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Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell Quotes

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Famous Malcolm Gladwell Quotes

“Economists often talk about the 80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the “work” will be done by 20 percent of the participants. In most societies, 20 percent of criminals commit 80 percent of crimes. Twenty percent of motorists cause 80 percent of all accidents. Twenty percent of beer drinkers drink 80 percent of all beer. When it comes to epidemics, though, this disproportionality becomes even more extreme: a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work.”

PeopleIdeasDoneCausesSituationPrinciplesCrimeDrinkPercentTwentiesMajorityExtremesAccidentsCriminalsTinyCommitBeerEconomistPercentagesParticipantsEpidemicsDrinkersTippingTipping PointBeer Drinkers
Author:Malcolm Gladwell
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“The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when we grew up.”

PeopleWorldWayLooksMayHardFactsOpportunityDifferencesHard WorkGrewKingsGrew UpAdvantageExtraordinaryLegacyMake SenseMaking A DifferenceBeneficiaries
Author:Malcolm Gladwell
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“The particular skill that allows you to talk your way out of a murder rap, or convince your professor to move you from the morning to the afternoon section, is what the psychologist Robert Sternberg calls "practical intelligence." To Sternberg, practical intelligence includes things like "knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for for maximum effect.”

WayMovingMorningKnowingEffectsParticularSkillsMurderRapPracticalsConvinceProfessorsAfternoonSectionsMaximumPsychologist
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“Shortly after the birth control pill was approved for public distribution, one woman wrote to John Rock, its inventor, "You should be afraid to meet your maker." Rock, despite being Catholic replied, "My dear Madam, in my faith, we are taught that the Lord is with us always. When my time comes, there will be no need for introductions."”

NeedsShouldLordRocksTaughtBirthMoralityEthicsCatholicDearDespiteMy TimeMakersDistributionPillsIntroductionInventorApprovedOne WomanBirth ControlBirth Control Pills
Author:Malcolm Gladwell
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“Living a long life, the conventional wisdom at the time said, depended to a great extent on who we were-that is, our genes. It depended on the decisions we made-on what we chose to eat, and how much we chose to exercise, and how effectively we were treated by the medical system. No one was used to thinking about health in terms of community.”

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Author:Malcolm Gladwell
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“To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what's ten years? Well, it's roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.”

YearsWellsLongHardSeemsHoursLevelsNumbersPracticeMagicGreatnessAmountThousandTenChessNineElitesLegendaryNine Years
Author:Malcolm Gladwell
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“When the students were asked to identify their race on a pretest questionnaire, that simple act was sufficient to prime them with all the negative stereotypes associated with African Americans and academic achievement. If a white student from a prestigious private high school gets a higher SAT score than a black student from an inner-city school, is it because she’s truly a better student, or is it because to be white and to attend a prestigious high school is to be constantly primed with the idea of “smart”?”

IfsIdeasSchoolBlackSimpleWhiteRaceCitiesStudentsHigherAchievementSmartHigh SchoolNegativeAfrican AmericanSatSufficientScorePrimeAcademicStereotypeInner CityPrestigiousAcademic AchievementQuestionnairesInner City SchoolsNegative StereotypesSat Scores
Author:Malcolm Gladwell
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“The hope with Tipping Point was it would help the reader understand that real change was possible. With Blink, I wanted to get people to take the enormous power of their intuition seriously. My wish with Outliers is that it makes us understand how much of a group project success is. When outliers become outliers it is not just because of their own efforts. It's because of the contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances.”

PeopleDifferentRealHelpingWantedWishEffortGroupsReaderCircumstancesProjectsIntuitionEnormousContributionDifferent PeoplesBlinkTippingMy WishReal ChangeTipping PointOutliers
Author:Malcolm Gladwell
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