Malcolm Gladwell, not “X”, is fascinating. In his latest book,
What the Dog Saw, he shares with us his favorite articles he wrote for The New Yorker Magazine. I would like to comment about my favorite articles within this collection. I sense all of your excitement. Calm down or I’ll stop writing. Those that said “please do” are hilarious and belong doing stand-up – so stop reading and go stand up – somewhere else.
First off, What the Human Thought when he saw the title What the Dog Saw. Like many of you, I’m human, and saw this book and said, “Great…another book by Gladwell…I wonder what the dog did see”.
Sidebar: Substitute teaching and first-grade teacher writes on white board, “They saw the cat”, and the munchkins are supposed to add detail to make this a more complete sentence. Little girl instead ingeniously comments, “Who cares?” with an expression on her face saying, “Seriously?...they saw the cat…who cares?...time is money…we don’t have time to care about this stuff”…They saw the cat. What do you think about that Gladwell?...
…saw Gladwell’s new book and said, “Great!” Because he’s written three of the most influential books of the past decade (I think?) (The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers). I read the open flap to possibly gain the answer to what the dog saw and realized this was a collection of his New Yorker articles. I’ve read his three books and snippets of his blog (gladwell.com) (he reads Daily Nuggets too) but during my seldom glances at my New Yorker subscription my dad got me I never came across a Gladwell piece. But still, what did the dog see? “They saw the cat”, but what did the pooch see? I began reading.
Shortly, the answer emerged – and it makes perfect sense, despite nothing being perfect, that Gladwell would come up with this title. He is a writer. He explains when being a writer you often are assigned subjects you never dreamed of being interested in. For example, hair dye, in which one of his articles is about – not one of my favorites, but essential in describing the title. For him, in order to write about hair dye he had to convince himself it was interesting. Hair dye exists. Somebody must be interested in it so he must become so too. A writer must at times stop being selfish and understand what others like or think or see – hence, What the Dog Saw. And this is so fitting for Gladwell because what gravitates us to keep reading him is how he finds such random subjects and connects them to unlikely sources. For example, hair dye and the progress of women, or NFL Quarterbacks and finding the best teachers. I will convey further as I share my thoughts on a few of the articles.
Other minds problem – childlike thought that what I like mommy and daddy must like (Gladwell IX).
Million-Dollar Murray - Why Problems Like Homelessness May Be Easier to Solve Than to Manage
Homeless people cost all of us money. Shelters, soup kitchens, hospital rooms are provided to the homeless. Many argue these enable homeless people to continue being homeless – they have no fear of being homeless because they can somehow get by due to the shelters and soup kitchens, and if they’re injured, often falling down drunk, hospital rooms are provided. Others argue, we have a moral obligation to provide these resources – we can’t just leave homeless people helpless on the streets. Which ever side of the fence you’re on, the fact of the mater is, neither provides a solution to homelessness. Gladwell discusses a possibility.
Approximately 10% of homeless people are “chronically homeless” (Gladwell 184). The rest are homeless for a day or so. The focus should be on that 10%. “In Philadelphia, the most common length of time that someone is homeless is one day…the second is two days” (Gladwell 183). Many cities across America have adopted a new philosophy that intends to end homelessness instead of ignoring or managing it. Here’s the idea – rent apartments, walk up to homeless people and give them a key. Yeah, this costs money, but believe it or not, costs less money than leaving these people on the streets. This allows us to truly manage or observe these people. The idea is that they will in due time find work and take over the rent of the apartment. Further experiments have to be done to prove this is the better alternative. However, if it doesn’t work at first, it still costs less. It is estimated that it would cost $10,000-15,000 to house one homeless person. That is 1/3 of street living (Gladwell 190). The title of this article, “Million-Dollar Murray”, refers to a homeless person from Reno, Nevada. “It cost us one million dollars not to do something about Murray,” said police officer Patrick O’Bryan.
Something Borrowed – Should a Charge of Plagiarism Ruin Your Life
In this article, Gladwell talks about a writer that plagiarized his writing. I won’t go into too much detail. You should read it for yourself – like some of you should write it for yourself. When Gladwell realized he’d been plagiarized he of course was not too thrilled; however, this led to him thinking, “Should a charge of plagiarism ruin [someone’s] life?” That was the genesis for this article and made Gladwell realize how much importance society now places on the written word or other creative forms. Plagiarism is a crime, but this wasn’t always the case. It seems so cut and dry - if you copy somebody’s work that is plagiarism and you shall suffer the consequences. But this is not the case. Gladwell truly realized this when the man that plagiarized him said he thought we was just doing research and copying common knowledge. The intricacies of plagiarism are hard to determine. Gladwell discusses copyright laws when it comes to music for example. Today sampling other people’s music, especially in rap, is an accepted practice as long as you get permission. However, how many times has a certain sequence of notes been played? Then, a particular musician becomes known for that sequence, and now should he or she own that?
He also discusses how in due time somebody’s creation can become a part of the public domain and then anyone can copy it – “protections of copyright are time-limited”. This is even in our Constitution: “Congress shall have the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries” (Gladwell 231). Like I said, the intricacies of plagiarism are hard to determine – even after Gladwell discusses them. My insomniac mind can’t completely wrap my head around how it all works. But it is interesting. Read it for yourself. I hope I didn’t plagiarize.
The Art of Failure – Why Some People Choke and Others Panic
Late Bloomers – Why Do We Equate Genius with Precocity?
Most Likely to Succeed – How Do We Hire When We Can’t Tell Who’s Right for the Job?
