Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell

"The entire principle of a blind taste test was ridiculous. They shouldn't have cared so much that they were losing blind taste tests with old Coke, and we shouldn't at all be surprised that Pepsi's dominance in blind taste tests never translated to much in the real world. Why not? Because in the real world, no one ever drinks Coca-Cola blind."
25 Quotes
"The entire principle of a blind taste test was ridiculous. They shouldn't have cared so much that they were losing blind taste tests with old Coke, and we shouldn't at all be surprised that Pepsi's dominance in blind taste tests never translated to much in the real world. Why not? Because in the real world, no one ever drinks Coca-Cola blind."
Malcolm Gladwell Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
"I'm drawn again and again to obsessives. I like them. I like the idea that someone could push away all the concerns and details that make up everyday life and just zero in on one thing - the thing that fits the contours of his or her imagination. Obsessives lead us astray sometimes. Can't see the bigger picture. Serve not just the world's but also their own narrow interests. But I don't think we get progress or innovation or joy or beauty without obsessives."
Malcolm Gladwell The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
"The injunction to be nice is used to deflect criticism and stifle the legitimate anger of dissent."
Malcolm Gladwell
"The underdog winning is the romantic position."
Malcolm Gladwell
"Once you understand that Goliath is much weaker than you think he is, and David has superior technology, then you say: why do we tell the story the way we do? It becomes, actually, a far more meaningful and important story in its retelling than in the kind of unsophisticated way we've done it for, I think, too long."
Malcolm Gladwell
"The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world."
Malcolm Gladwell
"Mainstream American society finds it easiest to be tolerant when the outsider chooses to minimize the differences that separate him from the majority. The country club opens its doors to Jews. The university welcomes African-Americans. Heterosexuals extend the privilege of marriage to the gay community."
Malcolm Gladwell
"Part of me thinks that innovation, real innovation in health care delivery, needs to happen from the bottom to the top."
Malcolm Gladwell
"When I go to my health club, and it's in the basement, you have to take the elevator down. And this drives me crazy. Why can't there be a stairway? At least make it as easy to exercise as it is to not exercise. It's in society's interest for me to take the stairs."
Malcolm Gladwell
"I have profoundly mixed feelings about the Affordable Care Act. What I love about it is its impulse. It attempts to deal with this intractable problem in American health care life, which is that a significant portion of the population does not have access to quality medical care."
Malcolm Gladwell
"You don't train someone for all of those years of medical school and residency, particularly people who want to help others optimize their physical and psychological health, and then have them run a claims-processing operation for insurance companies."
Malcolm Gladwell
"There is this tremendous body of knowledge in the world of academia where extraordinary numbers of incredibly thoughtful people have taken the time to examine on a really profound level the way we live our lives and who we are and where we've been. That brilliant learning sometimes gets trapped in academia and never sees the light of day."
Malcolm Gladwell
"Do you remember the wrestler Andre the Giant? Famous. He had acromegaly."
Malcolm Gladwell
"The most common form of giantism is a condition called acromegaly, and acromegaly is caused by a benign tumor on your pituitary gland that causes an overproduction of human growth hormone. And throughout history, many of the most famous giants have all had acromegaly."
Malcolm Gladwell
"When you write about sports, you're allowed to engage in mischief. Nothing is at stake."
Malcolm Gladwell
"The paradox of endurance sports is that an athlete can never work as hard as he wants, because if he pushes himself too far, his hematocrit will fall."
Malcolm Gladwell
"Do we as a society need people who have emerged from some kind of trauma. And the answer is that we plainly do. There are times and places however when all of us depend on people who have been hardened by their experiences. ... [Dr. Freireich] understood from his own childhood experiences that it is possible to emerge from even the darkest hell healed and restored."
Malcolm Gladwell
"Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split-second, spontaneous decisions. But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice--perfecting their shooting, dribbling, and passing and running plays over and over again--and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court. . . . spontaneity isn't random."
Malcolm Gladwell
"Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking."
Malcolm Gladwell
"To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success...with a society that provides opportunities for all."
Malcolm Gladwell
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