Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lehart 's review for:
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know
by Malcolm Gladwell
I enjoyed this book and like all Malcolm Gladwell books I had a few "A Ha" moments based on his insight. I feel more aware and well informed about how human behavior makes unpredictable outcomes seem less mysterious.
This book starts out with a story of a traffic stop gone awry and then it subsequently breaks down the human behaviors of default to truth, transparency, and coupling meant to make sense of the tragic outcome. While the structure of the book is straightforward it's easy to get lost in the anecdotes and wonder, "wait how does this connect to the traffic stop?" However, each anecdote explaining the human behaviors is interesting in its own right so it is easy to move past it. I will say he chooses some very dark topics such as child abuse, torture, and suicide and I wasn't always excited to pick this book up again. In the end, Malcolm Gladwell wraps it up nicely, but I keep wondering how he could have kept everything more connected.
I also am curious to go back and read Blink. Some of the topics like default to truth seem to fit with Blink's thesis, but I wonder if the concept of transparency is the exact opposite of the Blink theory. Things to think about.
This book starts out with a story of a traffic stop gone awry and then it subsequently breaks down the human behaviors of default to truth, transparency, and coupling meant to make sense of the tragic outcome. While the structure of the book is straightforward it's easy to get lost in the anecdotes and wonder, "wait how does this connect to the traffic stop?" However, each anecdote explaining the human behaviors is interesting in its own right so it is easy to move past it. I will say he chooses some very dark topics such as child abuse, torture, and suicide and I wasn't always excited to pick this book up again. In the end, Malcolm Gladwell wraps it up nicely, but I keep wondering how he could have kept everything more connected.
I also am curious to go back and read Blink. Some of the topics like default to truth seem to fit with Blink's thesis, but I wonder if the concept of transparency is the exact opposite of the Blink theory. Things to think about.