WHAT THE DOG SAW: And Other Adventures
Malcolm Gladwell
Little, Brown and Company
Psychology/Business
ISBN: 9780316075848
Having three books reach international bestselling status in one decade has some benefits. For Malcolm Gladwell, a modern-day observer of life’s often unexpected consequences, there is some irony in his latest effort, WHAT THE DOG SAW. Gladwell became a staff writer for The New Yorker in 1996, and his bestsellers --- THE TIPPING POINT, BLINK and OUTLIERS --- all appeared in serialized form in that magazine. WHAT THE DOG SAW brings together in one volume many of Gladwell’s best and thoughtful columns from the past decade. For those readers whose only exposure to the British-born writer is from his books, this “best of” volume is a wonderful addition to a Gladwell library. The articles --- while not worthy of a full book --- are entertaining, informative and charming in their own right.
In his introduction, Gladwell suggests that the pieces in this compendium represent many of his favorite columns. They are grouped into three sections. The first contains profiles of people designated “minor geniuses.” These are individuals who many of us know, not necessarily by name or face, but for their accomplishments. My favorite mentioned here is Ron Popeil, the father of gadgets and infomercials publicizing those gadgets. As the proud owner of a Showtime Rotisserie, I was fascinated to find out how the machine was designed and marketed. I also enjoyed learning about Popeil and his history as a pitchman, beginning in the 1950s in the Maxwell Street area of Chicago, Illinois. The chapter ends with Popeil pitching the cooker on QVC and selling one million dollars of product in less than an hour.
The second section is devoted to theories and ways of organizing experience. Here, readers can get a grasp of how Enron was able to accomplish its massive swindle. There also is an interesting chapter on the notion of blame and how disasters can occur without fault. This is a thought-provoking concept in a world where major and minor events are placed under a microscope of fault, blame and consequence. One of Gladwell’s important qualities is that he is not afraid to suggest to readers that what seems to be obvious, clear and simple is often not so. And then he goes on to tell you why that is.
The final section of this compendium deals with predictions we make about people. Here, we meet Dan Shonka, a scout for the National Football League. Shonka’s job is to evaluate college players for the NFL draft. Football fans recognize the importance of the draft --- indeed, the NFL has made it a television extravaganza that will be spread out over three days this year. Should you scoff and say, “I don’t care about football,” Gladwell’s article suggests that the American education system can learn from NFL scouts. Finding quality teachers is a task similar to finding great NFL quarterbacks; no one can determine a person’s potential simply by viewing them in the abstract. Only when a quarterback’s performance is seen in an actual game can their ability be evaluated. In the same fashion, a teacher cannot be truly evaluated until they are in a real classroom performing actual teaching tasks.
Malcolm Gladwell’s popularity comes in part from a deep streak of optimism and enthusiasm. Genius can be found in many forms and is not limited to the elite and wealthy of the world. He is the master at writing an article that tells readers something important but has them respond by acknowledging, “I knew that, but I never thought about it in that fashion.” He observes the world through human stories, working his way through simple details, and in the end showing us how conventional wisdom is neither conventional nor wisdom. There are skeptics who denigrate Gladwell as too simplistic and, sometimes, simply wrong. Love him or loathe him, he is thought-provoking and entertaining. WHAT THE DOG SAW is a peek back at his early writings that paved the way for his journey to the world’s bestseller lists.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
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