Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness. Malcolm Gladwell More Quotes by Malcolm Gladwell More Quotes From Malcolm Gladwell What do we tell our children? Haste makes waste. Look before you leap. Stop and think. Don't judge a book by its cover. We believe that we are always better off gathering as much information as possible and spending as much time as possible in deliberation. Malcolm Gladwell believebookchildren A study at the University of Utah found that if you ask someone why he is friendly with someone else, he’ll say it is because he and his friend share similar attitudes. But if you actually quiz the two of them on their attitudes, you’ll find out that what they actually share is similar activities. We’re friends with the people we do things with, as much as we are with the people we resemble. We don’t seek out friends, in other words. We associate with the people who occupy the same small, physical spaces that we do. Malcolm Gladwell utahattitudetwo In a country that never wins anything: in Canada, if one of our athletes so much as makes the final in a World Championship, we declare a national holiday. Malcolm Gladwell holidayathletecountry People don't rise from nothing. Malcolm Gladwell outlierskindlespeople It wasn't an excuse. It was a fact. He'd had to make his way alone, and no one - not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses - ever makes it alone. Malcolm Gladwell rocksstarsathlete The Band-Aid solution is actually the best kind of solution because it involves solving a problem with the minimum amount of effort and time and cost. Malcolm Gladwell effortcostleadership The injunction to be nice is used to deflect criticism and stifle the legitimate anger of dissent. Malcolm Gladwell usednicecriticism If people disobey, don't ask what is wrong with them, ask what's wrong with their leaders. Malcolm Gladwell asksleaderpeople I've been in auditions without screens, and I can assure you that I was prejudiced. I began to listen with my eyes, and there is no way that your eyes don't affect your judgement. The only true way to listen is with your ears and your heart. (p.251) Malcolm Gladwell judgementeyeheart Since becoming a journalist, each time I engage with subjects I become more radicalized. Malcolm Gladwell journalist I became convinced that knowing lots of people was kind of skill, something that the diligent can overcome. Malcolm Gladwell skillsknowingpeople To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what's ten years? Well, it's roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness. Malcolm Gladwell greatnesspracticeyears Clear writing is universal. People talk about writing down to an audience or writing up to an audience; I think that's nonsense. If you write in a way that is clear, transparent, and elegant, it will reach everyone. Malcolm Gladwell writingpeoplethinking I write my books to challenge my own feelings and theories. Perhaps most surprising was what I learned about rice farming. It was really interesting to think of how different Asian and Western cultures are as a result of the kinds of agricultural practices that our ancestors used for thousands of years. The life of a Chinese peasant in the Middle Ages was so dramatically different from the life of a European peasant - night and day different. Malcolm Gladwell writingnightbook Affect, Imagery, Consciousness, a four-volume work so dense that its readers were evenly divided between those who understood it and thought it was brilliant and those who did not understand it and thought it was brilliant. Malcolm Gladwell brilliantfourconsciousness I'm a purist: I start to wrinkle my nose when the Cold War ends. Malcolm Gladwell wrinklesnoseswar Television allows the audience to argue with the creator in a way you don't in a movie. Malcolm Gladwell arguingtelevisionway My point is that the great challenge of an artist is to balance those two things: to be strong enough to have your own personal vision that you will put on the page or the canvas or the screen, no matter what people say, but it requires a radical sensitivity. You have to be completely open to what the world is telling you, to what your audience tells you. And balancing those two things is nearly impossible. Malcolm Gladwell strongartisttwo What we do as a community, as a society, for each other, matters as much as what we do for ourselves. It sounds a little trite, but there's a powerful amount of truth in that, I think. Malcolm Gladwell communitypowerfulthinking I interviewed one of the most powerful lawyers in the world and he told me, "At the time, it was the worst thing in the world not to be able to get a job at a fancy law firm, but it's the greatest thing that ever happened in my life." It was a humble acknowledgment of how forces much larger than himself shaped his career. I really wanted to bring that point home. Malcolm Gladwell powerfulhomejobs
