand them. In this way, we can only truly understand a person when he sincerely tells us what he is thinking and feeling;
- Although intuitively, people think that we can detect lies in conversations, nothing is that simple. We need the help of triggers to really tell when someone is lying, which is covered in this work; and,
- We need to understand that we can better understand people’s emotions and thoughts. This overconfidence can deceive us into a skill that doesn’t exist, hindering our personal growth.
In fact, when we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are susceptible to conflict and misunderstanding, which seriously impact our lives. Gladwell provides genuine self-help through the teachings contained in this book.
The Bomber Mafia
This is Malcolm Gladwell’s most recent book, released in 2021, where he talks about the Bomber Mafia of World War II. This Mafia reformulated a more “moral” way of pumping people, and with the advancement of technology, precision bombing was created. Aiming that these bombings could cripple the enemy and make the war less lethal.
On the other side, General Curtis LeMay employed more brutal and deadly war tactics. Literally burning the land of Japan, costing thousands of innocent civilian lives. In the face of these attitudes, Malcolm asks in his book, “Was It Worth It?”
To examine one of the most significant moral problems America has faced, Gladwell blends the story of a Dutch computer genius, a British psychopath and brothers from central Alabama, and a Harvard pyromaniac chemist.
The author generates an enormous fascination with this work, demonstrating the innovation, persistence, and do-or-die calculations of war, which are taken from actual interviews and stories in his podcast. Gladwell has turned several of his podcasts into incredible books.
Final Thoughts
Whatever book you start reading from Malcolm Gladwell’s books, remember that you will learn a lot about yourself and put many teachings into practice. The reflections on your own emotions and those of others are under constant analysis. Gladwell’s unique insight into various stories involving famous and not-so-famous people provides us with extraordinary books that deserve our attention and care. After all, we must know that even the most miniature people have great qualities.
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