malcolm-gladwell Quotes About ifs

“In order to get one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, in other words, we thought we needed the solitary genius. But if Alexander Graham Bell had fallen into the Grand River and drowned that day back in Brantford, the world would still have had the telephone, the only difference being that the telephone company would have been nicknamed Ma Gray, not Ma Bell.”

Ifs World Has Beens Stills Ideas Age Order Differences Company Modern Genius Needed Rivers Invention Fallen Gray Bells Solitary Telephones Modern Age Graham Bell

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If we are to learn to improve the quality of the decisions we make, we need to accept the mysterious nature of our snap judgments.”

Ifs Needs Decision Quality Accepting Judgment Mysterious Snaps Blink Decisions We Make Snap Judgment

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If your parents are billionaires, that might actually be an obstacle to your own happiness and self-development. If you go to Oxford or Harvard, that might actually thwart your desire to graduate with a science or math degree.”

Ifs Self Might Desire Parent Development Degrees Obstacles Math Graduates Self Development Harvard Billionaire Oxford

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If you think success is about so many more things and is so much more arbitrary, then you can be much more open to the idea that you can be Ben Fountain and publish your great book at forty-nine.”

Ifs Thinking Book Ideas Nine Forty Fountain Arbitrary Publish Great Book

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“It changes how people read you if you believe in God. It gives insight into your motivation, how you look at problems and how you deal with people.”

People Ifs Giving Believe Looks Problem Motivation Deals Insight Believe In God If You Believe

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“We are approaching levels - if we're not beyond levels - of threshold for the number of messages that consumers can take in in a given day. There is a kind of hunger for some kind of new approach to getting the word out about something.”

Ifs Kind Given Levels Numbers Approach Messages Hunger Consumers Threshold New Approach

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I'm someone who can provide an intellectual framework, but I can't tell people who are trying to sell Product X how to do that because I don't know, and I would be faking it if I attempted to step into that role.”

People Ifs Knows Trying I Can Would Be Steps Roles Products Intellectual Sells Framework Faking It

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If you are going to do something truly innovative, you have to be someone who does not value social approval. You can't need social approval to go forward. Otherwise, how would you ever do the thing that you are doing?”

Ifs Needs Doe Values Social Approval Innovative

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“You can't concentrate on doing anything if you are thinking, “What's gonna happen if it doesn't go right?”

Ifs Thinking Happens

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“It's as if you were interested in fashion and your neighbor when you were growing up happened to be Giorgio Armani.”

Ifs Growing Up Growing Happened Fashion Neighbor Armani

Book:Outliers: The Story of Success

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

“Starting epidemics requires concentrating resources on a few key area. The Law of the Few says that Connectors, Mavens, and Salesman are responsible for starting word-of-mouth epidemics, which means that if you are interested in starting a word-of-mouth epidemic , your resources ought to be solely concentrated on these three groups. No one else matters.”

Ifs Mean Matter Law Three Groups Keys Ought Mouths Resources Areas Responsible Starting Salesman Epidemics Concentrating Word Of Mouth Connectors Mavens

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The 10,000-hours rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field, from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon, we see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours, which is roughly ten years, if you think about four hours a day.”

Ifs Thinking Years Looks Kind Hours Practice Four Fields Ten Complexes Patterns Be Good Chess Consistent Playing Chess Neurosurgeons

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Take a random group of 8-year-old American and Japanese kids, give them all a really, really hard math problem, and start a stopwatch. The American kids will give up after 30, 40 seconds. If you let the test run for 15 minutes, the Japanese kids will not have given up. You have to take it away.”

Ifs Giving Years Hard Problem Running Kids Given Groups Minutes Giving Up Tests Math Seconds Given Up Math Problems

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Success is deeply rooted in time and place. You may have the drive to read tons of books on biology. But if there are no books on biology in your library, and the library is never open, your drive is meaningless.”

Ifs May Book Library Biology Meaningless Rooted

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I'm in the storytelling business, and so you're always drawn to the unusual. And early on, I discovered that's the easiest way to tell stories... If you come up through a newspaper as I did, your whole goal is to get a story on the front page, and you only get something on the front page if it's unusual.”

Ifs Way Whole Stories Goal Fronts Pages Come Up Newspapers Storytelling Unusual

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“When I see someone who reads something of mine and draws something out of it that's very different from my perspective, I think that's actually cool. Sometimes it's worrisome when you feel they badly misinterpret it, but it just says that they're thinking, and they're bringing their own interpretation to bear on it. [...] That's part of the wonderful thing about putting words into the world, and if I was worried about that, I couldn't be a writer.”

Ifs Thinking World Feels Different Sometimes Wonderful Mines Perspective Bears Draws Worried Interpretation Wonderful Things

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

“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

“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

“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.”

“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

“if we can control the environment in which rapid cognition takes place, then we can control rapid cognition”

Ifs Environment Rapids Cognition

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.”

People Ifs Motivational Success Three Effort Quality Connections Agree Rewards Complexity Satisfying Autonomy Three Things Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Our world requires that decisions be sourced and footnoted, and if we say how we feel, we must also be prepared to elaborate on why we feel that way...We need to respect the fact that it is possible to know without knowing why we know and accept that - sometimes - we're better off that way.”

Ifs Knows World Way Needs Feels Sometimes Facts Decision Accepting Knowing Prepared Our World Be Prepared Better Off

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today?”

“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.”

Ifs Doe Hard Success Passion Hard Work Prison Sentences Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.”

Ifs Kind Doe Hard Motivational Business Wife Hard Work Prison Sentences Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“...If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires. (151)”

Ifs World Mind Hard Enough Use Desire Imagination Hard Work Shapes Outliers

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“You don't start at the top if you want to find the story. You start in the middle, because it's the people in the middle who do the actual work in the world.”

People Ifs World Want Stories Middle

Book:What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

Source: What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

“Why are man hole covers around?" If you don't knwo the answer to the questions, you're not smart enough to work at microsoft”

Ifs Men Enough Answers Smart Holes Microsoft

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“A study at the University of Utah found that if you ask someone why he is friendly with someone else, he’ll say it is because he and his friend share similar attitudes. But if you actually quiz the two of them on their attitudes, you’ll find out that what they actually share is similar activities. We’re friends with the people we do things with, as much as we are with the people we resemble. We don’t seek out friends, in other words. We associate with the people who occupy the same small, physical spaces that we do.”

People Ifs Two Asks Found Space Attitude Study Share Activity University Friendly Associates Utah Quiz

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Nothing frustrates me more than someone who reads something of mine or anyone else's and says, angrily, 'I don't buy it.' Why are they angry? Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head—even if in the end you conclude that someone else's head is not a place you'd really like to be.”

Ifs Thinking Giving Writing Doe Ends Ability Failing Mines Succeed Angry Glimpse Make You Think Good Writing

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If you want to bring a fundamental change in people's belief and behavior...you need to create a community around them, where those new beliefs can be practiced and expressed and nurtured.”

People Ifs Want Needs Belief Community Behavior Fundamentals Tipping Tipping Point

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“Instinct is the gift of experience. The first question you have to ask yourself is, 'On what basis am I making a judgment?' ... If you have no experience, then your instincts aren't any good.”

Ifs Firsts Asks Judging Judgment Bases Instinct

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“I have a new way of doing things, and I don’t care if you think I’m crazy.”

Ifs Thinking Way Care Crazy Don't Care I Don't Care New Ways New Ways Of Doing Things

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“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”?”

“We need to be clear when we venerate entrepreneurs what we are venerating.They are not moral leaders. If they were moral leaders, they wouldn't be great businessmen.”

Ifs Needs Leader Moral Clear Entrepreneur Businessman Great Business Great Businessman

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“You don't want to be first, right? You want to be second or third. You don't want to be - Facebook is not the first in social media. They're the third, right? Similarly, you know, if you look at Steve Jobs' history, he's never been first.”

Ifs Knows Want Firsts Looks Jobs Social Media Thirds Social Media

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If we think about emotion this way - as outside-in, not inside out - it is possible to understand how some people can have an enormous amount of influence over others. Some of us, after all, are very good at expressiing emotions and feelings, which means that we are far more emotionally contagious than the rest of us.”

People Ifs Thinking Way Mean Feelings Emotion Influence Amount Very Good Enormous Contagious

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes.”

People Ifs Care Faces Left Streets Building Broken Walking Window Spread Anarchy Signals No One Cares Anything Goes

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If you think advantage lies in resources, then you think the best educational system is the one that spends the most money.”

Ifs Thinking Lying Resources Advantage Educational Educational System Best Education

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If everyone has to think outside the box, maybe it is the box that needs fixing.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Boxes Fixing Outside The Box Think Outside The Box

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“That's your responsibility as a person, as a human being - to constantly be updating your positions on as many things as possible. And if you don't contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you're not thinking.”

Ifs Thinking Humans Persons Human Beings Responsibility Position Bases

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If you don't contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you're not thinking.”

Ifs Thinking Bases

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If you look at the careers of great entrepreneurs and you look at the moment they took their plunge, the plunge is rarely a great financial or material risk, it’s a social risk. At the moment they started their new businesses, everyone around them said ‘you’re an idiot’.”

Ifs Looks Said Moments Social Careers Risk Materials Entrepreneur Financial Idiot Plunge Risk It New Business Great Financial

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“The biggest mistake we make is trying to square the way we feel about something today with the way we felt about it yesterday. You shouldn’t even bother doing it. You should just figure out the way you feel today and if it happens to comply with what you thought before, fine. If it contradicts it, whatever. Life goes on.”

Ifs Way Feels Should Trying Happens Today Felt Mistake Figures Fine Goes On Yesterday Bother Squares Life Goes On Biggest Mistake

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

“If you play an audiotape of a yawn to blind people, they'll yawn too.”

People Ifs Play Blind Observation Blind People

Author:Malcolm Gladwell

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