Take a photo of a barcode or cover
5.53k reviews for:
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know
Malcolm Gladwell
3.83 AVERAGE
5.53k reviews for:
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know
Malcolm Gladwell
3.83 AVERAGE
Cool! Good read. As usual, Gladwell delves deep into an interesting topic. He seems to be a proponent of being aware of how good a judgement our first order thinking can be.
I can't say this book will change the way I approach strangers but it's still good to be aware of case studies where we interpreted strangers incorrectly.
I can't say this book will change the way I approach strangers but it's still good to be aware of case studies where we interpreted strangers incorrectly.
dark
informative
medium-paced
TW: child SA, rape mentioned
The audiobook was really well done, hearing clips from actual interviews and footage was really cool.
Overall, I learned some interesting things that does make me understand society better. Default to truth explains (at least in part) why people still believe certain political conmen (*ahem*).
I also believed in transparency before reading this but can totally see how mismatch is a thing now that it’s been explained. Different cultures reading facial expressions differently blew my mind and kind of validated my experience as an autistic woman who also thought there was something wrong with me bc recognizing that stuff didn’t come as naturally to me, and that I myself can be mismatched and that’s why people often think I feel a way I don’t. So that was validating and nice to read.
There were a lot of stories that sometimes left me wondering where he was going with all this, so maybe a clearer map throughout the text would’ve been helpful, but I do think it came together in the end.
There were some points I think he lost the nuance and other factors, like when it came to sexual assault and sexism esp. Like sure, default to truth explains the Larry Nassar thing to some degree, but also there’s a societal thing of people not believing women, esp about stuff like this, and I don’t recall that even being mentioned. And the Sandusky thing…I do NOT understand how ANYONE could explain away a grown man showering with a little boy, esp unrelated. That’s an automatic HELL no and the fact that it wasn’t for a handful of people says a lot more about our society and their willful blinders on when it comes to SA than anything else. Also I think he lets Brock Turner and other drunk men SAers off a liiiiiittle too easy. He doesn’t say it was okay, but that whole convo just left a slightly bad taste in my mouth.
Overall, I learned some things that are valuable, the storytelling was engaging, the audiobook was well produced, and this will change how I move about in the world as I consider these phenomena. I think it’s worth reading. He tries and mostly succeeds at being fair and nuanced, I think he just drops the ball around the SA stuff a bit.
The audiobook was really well done, hearing clips from actual interviews and footage was really cool.
Overall, I learned some interesting things that does make me understand society better. Default to truth explains (at least in part) why people still believe certain political conmen (*ahem*).
I also believed in transparency before reading this but can totally see how mismatch is a thing now that it’s been explained. Different cultures reading facial expressions differently blew my mind and kind of validated my experience as an autistic woman who also thought there was something wrong with me bc recognizing that stuff didn’t come as naturally to me, and that I myself can be mismatched and that’s why people often think I feel a way I don’t. So that was validating and nice to read.
There were a lot of stories that sometimes left me wondering where he was going with all this, so maybe a clearer map throughout the text would’ve been helpful, but I do think it came together in the end.
There were some points I think he lost the nuance and other factors, like when it came to sexual assault and sexism esp. Like sure, default to truth explains the Larry Nassar thing to some degree, but also there’s a societal thing of people not believing women, esp about stuff like this, and I don’t recall that even being mentioned. And the Sandusky thing…I do NOT understand how ANYONE could explain away a grown man showering with a little boy, esp unrelated. That’s an automatic HELL no and the fact that it wasn’t for a handful of people says a lot more about our society and their willful blinders on when it comes to SA than anything else. Also I think he lets Brock Turner and other drunk men SAers off a liiiiiittle too easy. He doesn’t say it was okay, but that whole convo just left a slightly bad taste in my mouth.
Overall, I learned some things that are valuable, the storytelling was engaging, the audiobook was well produced, and this will change how I move about in the world as I consider these phenomena. I think it’s worth reading. He tries and mostly succeeds at being fair and nuanced, I think he just drops the ball around the SA stuff a bit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault
Moderate: Death, Police brutality
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
The audiobook is incredibly well-produced! I was incredibly interested at the start and found many insights fascinating. Toward the end of the book, however, it felt that Gladwell was falling prey to what he’d accused others of doing. While discussing matters of sexual abuse and police harassment, he indicated that others were not seeing the whole picture, because of “default to truth” and omitting how context played into the events. However, in doing so he still didn’t place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the perpetrators, which didn’t sit right with me. Overall, that left a bad taste in my mouth, and I don’t think my mindset or behavior in everyday interactions will be any different than if I hadn’t read this.
Key takeaways:
- People are difficult to read
- Do not assume you fully understand someone
- Recognize that meeting someone face-to-face does not necessarily mean you understand them better
- People are difficult to read
- Do not assume you fully understand someone
- Recognize that meeting someone face-to-face does not necessarily mean you understand them better
informative
reflective
slow-paced