What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures [NOOK Book]

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Overview

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?
In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.
Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling ...
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More About This Book

Overview

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?
In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.
Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.
"Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head." What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
The Tipping Point woke us to the wonders of Malcolm Gladwell; Blink, bringing us up with a start, confirmed his talents of discernment, and Outliers proved that this conscientious outsider was still watching us, picking up clues to how we all tick and synchronize our tics. In this batch of inquiries, Gladwell covers the world: from insurgent warlords to ketchup makers; from canine whisperers to ethnic profilers; from NFL signal callers to high school teachers. Most of us don't fit into any of those categories, but that doesn't lessen our interest in his observations. What the Dog Saw challenges us to think like other people and see like other species.
Janet Maslin
This book full of short conversation pieces is a collection that plays to the author's strengths. It underscores his way of finding suitably quirky subjects (the history of women's hair-dye advertisements; the secret of Heinz's unbeatable ketchup; even the effects of women's changing career patterns on the number of menstrual periods they experience in their lifetimes) and using each as gateway to some larger meaning. It illustrates how often he sets up one premise (i.e. that crime profiling helps track down serial killers) only to destroy it.
—The New York Times
More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews
Steven Pinker
Gladwell is a writer of many gifts. His nose for the untold back story will have readers repeatedly muttering, "Gee, that's interesting!" He avoids shopworn topics, easy moralization and conventional wisdom, encouraging his readers to think again and think different. His prose is transparent, with lucid explanations and a sense that we are chatting with the experts ourselves. Some chapters are masterpieces in the art of the essay.
—The New York Times Book Review
Library Journal
Gladwell (The Tipping Point) has gathered 22 of his pieces that have appeared in The New Yorker since 1996, arranging them into three sections: "Obsessive, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius," "Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses," and "Personality, Character and Intelligence." Fans who are not familiar with Gladwell's articles will be delighted to discover that his shorter work contains the same level of insight, wit, and talent for making the mundane fascinating as they've come to expect from his longer work. Gladwell's writing here is filled with colorful characters, acute analyses, and intriguing questions. However, be warned that the organization of the articles by topic rather than by date can be confusing, especially since much of what Gladwell is discussing has since changed. For instance, although articles about the Challenger explosion, the stock market, and Enron all have postscripts about developments that occurred after the original publication of these pieces, the original publication dates are indicated neither in the table of contents nor at the start of the pieces, frustrating readers' attempts to learn what time period each article covers. VERDICT Fans of Gladwell's writing will want to add this to their bookshelves. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/09.]—April Younglove, Rochester Regional Lib. Council, NY

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780316086134
  • Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
  • Publication date: 10/20/2009
  • Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
  • Format: eBook
  • Sales rank: 11,855
  • File size: 450 KB

Meet the Author

Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with the New Yorker magazine since 1996. He is the author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, all of which were number one New York Times bestsellers. Prior to joining the New Yorker, he was a reporter with the Washington Post, where he covered business, science, and then served as the newspaper's New York City bureau chief. Gladwell was born in England, grew up in rural Ontario, and now lives in New York City.

Biography

At the start of the 21st century, a new form of narrative nonfiction emerged, blending science, sociology, and pop culture into a compulsively readable hybrid genre marked by originality, accessibility, and a breezy, anecdotal style. As much as any single writer, and perhaps more than most, journalist and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell has helped to forge that genre.

Born in the U.K. and raised in rural Canada, Gladwell stumbled into journalism purely by accident. After college, he wanted to pursue a career in advertising; but when he was unable to find work in that field, he took a job with the conservative U.S. monthly The American Spectator. In 1987, he joined The Washington Post, where he reported on business and science for nearly a decade. Then, in 1996, Tina Brown hired him to work for The New Yorker. (Brown left the magazine in 1998. Gladwell is still on staff.)

Almost from the beginning, Gladwell's work for The New Yorker attracted attention. Of particular interest was a piece he wrote in June 1996 about a mysterious and dramatic drop in the New York City crime rate. Drawing its title -- and its argument -- from the field of epidemiology, "The Tipping Pont" described a single moment in time when the momentum for change becomes virtually unstoppable. The piece generated an enormous reader response, and Gladwell began to explore the applications of the principle to other sorts of changes -- ideas, behaviors, new products, etc. In 2000, he published a full-length book that reached a tipping point of its own and logged a spectacular 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

In subsequent books, Gladwell has delved into other thought-provoking topics, such as the role of snap judgments and intuition in decision making (Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking) and the qualities that set high achievers apart from the rest of us (Outliers: The Story of Success). Readers love these intriguing reads for their clear, accessible language and illustrations drawn from real life; but it is the business community, always anxious to spot the next big thing, that has recognized the relevance of Gladwell's ideas to sales, marketing, and public relations. As a result of his popularity with this group, he has become a much-in-demand public speaker.

Good To Know

  • Gladwell's English father is a civil engineer and his mother is a Jamaican-born psychotherapist.

  • Growing up in Canada at a time when the country was essentially a socialist nation, Gladwell was a self-professed right-wing kid. "Being a conservative was the kind of fun, radical thing to do," he told The New York Times. He notes that his politics have changed over the years.

  • When Gladwell decided to grow his formerly short and conservatively cut hair into an Afro, he began to receive special, unwanted attention (more speeding tickets, additional checks in airport security lines, etc.). These experiences got him thinking about how first impressions lead to snap judgments -- which inspired his bestseller Blink.

  • Starbucks' founder Howard Schultz publicly attributed his company's success to the tipping-point phenomenon.

  • In 2005, Time Magazine named Gladwell one of the 100 Most Influential People.

      1. Hometown:
        New York, NY
      1. Date of Birth:
        September 3, 1963
      2. Place of Birth:
        England, U.K.
      1. Education:
        University of Toronto, History degree, 1984

    Table of Contents

    Preface

    PART ONE:
    "To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
    Obsessives, pioneers, and other varieties of minor genius.

    The Pitchman
    Ron Popeil and the conquest of the American kitchen

    The Ketchup Conundrum
    Mustard now comes in dozens of different varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?

    Blowing Up
    How Nassim Taleb turned the inevitability of disaster into an investment strategy.

    True Colors
    Hair Dye and the hidden history of postwar America

    John Rock's Error
    What the inventor of the birth control pill didn't know about women's health

    What the Dog Saw
    Cesar Millan and the movements of mastery

    PART TWO:
    "It was like driving down an interstate looking through a soda straw."
    Theories, Predictions and Diagnoses

    Open Secrets
    Enron, intelligence and the perils of too much information

    Million Dollar Murray
    Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage

    The Picture Problem
    Mammography, air power, and the limits of looking.

    Something Borrowed
    Should a charge of plagiarism ruin your life?

    Connecting the Dots
    The paradoxes of intelligence reform.

    The Art of Failure
    Why some people choke and others panic

    Blowup
    Who can be blamed for a disaster like the Challenger explosion? No one, and we'd better get used to it.

    PART THREE:
    " 'He'll be wearing a doubled breasted suit. Buttoned.'-and he was."
    Personality, character and intelligence.

    Most Likely to Succeed
    How do we hire when we can't tell who's right for the job.

    Dangerous Minds
    Criminal profiling made easy

    The TalentMyth
    Are smart people over-rated?

    Late Bloomers
    Why do we equate genius with precocity?

    The New Boy Network
    What do job interviews really tell us?

    Troublemakers
    What pit bulls can teach us about crime

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    See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 302 Customer Reviews

    • Posted December 24, 2009

      more from this reviewer

      I Also Recommend:

      9780316010665 9780316017923

      Whew! Glad I Finished that One

      I have read with pleasure Malcolm Gladstone's books "Blink" and "Outliers" with fascination and interest and with level of intensity that made those two books quite enjoyable. I did not have the same experience with "What the Dog Saw." It is not the same. Perhaps Gladstone's attempt to cobble together old columns and writings just does not work for me. I found reading this book and getting through it an ordeal. I always finish a book even when I am not particularly enjoying it. This one bordered on being painful to get through. Then again, it could just be me. I am not a fan of short story books either. Some of the topics addressed by Gladstone were interesting such as the opening chapter about "The Pitchman," but that interest and intensity of writing is just not sustained throughout the whole book. "Outliers" and "Blink" were thought-provoking, engaging, and fascinating, but this one never rises to the same level. There are books that I would call not very enjoyable, but a worthwhile read. I am sorry to say that I just can't call this one a worthwhile read. I'm afraid this one was one of those published with the hopes that because of Gladwell's previous successes, it would see success as well. I am sure it has sold well, but this is one of those books that can make you not want to read any more by this author.

      4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted March 8, 2012

      great reading

      I enjoyed each article in this book, very thought provoking.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted January 6, 2012

      Fascinating and enjoyable read

      I devoured this book. And then I had to talk about all of the fascinating, interesting, well written, diverse topics with anyone who would listen. From the history of the Pill to the history of ketchup, to the efficacy of serial killer profiling to the art of the job interview, I learned all sort of things I would not have ever considered otherwise.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted December 19, 2011

      Couldn't finish it...

      Not my style of book. I couldn't care less about the sub-topics it contained...i might as well have read marketing material about these products...boring!

      0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted October 24, 2011

      Not at all what I expected

      Not being familiar with Mr. Gladwell's work, I thought this was going to be a light book of anecdotes and stories. It is not. This is a collection of extremely well researched articles on the psychology of a wide range of subjects. If there is an underlying theme to these articles, it is that preconceived notions are almost always wrong. There is a depth of thought in each article to challenge "conventional wisdom" on the subject. This is a thought provoking and engaging read.

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    • Posted September 15, 2011

      Interesting storiesbut unrelated

      A good book if you have short time periiods to read since there are natural stopping pponts

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    • Posted April 16, 2011

      more from this reviewer

      Gladwell strikes again

      Another set of thought provoking essays from Gladwell. He challenges conventional wisdom with the banal - why there's only one popular brand of ketchup - to the consequential - could the intelligence prior to 9/11 have really led to prevention or is it only seemingly transparent in hindsight? And all but one (oddly enough the lead story) were compelling reads.

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    • Posted February 13, 2011

      Best Gladwell book to date.

      I've read all of Gladwell's books, and this is easily his best one to date. While all of his books provide unique insight into the human condition this book really stands out. 'What the dog saw' is laser focused in the specifics, and doesn't suffer from the often repetitive references that often slowed the first books. With that being said it's hard to criticize the lack of continuity; so what I'll say instead that it would have been nice to read part or section summaries. It seemed as if the parts were driving to a point, but that goal wasn't always clearly stated. I will defintely have to reread many of the sections; which may have been the goal. :) All in all although, a great read and highly recommended.

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    • Posted January 19, 2011

      smart and insightful

      a great addition to his collection of smart, perceptive human studies.

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    • Posted February 19, 2010

      Very Thought Provoking

      I didn't expect too much from this book, since I was not a big fan of "The Tipping Point". I was wrong. I began this book on the airplane on route to our vacation spot and was hooked. It consists of reprints of in depth magazine articles and covers a big variety of subjects. You may not care for some of the subject matter,but each one makes you think outside of your opinions. The underlying truths of each story have had repercussions in my own thought processes since reading this one. I have been recommending this book to everyone who isn't afraid to think. I feel smarter having read this

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