We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don't matter at all. Malcolm Gladwell More Quotes by Malcolm Gladwell More Quotes From Malcolm Gladwell There is nothing more common than critics of journalists accusing them of practicing journalism. It is our function in the world to take things that are complicated and render them in a form that non-experts can follow and make sense of. Malcolm Gladwell journalism common world There are some people, who I'll charitably call snobs, who are dismissive of any conversation that doesn't begin with the full level of complexity. That's just not how the world works. Malcolm Gladwell snob people world I would say first of all, anyone who wants to challenge the status quo always gets that response. Ninety percent of the time, that's just bull. That's just the way in which people choose to prop up their own privilege or their own particular position. So mostly I shrug it off. Malcolm Gladwell status-quo challenges people When people reflexively write checks to institutions that have billions of dollars in the bank, they are essentially committing a moral crime. Your money could do good in this world and you're choosing instead to waste it. People have to do a better job of that. You've got to find places where your money's going to do some good and direct your dollars towards that institution. Malcolm Gladwell writing people world So the first task of a police force is not to fight crime and enforce the law. It is to establish legitimacy with the law-abiding citizenry and then fight crime and enforce the law. Malcolm Gladwell crime police fighting I don't want to be like the angry old guy in the corner who is always ranting and raving about the same things - but I don't mind doing that just a little bit! Malcolm Gladwell guy mind Every cop will tell you that their real job is being a social worker. That's what they do all day. The large majority of police officers in this country never even draw their gun, let alone fire it. They do conflict resolution, right? And if that's their job, why do they need to look like they're an occupying force? Malcolm Gladwell gun real country One of the things I think the police have to do is to stop behaving like armies. Malcolm Gladwell police army thinking Science fiction annoyed me because it was like, "Why is the world as it is not enough for you?" Malcolm Gladwell annoyed fiction world The religious paradigm and the science fiction paradigm are different. Apologies to science fiction fans, but the paradigm there is to create a new world and describe it with a kind of specificity that we describe the world we inhabit. Religiosity, on the other hand, does none of that. Malcolm Gladwell apology religious hands What interests me about fiction is plot. And what interests me about plot is whether someone tells a story that moves me within the constraints of storytelling. And I have narrowly defined storytelling. Malcolm Gladwell stories fiction moving Now I basically just read spy stories because they're about solving a puzzle within the constraints of history. It's the tick tock, the clockwork that I'm interested in. Malcolm Gladwell tick spy stories When writing, you can't break physical rules. You can't have people come back from the dead. That's cheating. I am a kind of narrative fundamentalist in many ways. Malcolm Gladwell writing cheating people As a writer, I know that - you write a first draft and then put it in a drawer. The longer I can put it in a drawer, the better off I am. So I structure my writing so that things can sit. Malcolm Gladwell drawers writing firsts I don't like things that aren't true. Malcolm Gladwell All artists have to do that at a certain point. This shift that has to happen between the initial moment of creation and then the consideration of what has been created. Malcolm Gladwell creation moments artist My father read Charles Dickens to us as children, and at the end of virtually every novel he would choke up and start to cry - and my father NEVER cried. It always made me love him all the more. Malcolm Gladwell cry father children I'm convinced that ideas and behaviors and new products move through a population very much like a disease does. Malcolm Gladwell disease ideas moving The world is not a meritocracy, as much as we may like to pretend that it is. And we have a long way to go before we really reward people based on their own merit. Malcolm Gladwell long people world It's just strange to think that so much of our enjoyment from sports comes from the elevation of arbitrary differences. Malcolm Gladwell differences sports thinking
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