Malcolm Gladwell Quotes

“What we do as a community, as a society, for each other, matters as much as what we do for ourselves. It sounds a little trite, but there's a powerful amount of truth in that, I think.”

“I suspect people who are indecisive are people who are far too enamored of analysis in all settings and are destroying their ability to make an instinctive judgment through over-analysis and that's dangerous.”

People Ability Dangerous Judgment Setting Settings Analysis Suspects Destroying Enamored Indecisive

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“People are experience-rich and theory-poor. I help people organize / make sense of their experiences.”

People Helping Poor Rich Theory Make Sense Organize

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Track is full of the absolute nicest and most polite athletes in all of sports, and where does it get us?”

Doe Sports Absolutes Athlete Track Polite

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Jenny Simpson loses her shoe in the women's fifteen hundred, with a lap and a half to go, destroying her chances to repeat as world champion, and she gives the most gracious interview afterward about how she's had a wonderful career already. Great for Jenny Simpson. Bad for the sport! We need drama!”

World Needs Giving Sports Loses Chance Half Careers Wonderful Drama Hundred Shoes Champion Repeats Interviews Destroying Fifteen Lap Gracious World Champions Jenny

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I recently talked to an eighteen-year-old - a huge FIFA fan - and realized that he spends more time playing the FIFA video game than he does watching actual FIFA games.”

Years Doe Games Fans Huge Video More Time Eighteen Fifa Eighteen Years Old

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The nature of athletic celebrity is increasingly moving away from the actual field of play.”

Play Moving Fields Athletic Moving Away

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“What track needs to figure out: how to engage us between the races. Instead, the entire off-the-track conversation is about doping. This is how you kill a sport.”

Needs Sports Race Figures Conversation Track Doping

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“David Epstein, the author of the best book on athletics in recent memory - "The Sports Gene" - wrote to me to say that he thinks I'm being overly generous. He points out that, for years, there used to be an "all-star challenge" on television, in which the best professional athletes from a variety of sports competed in a kind of makeshift decathlon.”

Thinking Years Kind Book Used Stars Sports Challenges Memories Television Athlete Used To Be Variety Generous Genes Athletics Professional Athlete All Stars Decathlon

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I've always been baffled by how much we over-rate the statistically insignificant differences that separate competitors at the top end of the distribution.”

Ends Differences Rate Competitors Distribution Insignificant Baffled

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“In a country that never wins anything: in Canada, if one of our athletes so much as makes the final in a World Championship, we declare a national holiday.”

Ifs World Country Winning Finals Athlete Canada Holiday Championship

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“It's just strange to think that so much of our enjoyment from sports comes from the elevation of arbitrary differences.”

Thinking Sports Differences Strange Enjoyment Arbitrary Elevation

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I should point out that I have a picture of Asbel Kiprop as the screensaver on my phone. Is that embarrassing?”

Should Phones Embarrassing

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If there is one thing I learned by reading Epstein's "The Sports Gene" it is that world-class athletes are, by definition, abnormal: that is, the kind of person capable of competing at that level is necessarily very different from the rest of us physiologically. They are outliers.”

Ifs World Kind Persons Different Reading Sports Levels Class One Thing Capable Athlete Definitions Genes Competing Abnormal World Class Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The sad thing about doping is how much it obscures our appreciation of greatness.”

Greatness Appreciation Sad Things Doping

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I worry that track is going to enter into an impossibly complicated stage, where our understanding of the complexities of human physiology - and our ability to accentuate and exploit them - is going to make the notion of pure competition impossible.”

Humans Understanding Ability Worry Impossible Stage Pure Competition Notion Track Complicated Complexity Exploits Physiology Accentuate Complexity Of Human

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I'm a purist: I start to wrinkle my nose when the Cold War ends.”

War Ends Cold Noses Cold War Wrinkles

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I don't really collect books. I tend to lose interest in them the minute I've read them, so most of the books I've read are left in airplanes and hotel rooms.”

Book Left Interest Loses Rooms Minutes Hotel Airplane Hotel Rooms

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“My father read Charles Dickens to us as children, and at the end of virtually every novel he would choke up and start to cry - and my father NEVER cried. It always made me love him all the more.”

Children Made Ends Father Novel Cry Cried Choke Dickens

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“As human beings, we always expect everyday change to happen slowly and steadily, and for there to be some relationship between cause and effect.”

Humans Happens Causes Human Beings Effects Everyday Cause And Effect

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“When crime drops dramatically in New York for no apparent reason, or when a movie made on a shoestring budget ends up making hundreds of millions of dollars - we're surprised. I'm saying, don't be surprised. This is the way social epidemics work.”

Way Made Ends Reason Social Millions Crime New York Dollars Budgets Epidemics

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I'm convinced that ideas and behaviors and new products move through a population very much like a disease does.”

Doe Ideas Moving Products Disease Behavior Population Convinced New Products

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Our intuitions, as humans, aren't always very good. Changes that happen really suddenly, on the strength of the most minor of input, can be deeply confusing.”

Humans Happens Very Good Intuition Minors Confusing Input Good Change

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I interviewed one of the most powerful lawyers in the world and he told me, "At the time, it was the worst thing in the world not to be able to get a job at a fancy law firm, but it's the greatest thing that ever happened in my life." It was a humble acknowledgment of how forces much larger than himself shaped his career. I really wanted to bring that point home.”

World Home Able Wanted Jobs Law Force Powerful Careers Happened Worst Humble Lawyer Firm Fancy Most Powerful Worst Things Acknowledgment Law Firms

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I write my books to challenge my own feelings and theories. Perhaps most surprising was what I learned about rice farming. It was really interesting to think of how different Asian and Western cultures are as a result of the kinds of agricultural practices that our ancestors used for thousands of years. The life of a Chinese peasant in the Middle Ages was so dramatically different from the life of a European peasant - night and day different.”

“I always resist seeing my own personal motivation in my work, but I guess it must be there on some level. And I do feel very much that my life follows the kinds of things I talk about in my books. I've always thought of myself as an insanely lucky person, so perhaps the success of my first two books led me to want to examine this phenomenon on some unconscious level.”

Want Feels Firsts Kind Persons Two Book Motivation My Own Levels Seeing Lucky Unconscious Phenomenon Personal Motivation Lucky Person

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The iPod is clearly a tipping point (and I'm not quite sure it is a wholly positive development), because it is a revolution in the way that we consume creative property, which I would call art. It has radically changed the relationship between the artist and the audience, how money changes hands, and how much money changes hands. Music was the first, and books are coming next. The Kindle or some form of electronic book is clearly inevitable, and it will massively reshape how books are sold, who pays for them, and how they're consumed. It is going to be really fascinating.”

Way Firsts Art Book Hands Form Artist Next Pay Audience Creative Changed Revolution Development Property Inevitable Fascinating Consumed Ipods Kindles Tipping Tipping Point

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“My writing model is my mother, who is a writer as well. She always valued clarity and simplicity above all else. If someone doesn't understand what you're writing, then everything else you do is superfluous. Irrelevant. If any thoughtful, curious reader finds what I do impenetrable, I've failed.”

Ifs Writing Wells Mother Reader Models Simplicity Clarity Curious Thoughtful Irrelevant Superfluous

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“My highest compliment is when someone comes up to me to say, "My 14-year-old daughter, or my 12-year-old son read your book and loved it." I cannot conceive of a greater compliment than that - to write something that as an adult I find satisfying, but also that manages to reach a curious 13- or 14-year-old.”

Writing Years Book Greater Son Highest Daughter Adults Come Up Manage Curious Compliment Satisfying

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Clear writing is universal. People talk about writing down to an audience or writing up to an audience; I think that's nonsense. If you write in a way that is clear, transparent, and elegant, it will reach everyone.”

People Ifs Thinking Way Writing Audience Clear Universal Nonsense Elegant Transparent

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“There's no idea that can't be explained to a thoughtful 14-year-old. If the thoughtful 14-year-old doesn't get it, it is your fault, not the 14-year-old's.”

Ifs Years Ideas Faults No Idea Thoughtful

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“We spend a lot of time and effort trying to figure out who's going to be a good NFL quarterback, and we do a very bad job of it. We don't really know. And we also spend a lot of time trying to figure out who will be a good teacher, and we're really bad at that too. We don't know if someone is going to be a good teacher when they start teaching. So what should we do in those situations in which predictions are useless?”

Ifs Knows Should Trying Jobs Effort Situation Teacher Teaching Figures Useless Nfl Predictions Quarterback Good Teacher Bad Jobs

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I don't go to an office, so I write at home. I like to write in the morning, if possible; that's when my mind is freshest. I might write for a couple of hours, and then I head out to have lunch and read the paper. Then I write for a little bit longer if I can, then probably go to the library or make some phone calls. Every day is a little bit different. I'm not highly routinized, so I spend a lot of time wandering around New York City with my laptop in my bag, wondering where I'm going to end up next. It's a fairly idyllic life for someone who likes writing.”

“The first person who throws the rock is a lot more radical than a hundredth person.By the time the riot has attracted a hundred people, you don't have to be nearly as much of a daredevil or a hothead or committed or any of those things to want to engage in a riot.”

People Want Firsts Persons Rocks Hundred Committed Radical Riot First Person Daredevil Hotheads

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Sometimes the most modest changes can bring about enormous effects.”

Sometimes Effects Enormous Modest

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Policy is driven by more than politics, however. It is equally driven by ideas.”

Ideas Policy Driven

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct. They may look the same, but they are worlds apart.”

Thinking World Looks May Littles Loss Too Much Instinct Panic Choke Thinking Too Much Worlds Apart

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“What happens when two people talk? That is really the basic question here, because, that's the basic context in which all persuasion takes place.”

People Two Happens Persuasion

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“An innate gift and a certain amount of intelligence are important, but what really pays is ordinary experience.”

Important Certain Pay Amount Ordinary Innate

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Humans socialize in the largest groups of all primates because we are the only animals with brains large enough to handle the complexities of that social arrangement.”

Humans Enough Social Animal Brain Groups Handle Complexity Arrangements Primates

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Sometimes constraints actually create success. Not being able to swim made me run. And running taught me the discipline I needed as a writer.”

Made Sometimes Running Able Taught Needed Discipline Swim Constraints

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Success is not a function of individual talent. It's the steady accumulation of advantages. It's bound up in so many other broader circumstantial, environmental, historical, and cultural factors.”

Individual Talent Advantage Function Historical Environmental Bounds Factors Steady Accumulation Individual Talent

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“There are moments, particularly in times of stress, when haste does not make waste, when our snap judgments and first impressions can offer a much better means of making sense of the world.”

World Firsts Mean Doe Moments Offers Waste Judgment Stress Impression Make Sense Snaps Haste First Impression Snap Judgment

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The Rule of 150 says that congregants of a rapidly expanding church, or the members of a social club, or anyone in a group activity banking on the epidemic spread of shared ideals needs to be particularly cognizant of the perils of the bigness. Crossing the 150 line is a small change that can make a big difference.”

Needs Bigs Social Differences Church Lines Groups Activity Members Ideals Clubs Spread Banking Expanding Peril Crossings Epidemics Small Changes Cognizant

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Incompetence is certainty in the absence of expertise. Overconfidence is certainty in the presence of expertise.”

Absence Certainty Expertise Incompetence Overconfidence

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Lands' End has undergone three major changes over the past couple of decades. The first was the introduction of an 800 number, in 1978; the second was express delivery, in 1994; and the third was the introduction of a Web site, in 1995. The first two innovations cut the average transaction time-the time between the moment of ordering and the moment the goods are received-from three weeks to four days. The third innovation has cut the transaction time from four days to, well, four days.”

“We tend to credit those who create an idea, not those who perfect it, forgetting that it is often only in the perfection of an idea that true progress occurs. Putting sixty-four transistors on a chip allowed people to dream of the future. Putting four million transistors on a chip actually gave them the future.”

People Ideas Dream Perfect Forget Millions Four Progress Perfection Credit Sixty Chips Transistors

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If you're in business it's both a promise and a warning. It says that sometimes little things can cause some little guy to have an overnight success.”

Ifs Littles Sometimes Guy Causes Promise Little Things Warning Overnight Success

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

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