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5.52k reviews for:
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know
Malcolm Gladwell
3.83 AVERAGE
5.52k reviews for:
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know
Malcolm Gladwell
3.83 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Of course, a triggering read. But very informative and listening to the audiobook was amazing, I enjoyed the style. The issues touched on here such as racism, rape and suicide aren’t just put down to miscommunications, but are opened up to different perspectives.
Ever since hearing Gladwell dispute the validity of his 10,000 hours observation against the author of the misinterpreted research, it's hard to read any of his work without a skeptic's hat. Ironically this book is a survey of misinterpretation of human behavior, but the way Gladwell weaves the narrative by jumping between lots of different "rip from the headlines" anecdotes doesn't dissuade you that perhaps this is another one of his flawed pop-psych meta-analyses biased towards a preconceived conclusion rather than an honest critical thinking exercise.
informative
medium-paced
3.75/5
I liked the format as audiobook. Podcast-y with Malcolm Gladwell reading it was cool. Not sure I’m sold on the thesis but definitely makes you think about psychology and invisible lines we act around.
I liked the format as audiobook. Podcast-y with Malcolm Gladwell reading it was cool. Not sure I’m sold on the thesis but definitely makes you think about psychology and invisible lines we act around.
Trigger warnings should have been advertised better, in my opinion. If you do choose to read I’d recommend looking them up. TW in my review: rape, sexual assault.
I stopped reading 2/3 of the way through when the author stated that women drinking less than men would lead to them not being raped. His argument was slightly more nuanced (I suppose? The idea of giving a man the benefit of the doubt on this topic makes me want to throw up) but I am NOT interested in any argument that does not place the blame solely on the rapist and after this particular argument it was a hard stop on continuing to read anything he had to say.
Overall, I strongly feel that he diluted issues of sexual assault, racism, police brutality, etc. as simple miscommunications. All this was after I was already struggling to understand the point of his book as a whole. The first third was simply story telling of both well known and lesser known news events with no apparent point. I kept feeling like maybe I had missed something. Ugh. I have so much to say. If you have read/do read at some point let me know so we can chat. But know that I hated it and cannot recommend.
I stopped reading 2/3 of the way through when the author stated that women drinking less than men would lead to them not being raped. His argument was slightly more nuanced (I suppose? The idea of giving a man the benefit of the doubt on this topic makes me want to throw up) but I am NOT interested in any argument that does not place the blame solely on the rapist and after this particular argument it was a hard stop on continuing to read anything he had to say.
Overall, I strongly feel that he diluted issues of sexual assault, racism, police brutality, etc. as simple miscommunications. All this was after I was already struggling to understand the point of his book as a whole. The first third was simply story telling of both well known and lesser known news events with no apparent point. I kept feeling like maybe I had missed something. Ugh. I have so much to say. If you have read/do read at some point let me know so we can chat. But know that I hated it and cannot recommend.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Quite a bit different than I was expecting. There are some disturbing parts in this book and it brings up several events that make you uncomfortable, but that is kind of the point of the book. I found the main focus and points of the book to be accurate and explains why people think the way they do in a simple and understandable way.
Though it is kind of depressing during a lot of the book as he tries to understand why people acted the way they did. I think he figures it out but I'm still left without a solution to how we can stop those same things happening in the future. He takes both sides of the debate about defaulting to truth and we are left to wonder when it is better to be used and when not. There is a lot of hindsight bias in these events. Meaning that as we look back on them it is easier to explain why they happened and what should have been different but each situation is different and that may have been the only situation where that result happened the way it did with those parameters.
Though it is kind of depressing during a lot of the book as he tries to understand why people acted the way they did. I think he figures it out but I'm still left without a solution to how we can stop those same things happening in the future. He takes both sides of the debate about defaulting to truth and we are left to wonder when it is better to be used and when not. There is a lot of hindsight bias in these events. Meaning that as we look back on them it is easier to explain why they happened and what should have been different but each situation is different and that may have been the only situation where that result happened the way it did with those parameters.
This book was super meh. Felt ramble-y and never really got to the point. Interesting to learn more about high profile crimes. But also really gruesome and terrible crimes, and I feel like the author had questionable takes regarding them… wouldn’t recommend.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced