What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

Malcolm is fun. He's got a different perspective. A super intellectual he's not (nor am I), but he's a solid writer and asks questions others don't. I'd recommend this book and his others. I'd also recommend a haircut, but that's his personal choice.

All of Malcolm Gladwell's books are interesting, including this book. I just finished reading it and would have to give the book 4.5 stars. It was excellently written and organized. The first couple of chapters of the book were the most interesting. The stories got a little boring as the book progressed into later chapters, though.

This book features several short stories from Gladwell's articles for the New Yorker, which is important to note because it is a different concept than his other books. The stories are filled with interesting facts, stories, and phenomena about everyday things, which is what makes Gladwell's writing so captivating. I found a few of the stories less interesting than others, but this was easily remedied by skipping to the next chapter.

I bought this ebook.
The money was taken from my credit card and I have not received this book on my kindle although the store promised that r would be sent.this s unusual.
Could someone advise me what doI do now ?

I have read all Malcolm Gladwel books and in this book he was all over the place. Not sure where he was headed and then he would turn his story abruptly. Clearly not one of his best books. Blink was a much better book

I really enjoy Gladwell's writing. This book is a collection of articles that were previously published in the New Yorker magazine. If you missed these articles in the New Yorker, you will enjoy this book.

I bought almost all the books from Mr Gladwell (the tipping point, blink, outliers), and liked every single one of them. Maybe the problem was me, because I bought this book based solely on the author, without reading the synopsis, but I couldn't get past the first chapter.
It was boring and the size of the book (huge!) made me stop right there.

I've somewhat enjoyed other Malcolm Gladwell books. This one made me question the validity of his premises and conclusions. First off, Caesar Milan is NOT any kind of dog psychologist and is on his own little televised head trip with dog training methods that were abandoned years ago. He may command respect with his dogs, and may be able to strong arm the rest, but his methods are horrible. So to use this guy as an example threatens Gladwell's credibility. In a lot of the rest of the book, he beats a dead horse. He goes on way too long on each topic and you lose sight of what point he's trying to get across, and even if you "get it," who cares? I listened to this on an audio book and realize how annoying his voice is to me, bordering on creepy. This is the last Malcolm Gladwell book I intend to read. I think he gets more credence than he deserves

Malcolm Gladwell's "What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures" is a compilation of the author's favorite work from The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1996. This book is divided into three parts 1. Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius 2. Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses 3. Personality, Character, and Intelligence. In the first part, Gladwell includes portraits of a pitchman for kitchen gadgets who is so persuasive that he could sell clothing to a nudist. In addition, he discusses three female advertising pioneers, a canny investment strategist, and a "dog whisperer" who is able to tame even the most intransigent canine. What these people have in common is an understanding of how human beings (and four-legged creatures) think and feel, supreme self-confidence, and the ability to promote themselves and their ideas. The second part deals with the art of thinking and seeing clearly. Gladwell describes the series of events that led to the Challenger explosion and the collapse of Enron. Could these catastrophic events have been foreseen and prevented? In part three, the author discusses various aspects of genius and talent, and whether it is possible to profile criminal behavior or predict how a prospective employee will fare on the job.

"What the Dog Saw" has some intriguing passages that will impel readers to say, "I never thought of this subject in quite that way before." The provocative Gladwell enjoys toying with conventional wisdom and challenging our preconceived notions. For instance, in one article, he defends certain forms of plagiarism, a transgression that many would consider indefensible. In another, he states that tragedies such as the Challenger disaster are unavoidable, since for a variety of reasons, "we don't really want the safest of all possible worlds." This water-cooler book will have people arguing vehemently that Malcolm Gladwell is either out of his mind or, conversely, that he is a courageously honest writer who dares to tell it like it is.

Unfortunately, there are several dreary chapters, including one that analyzes why one particular brand of ketchup is so popular and another that explores the poor judgment of John Rock, the inventor of the birth control pill. In addition, Gladwell occasionally indulges in hair-splitting: Do most of us really care about the fine distinctions between panicking and choking? On the other hand, there is a fascinating section that explains why mammograms, as a diagnostic tool, are inexact and hard to interpret. In addition, Gladwell makes a good case for the notion that intelligence failures, such as the ones that preceded 9/11, are easy to condemn in hindsight but may be more understandable when viewed in context. Malcolm Gladwell's strength has always been his ability to tell an original and entertaining story and connect it to our everyday experiences. He does just that in his best pieces, but there are others that probably should not have made the cut.

I stumbled on this book in a used bookstore. I had just finished a book and really didn’t know what (or even what genre) of book to read next and so a collection of essays seemed about perfect. I am really glad I did. For this book asks a lot of the questions that need asking. Among them:

Are we buying what we need or what a great salesman can sell us?

Is it more rational to plan for success or catastrophic failure?

What do the things we surround ourselves with tell us about … us?

How modern medicine was influenced by religion?

Why don’t we fix hard problems?

Where is the line between borrowing and plagiarism?

How do we interpret information?

What is more important—the genius or the system?

Gladwell asks these questions as he tells us very human stories; stories about us. And as we work through these complex ideas, made intelligible because they are stories, we get to wrestle with arguments that are provocative and important. You may agree with his answers or not. But he asks the right questions—and he asks those questions well.

I recommend it.

I actually started reading this book LAST summer--I got about halfway through, took a break, and only recently finished the second half. I was familiar with author Malcolm Gladwell's writing style, having previously read two of his books, Blink and The Tipping Point and enjoyed them both very much. WHAT THE DOG SAW is a bit different, as it is comprised of a series of articles that Gladwell originally wrote for and were published by The New Yorker.

Unlike Gladwell's other books, this one failed to grab me from the start. The first essay, "The Pitchman," focuses on a supposedly famous TV pitchman, Ron Popeil. At almost 30 pages, it's one of the longest narratives, and Gladwell's meticulous detail felt excruciating here. Although the next five articles were more engaging, I stopped reading at the end of Part 1 with the title story, featuring "The Dog Whisper" Cesar Millan, who is now fairly well-known for his National Geographic TV series by that same name.

When I returned to the book this summer, I found that Parts 2 and 3 read more quickly. Whereas the first section of the book had centered around pioneers, these next two focused on "Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses" and "Personality, Character, and Intelligence," respectively. Perhaps as a psychologist, I found these topics more interesting. I was intrigued with the fall of Enron in "Open Secrets" as well as the somewhat related "The Talent Myth." I was fascinated by Gladwell's analyses of homelessness, intelligence reform, and criminal profiling.

Gladwell's writing can feel meandering at times. He will introduce a topic--as he does in "Troublemakers," which is about pit bulls--and then move to a completely different subject (in this case, racial profiling) to illustrate his main point. When he is at his best, Gladwell's analogies flow seamlessly into the narrative. Occasionally, however, they drag down his otherwise exceptional storytelling. Despite sometimes slow moments in this book, I still enjoyed it overall, and I would recommend it.

I really enjoy Gladwell's writing. This book is a collection of articles that were previously published in the New Yorker magazine. If you missed these articles in the New Yorker, you will enjoy this book.

I bought almost all the books from Mr Gladwell (the tipping point, blink, outliers), and liked every single one of them. Maybe the problem was me, because I bought this book based solely on the author, without reading the synopsis, but I couldn't get past the first chapter.
It was boring and the size of the book (huge!) made me stop right there.

I've somewhat enjoyed other Malcolm Gladwell books. This one made me question the validity of his premises and conclusions. First off, Caesar Milan is NOT any kind of dog psychologist and is on his own little televised head trip with dog training methods that were abandoned years ago. He may command respect with his dogs, and may be able to strong arm the rest, but his methods are horrible. So to use this guy as an example threatens Gladwell's credibility. In a lot of the rest of the book, he beats a dead horse. He goes on way too long on each topic and you lose sight of what point he's trying to get across, and even if you "get it," who cares? I listened to this on an audio book and realize how annoying his voice is to me, bordering on creepy. This is the last Malcolm Gladwell book I intend to read. I think he gets more credence than he deserves

Malcolm Gladwell's "What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures" is a compilation of the author's favorite work from The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1996. This book is divided into three parts 1. Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius 2. Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses 3. Personality, Character, and Intelligence. In the first part, Gladwell includes portraits of a pitchman for kitchen gadgets who is so persuasive that he could sell clothing to a nudist. In addition, he discusses three female advertising pioneers, a canny investment strategist, and a "dog whisperer" who is able to tame even the most intransigent canine. What these people have in common is an understanding of how human beings (and four-legged creatures) think and feel, supreme self-confidence, and the ability to promote themselves and their ideas. The second part deals with the art of thinking and seeing clearly. Gladwell describes the series of events that led to the Challenger explosion and the collapse of Enron. Could these catastrophic events have been foreseen and prevented? In part three, the author discusses various aspects of genius and talent, and whether it is possible to profile criminal behavior or predict how a prospective employee will fare on the job.

"What the Dog Saw" has some intriguing passages that will impel readers to say, "I never thought of this subject in quite that way before." The provocative Gladwell enjoys toying with conventional wisdom and challenging our preconceived notions. For instance, in one article, he defends certain forms of plagiarism, a transgression that many would consider indefensible. In another, he states that tragedies such as the Challenger disaster are unavoidable, since for a variety of reasons, "we don't really want the safest of all possible worlds." This water-cooler book will have people arguing vehemently that Malcolm Gladwell is either out of his mind or, conversely, that he is a courageously honest writer who dares to tell it like it is.

Unfortunately, there are several dreary chapters, including one that analyzes why one particular brand of ketchup is so popular and another that explores the poor judgment of John Rock, the inventor of the birth control pill. In addition, Gladwell occasionally indulges in hair-splitting: Do most of us really care about the fine distinctions between panicking and choking? On the other hand, there is a fascinating section that explains why mammograms, as a diagnostic tool, are inexact and hard to interpret. In addition, Gladwell makes a good case for the notion that intelligence failures, such as the ones that preceded 9/11, are easy to condemn in hindsight but may be more understandable when viewed in context. Malcolm Gladwell's strength has always been his ability to tell an original and entertaining story and connect it to our everyday experiences. He does just that in his best pieces, but there are others that probably should not have made the cut.

I stumbled on this book in a used bookstore. I had just finished a book and really didn’t know what (or even what genre) of book to read next and so a collection of essays seemed about perfect. I am really glad I did. For this book asks a lot of the questions that need asking. Among them:

Are we buying what we need or what a great salesman can sell us?

Is it more rational to plan for success or catastrophic failure?

What do the things we surround ourselves with tell us about … us?

How modern medicine was influenced by religion?

Why don’t we fix hard problems?

Where is the line between borrowing and plagiarism?

How do we interpret information?

What is more important—the genius or the system?

Gladwell asks these questions as he tells us very human stories; stories about us. And as we work through these complex ideas, made intelligible because they are stories, we get to wrestle with arguments that are provocative and important. You may agree with his answers or not. But he asks the right questions—and he asks those questions well.

I recommend it.

I actually started reading this book LAST summer--I got about halfway through, took a break, and only recently finished the second half. I was familiar with author Malcolm Gladwell's writing style, having previously read two of his books, Blink and The Tipping Point and enjoyed them both very much. WHAT THE DOG SAW is a bit different, as it is comprised of a series of articles that Gladwell originally wrote for and were published by The New Yorker.

Unlike Gladwell's other books, this one failed to grab me from the start. The first essay, "The Pitchman," focuses on a supposedly famous TV pitchman, Ron Popeil. At almost 30 pages, it's one of the longest narratives, and Gladwell's meticulous detail felt excruciating here. Although the next five articles were more engaging, I stopped reading at the end of Part 1 with the title story, featuring "The Dog Whisper" Cesar Millan, who is now fairly well-known for his National Geographic TV series by that same name.

When I returned to the book this summer, I found that Parts 2 and 3 read more quickly. Whereas the first section of the book had centered around pioneers, these next two focused on "Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses" and "Personality, Character, and Intelligence," respectively. Perhaps as a psychologist, I found these topics more interesting. I was intrigued with the fall of Enron in "Open Secrets" as well as the somewhat related "The Talent Myth." I was fascinated by Gladwell's analyses of homelessness, intelligence reform, and criminal profiling.

Gladwell's writing can feel meandering at times. He will introduce a topic--as he does in "Troublemakers," which is about pit bulls--and then move to a completely different subject (in this case, racial profiling) to illustrate his main point. When he is at his best, Gladwell's analogies flow seamlessly into the narrative. Occasionally, however, they drag down his otherwise exceptional storytelling. Despite sometimes slow moments in this book, I still enjoyed it overall, and I would recommend it.

The book is a compilation of articles that Malcolm wrote for the "New Yorker." Similar to his other books, with each article, Gladwell aims to debunk myths and unearth truths.

The articles cover a wide variety of topics, like why there aren't many varieties of ketchup, while there are many of varieties of mustard. There is another chapter on the difference between choking and panicking.

There last section of the book has some articles that should be of interest to managers. They deal with the difficulty of picking the right talent and how hiring managers typically make up their minds on who to hire within the first minute. There's also a chapter that questions whether we really should be trying to assemble our teams with the best and the brightest.

If your are like this reader, you'll find some of the pieces thought provoking, while others will leave you scratching your head, and thinking, “What's the point?” On balance the former make this worth the read.

--Nick McCormick, Author, "Lead Well and Prosper"

How much you enjoy the essays in Malcolm Gladwell’s "What the Dog Saw" could depend on how much you care about whichever subject he’s discussing. "The New Yorker" journalist gets praised for the clarity of his prose, but to me it doesn’t matter how accessible the writing is when the topic is ketchup. I still fall asleep.

I am also unmoved by Gladwell’s stories about successfully marketing hair dye and vegetable slicers and the masterminds behind their advertising campaigns. Sorry, but a tag-team of Stephen King and J. K. Rowling would fail to hold my interest if the topic is peddling mustard.

On the other hand, when Gladwell turns his attention to the psychology of criminal profiling, or to the root cause of homelessness, his counterintuitive conclusions are often surprising and sometimes enlightening. -- grouchyeditor.com

We had not previously read author Gladwell, but soon discovered he is a prolific contributor to the New Yorker magazine, in the footsteps of the likes of James Thurber and E.B. White. We hadn’t read such a book in several decades, but from both the title herein and the author’s prologue, revealing a fondness for such subjects as ketchup, lady’s hair color, and “What The Dog Saw”, suspected we were most likely in for a few entertaining hours of whimsy and quirky humor.

Au contraire – nineteen highly intellectual, obviously well-researched treatises, each about 20 pages or so, educated, entertained, and inspired this reader. Each article has a title and expanded sub-title, a few favorites of which should indicate what’s in store:

• “John Rock’s Error: What the Inventor of the Birth Control Pill Didn’t Know About Women’s Health”
• “Million-Dollar Murray: Why Problems like Homelessness May Be Easier to Solve than to Manage”
• “The Art of Failure: Why Some People Choke and Others Panic”
• “Late Bloomers: Why Do We Equate Genius with Precocity”

Perhaps the most intriguing piece was about the Enron disaster – “Open Secrets: Enron, Intelligence, and the Perils of Too Much Information” – detailing why a puzzle is different from a mystery, and how often each goes unsolved by using the wrong techniques!

We don’t often read books anymore for mental challenge, but we find ourselves thinking about trying another Gladwell (he has four other books) when we’re up to the encounter!

I have read and enjoyed Gladwell's three previous books, and I was curious how this collection of essays would stack up against such formidable predecessors. Thankfully, it did not disappoint.

So, what do rotisserie chickens, ketchup, investment strategies, hair dye, menstrual cycles, dog training, the Enron scandal, homelessness, mammograms, plagiarism, failure, NASA, geniuses, hiring practices, criminal profiling, job interviews, and pit bulls have in common? They are a series of topics that I care virtually nothing about and know even less about that Malcolm Gladwell somehow made captivating and engrossing. "What the Dog Saw" is a compilation of the best essays from Gladwell's contributions to The New Yorker, covering all of these topics and more, and he does the nearly miraculous trick of turning the mundane into the mesmerizing, the everyday into the engrossing, and the insignificant into the intriguing.

The purposes of these essays are many, so it's impossible to identify a primary theme or singular thesis from the book. It's a collection of essays, not a cohesive unit, and must be read as such. But for what it's worth, I was shocked by how much I enjoyed each and every essay. I found myself sitting in parking lots and in my garage listening to the end of various pieces. And my five-year-old daughter has heard me expounding upon the magnificence of this book so many times with so many people that she can quote my sales pitch: "I'm reading the most fascinating book about ketchup. Did you ever realize that there is really only one type of ketchup in the grocery store, but dozens of varieties of mustard? Why is that? And who cares? This amazing book made me care about ketchup!! You should read it."

And, so, I would make the same pitch to anyone. Read this book. Read anything and everything by Malcolm Gladwell. He is such a spectacular storyteller, such a brilliant wordsmith, such a purveyor in nuance, that I can't stop thinking about this book. And I can't stop talking about this book. And I can't wait to get my hands on some more of Gladwell's work. I know I've become such a Gladwellian fanboy, but I just don't care...

This is just a short review. I was aware of the book being a collection of articles from the New Yorker, but since I don't subscribe, the content is all new. I really enjoy how Gladwell pulls together multiple perspectives on a particular topic. This is really enjoyable as a reader who has recent experience with college research papers. To do this as often as Gladwell does takes time and careful effort to link similar views of the same topics.

These stories are highly educational and the research shatters the old molds of common knowledge. The stories also have hints of his other books like The Tipping Point as subtle events change history. I really enjoy his style. It is a page turner, but you have to pause and think. Sometimes you will stop and research for yourself, but that is the fun in learning.

I don't know if Gladwell is trying to propose any solutions to societal challenges. I believe his goal is to show that there are forces at work in many areas, sometimes subtle other times sometimes overt, which can influence outcomes. These outcomes include the successful or unsuccessful marketing of a hair-colouring product, trying to make your dog behave, some of the reasons behind the unraveling of Enron, and even the unfortunate fatal crash of a private airplane with a seasoned pilot at the helm. These are just a few examples of the topics which Gladwell tackles in "What the Dog Saw".

Some skeptics claim that Gladwell is trying to offer simple solutions to complex problems, but that assessment is far from the truth. In fact, I think Gladwell is asking us to re-look at problems with a different set of eyes and even values. Psychologists and social scientists know from scientific experimentation that some outcomes in situations, be they a national marketing campaign to sell a product or simply a teacher trying to get a single class to be attentive, often have subtle variables, sometimes below the radar. And these variables are the ones which Gladwell desires to show us through his writings. For example, the difference between a high school classroom where the students are throwing spit-wads versus another where the students are quietly attentive may be largely a matter of the instructor's body language. It turns out this body-language also affects how well-behaved a pet dog can be.

Other differences may be about changes in societal values, such as in the marketing of a product. In the 1950's, Clairol introduced the first over-the-counter hair-colouring product via a campaign with the slogan "Is she, or isn't she?" For 20 years, Clairol sold the most popular hair colour products, until the French company L'Oreal came along and offered a similar product but with a different message: "Because I am worth it." L'Oreal's marketing slogan spoke to the new crop of feminists of the 1970's. Although these two statements might seem insignicant on the surface (they are just advertising slogans), L'Oreal overtook Clariol's sales by the mid-to-late 1970's. I am sure there is little difference between these products, but the original marketing slogan by Clairol implied that what everyone thought about you was what was important. The later marketing statement via L'Oreal focused on what the woman-comsumer wanted, not what the woman thought everyone else wanted. L'Oreal spoke to women who followed Gloria Steinem rather than Doris Day.

Overall a fun and anecdotal look at different areas of social psychology. Gladwell offers a very entertaining look some aspects of society that we often take for granted.

Malcolm Gladwell writes the most interesting stuff out there. He can take such simple and mundane topics and expand them exponentially. He makes you see the world in an entirely new light.

Before What the Dog Saw, I read Gladwell’s other four works; each one spectacular. This book peaks the same amount of interest however, its lacks the overarching and appealing theme. What the Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell’s previous articles. I enjoyed the chapters but I felt a bit unsatisfied at the end of the book. It was full enjoyment with a pinch of inadequacy.

It was interesting to read about Enron, the tech bubble, banking economy, and other craziness 5-10 years later. It gives you a sense of history and context.

All in all this is a great book, but not the best by Gladwell. Having said that, I cannot wait for Gladwell to write another book.

Gladwell has, by now, revealed himself as a master oberserver of contemporary Western society. Having the ability to be detached and simultaneously excited from his subject, the author shows himself growing in his powers as an author and thinker in this wonderful compilation of the journalist's articles published in The New Yorker. After reading the revelations of Tipping Point, Outliers and David and Goliath, this book is a must read for those who love looking at the world through Gladwell’s eyes.

A selection of Gladwell’s writings, most of which appeared originally in the New Yorker magazine. The book has three clusters of essays: entrepreneurs and “minor geniuses,” such as Ron Popeil of kitchen gadget infomercial fame, Shirley Polykoff, ad writer for Clairol and Caesar Millan, aka the Dog Whisperer. A lot of this is about advertising and we get the now-famous musings about the jam and jelly study (consumers get can get overwhelmed by too many choices). And the spaghetti sauce studies: we really can’t conceptualize what we want -- remember the Edsel? -- but we know it when we taste it and (surprise!) we prefer chunky sauce. The second section is a mixed bag about theorizing and predicting where we learn of the Challenger disaster’s O-rings and the judgment calls involved in information sensing in fields as superficially disparate as air photo interpretation and mammography. The last section is about “personality” and we read essays telling us how little we really learn about people from job interviews and how off-the-mark criminal profiling really is. Great, thought-provoking essays with Gladwell’s easy-to-read but over-confident style of writing.

Malcolm Gladwell put together his published articles in one place and questions received wisdom in a variety of scenarios though supporting data is sparse:

1. Combining innovator and salesman in the same person.

2. Chunkiness of Heinz ketchup has allowed it to retain leading market share for seveal generations

3. Investment strategy where one is sure to lose a small amount on most days with the potential to make large profits occassionally

4. Enron fiasco was due not to hiding information but due to too much information that was made available and which made sifting through it and making sense of the information more difficult

5. Bulk of the cost of homelessness is a due to a very small fraction of the population that is chronically ill, providing them accomodation is way cheaper even though it sets up wrong incentives.

6. Separating signal from noise in mammograms and satellite images is difficult and often leads to wrong decisions when people stick to "a picture is worth a thousand words"

7. Copying and innovation are strongly linked even though kids in school are forbidden from copying.

8. Panic results in the base mind exploring a very narrow set of available options; losing confidence gets people to consider each of their next moves critically and so people lose natural fluidity / intuition leading to lower results

9. Human beings tend to respond to lower risks in one area by taking on more risks in another area. For example, car safety belts caused drivers to increase their speed. Risk-mitigation in micro areas results in taking on larger risks in macro areas and results in blowups like Challenger and nuclear reactor.

10. Terminology used by forecasters and astrologers is open to multiple interpretations and so their forecasts seem to be correct more often than is objectively the case.

11. In addition to geniuses that bloom young, there is a large class of innovators often at the intersection of multiple disciplines that need to master these disciplines over decades before fruits of their innovation are visible.

12. Smart people are overrated. Enron hired stars.

Several chapters were less insightful than others and could have been dropped.

Malcolm Gladwell's peculiar `What the Dog Saw' (2009) shows the writers innate writing ability to connect the dots to some curious questions to such things as RONCO, mustard, birth control, Enron, homelessness, plagiarism, criminal profiling, and pit bull dogs. The book is an interesting inflection into unique topics with some added insight written in Mr. Gladwell's smooth prose. The book's title is based on Caesar Millan and his dog-calming techniques.

`What the Dog Saw' is an insight into some questions we discuss in conversations, but rarely investigate. Mr. Gladwell has done a fantastic job of asking these questions as well: And in some cases, finding plausible answers. Some questions asked, for instance, why we have a dozen types of mustard, but still one flavor of ketchup? Or why some people choke, while others panic? Criminal profiling made easy, Are smart people overrated? What can pit bulls teach us about crime? The paradoxes of intelligence.

This is not by far Gladwell's most popular book, but a collection of short stories that, while not requiring a complete book to detail, should be questioned. Gladwell's ability to map and then decipher these questions is bordering literal mastery of his writing style. The reading is easy and makes for a decent night stand book to cozy up to. Its unpretentiousness is character Gladwell. The detail, while not too deep, gives the reader enough details without bending the ears. The conclusions are his and surprisingly agreeable, for the most part.

Gladwell fans will enjoy his journey in connecting the dots of life. This book will please you!

Malcolm Gladwell is a talented story teller and an author. Mr. Gladwell unique story telling skills and the unique topics which he chooses to write on will make any of his books a worthwhile reading. As oppose to Mr. Gladwell previous books, "What the dog saw" is not one story but a collection of Mr. Gladwell short stories from The New Yorker.

What is so unique about this book is that each one of the stories, whether it is the fall of Enron, the difference between Mustard (with its many varieties) and Ketchup (with one dominant brand), finding who to blame for the challenger explosion, the story of the extraordinary Ron Popeil and his quest to dominate the American kitchen, or the brilliant story about the dog whisperer create both extreme curiosity and enjoyment for the reader.

Mr. Gladwell is not trying to persuade the reader with his own point of view. He rather lets the reader make up their own decision and view, and while doing that makes you think about your "pre-story" beliefs and assumptions.

It is almost a guarantee, whoever chooses to read this book will end with lots of curiosity, entertainment and maybe even inspiration by the unique stories and their conclusions. However, you can go a step further and think about our human behaviors which enable these great stories.

You can think why we do what we do. You may even challenge yourself and ponder whether you "practice" these behaviors. Understanding "what the dog saw" and more than that understanding these human behaviors is a life long journey for all wisdom seekers.

Pick up the book, do not rush while reading it, stop, think and observe. You will not regret it.

Amir Avitzur
Author of "Why do we sell low and buy high? The guide you must read BEFORE you invest"

I devoured this book in three days while making a mental list of everyone who should borrow it from me. This is a fascinating collection of essays about quirky subjects (the ad campaigns of Clairol and L'Oreal as a way to analyze the development of feminism in the U.S. since 1960, or fundamental problems with law enforcement psychological profiling, or an analysis of the mistaken generalizations behind laws banning certain breeds of dogs), and each one delves into an aspect of human psychology and behavior. The tone is academic but pleasantly humorous (I don't like listening to NPR, but this book reads like what NPR would sound like if I liked it), and many of the discussions are intensely thought-provoking. I loved the analysis of the Dog Whisperer's body language (and its application to therapy for people with autism), and some of the epistemological essays (how do we know what we know?) were way over my head in a good way - I kind of understand the difference between a mystery and a puzzle, and how that relates to the Enron scandal, but I felt comfortable in the hands of Gladwell, who has a much more masterful comprehension.

I have no real complaint with this book (in a perfect world, there would have been less Enron and more quirky pop culture essays, but a world with this book in its current form is close enough to perfect for me to be happy), and I recommend it as a challenging but delightful gift for people who are interested in looking at the world in a slightly different way.

Gladwell has the rare virtue of writing about mundane things with easiness, a sense of entertainment, but with an inquisitive mind. Characters, situations or historical episodes that would pass unnoticed to most of us, don't pass unnoticed to Gladwell, who is able to see underneath the surface, connect the dots, and look at things in revealing thoughtful ways.

The collection of articles in this book (originally published in the New York times) are a perfect example of this. There a few articles on business-related subjects, but I especially loved the articles related to women, especially the ones on hair dying in Postwar America, the one on the birth control pill, and the one on mammography imaging, which are simply terrific.

This is one of those books that reads well when travelling - it feeds your mind without feeling you full or heavy.

This book is a collection of essays that Gladwell wrote over a period of time in the 'New Yorker' magazine. They deal with subjects ranging from hair color and ketchups to CIA intelligence and JFK Jr's tragic accident.
I have read Gladwell's other books and liked 'Outliers' more than 'Tipping Point' and 'Blink'. The zeal of investigating hidden things in seemingly straight forward phenomena, which was the driving spirit behind 'Outliers', is also evident in many of the essays here. This is what makes Gladwell investigate 'boring' subjects like ketchups and hair color and slicing machines and still come out with interesting stuff to say about them.
I didn't find all the essays interesting. However, the following essays were great to read and made me want to keep reading Gladwell in future:
In the 'Blow Up', he investigates the 1986 Challenger disaster and who is to blame for it. The answer is 'no one'. He says that we have constructed a world in which the potential for high-tech catastrophe is embedded in the fabric of day-to-day life and so we might as well accept without hypocrisy that a NASA spacecraft will go down in flames again.
In the 'Art of Failure', he makes the fascinating distinction between choking and panicking. Choking happens under stress and we revert to the 'expilicit learning' sequence in our actions, For example, Jana Novotna in her famous Wimbledon loss to Graf, choked at the point of victory and started hitting her volleys like a beginner. Choking is loss of instinct. On the other hand, JFK Jr, on that fateful night panicked when he 'lost' the horizon. Panic is loss of instinct and you stop thinking. Under panic, John Jr, instead of reviewing the instruments, got fixated on 'where are the lights of Martha's Vineyard?'. Had he choked instead of panicking, he would have reverted to explicit learning and followed his early learning instructions and it would have saved them all.
In the 'Talent Myth' he investigates and concludes that 'smart people are overrated' and shows it by analyzing McKinsey and Enron. I think this essay is elaborated in 'Outliers' with the theory that 'success is often 10000 hours of practice' rather than innate smartness.
There are other equally brilliant essays on why it is cheaper to 'gift' an apartment to pan handlers instead of leaving them on the street, on whether mammography has any effective use at all and that Enron actually disclosed all their problems to everyone in their reports but that hardly any Wall street analyst read and extracted those crucial data and advised the public, something they are paid heavily to do.
All in all, the book is a good read and Gladwell's admirers won't be disappointed. I am one of them.

A recurrent escapist fantasy for some may be to be marooned on an island paradise with their favorite book. Well, if you give me a Malcolm Gladwell book, you can keep the island paradise.

His latest offering, "What the Dog Saw" is a compilation of essays that he wrote while working as a staff journalist for the `New Yorker'. Though each one is a disparate article, the author nevertheless entertains, informs, and enlightens in the inimitable style that rocketed his previous three books to the best-seller lists.

Not everyone may be equally impressed with his choice of subject matter. Some of them seem pretty trivial, but one attraction of this book is the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated topics, that somehow not only work, but also manage to elucidate one another. A good example is the one where he traces the trajectory of the Feminist movement with the development of the Hair Coloring industry. Or, where he draws points of comparison between predicting the next NFL great, or the next terrific teacher.

As with most of his books, Gladwell's deep interest in the workings of the mind (human and otherwise) is apparent here as well, whether it's in the `science' of criminal profilers (he's too polite to call them charlatans, he leaves that to the reader to infer), or the intuitive body language of the "Dog Whisperer", Cesar Millan, whose story forms the title of the book. If you've ever wondered why some people do better than others at job interviews, and have prospective employers eagerly wooing them; whether early precocity predicates genius; or, if smarts equals success, the author has an insight to offer. Each is an appetizing slice of psychology that surprises with its freshness.

On the subject of Enron, he has a lot to say. One chapter is a dispassionate reworking of that recent debacle with a more equitable apportioning of blame. Another is a scathing indictment of a corporate culture that seems almost mind-bogglingly narcissistic and undisciplined, fawning over talent and potential, at the risk of jettisoning common sense, let alone business acuity.

There are many points on which the reader might wish to argue with the author. Perhaps he's not too proprietary over his work, but surely intellectual copyright serves its purpose. There are some instances where his solutions are staggeringly simplistic - give the homeless a home. But neither are they easy to dismiss.

Gladwell's work is part myth-busting - debunking some of our most fondly cherished ideas - and part social commentary. Those who offer social commentary don't demand that their ideas be executed into action. They simply offer an alternate view, and that is something out of the ordinary in itself. As he succinctly observes,

"...if everybody had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed changing."

Every time I visit the US, I pick up a copy of the New Yorker. I love reading the long, well thought out and superbly written, essays. "What the Dog Saw" is a collection of 19 essays written by Malcom Gladwell and published in the New Yorker over the past decade or so. The essays touch on various subjects but they all have that "Gladwell touch": a seemingly mundane and boring topic is turned into a fascinating narrative with thoughtful insights.

The book is organised into three categories. In the first - "Minor Geniuses - Gladwell explores people who have made a significant impact in their field of expertise. I truly loved the first essay in the book, about Ron Popeil, who single-handedly invented the direct marketing of kitchen appliances, first by selling on street corners and later on late-night TV. The story is fascinating from both a business and a personal perspective. The third essay in the book is about an equally captivating character, Nassim Taleb, who devised an investment strategy based on the "inevitability of disaster", that is betting that the most unlikely event (like 9/11) will happen. I found other essays in this category less captivating, such as the one about John Rock, the inventor of the birth control pill. I didn't agree with the conclusions Gladwell drew from Rock's decisions regarding the Catholic church's approach to the pill.

Essays in the second category deals with "theories, predictions and diagnoses". There is an essay about Enron and how how all the information was there for everyone to see. Another, related, story deals with a subject that was at one time close to my heart: the impossible job of military intelligence assessments. In these two stories Gladwell makes a brilliant distinction between puzzle and mystery. A puzzle is a problem which has a definitive answer and finding that answer depends on finding all the relevant pieces of information. A mystery, on the other hand, is a problem with no definitive answer, because it requires judgement and assessment and cannot be solved by gathering more information. Many of the intelligence assessments are mysteries and that is why intelligence organisations have failure built into their very nature.

The last category of essays is about "personality, character and intelligence". Gladwell makes minced mint out of the "profile builders" of the FBI, those psycho-experts that can tell you who the criminal is (almost) by analysing the crimes he committed. In another essay he asks the question "are smart people overrated?", and in a third he asks whether it is possible to hire people based on interviews. I found some of the essays in this category to be less engaging and less convincing, as they touched on topics that appeared in Gladwell's previous book "Outliers", which I didn't like.

All in all, this is a delightful collection of long-winded essays but easy-to-read essays. Vintage Gladweel, vintage New Yorker.

PS - This was my first ever audiobook. I never thought I could concentrate on a book by listening to it, but I found out that while driving or jogging, listening to a book is a great way to pass the time. I'm now trying to listen to a novel and see if it works just as well.

Malcolm Gladwell is perhaps one of the most imaginative non-fiction writers to come along in a long time. It's hard to be a non-fiction writer and yet have a vivid, well-oiled imagination. But his previous interest in being in the advertising business perhaps would predict such a dichotomy, as it's necessary in advertising.

Gladwell writes in his introduction, "Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. Not the kind you'll find in this book, anyway. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think." That, I think, is the key to the greatness of this book. It is a collection of think pieces.

Gladwell uses a sort of social psychology, which he worked to a fine art during a long stint on The New Yorker magazine, the home of some great writers.

He writes with confidence and optimism, yet with realism. His topics range from the screw-ups of multinational corporations and the quirks of human behavior of businessmen looking for a new guru.

The books cover looks like his other book covers and the book is written in the same style as his other books. This seems to be popular among most modern writers --- something like using a successful template. Actually, it's an old scheme used successfully for decades.

"What the Dog Saw", is a collection of previously published articles. Most sound and read much the same --- using his template.

The book seems to repackage his much-read articles. They are however, perhaps the author's best, his greatest as a musician might put it. He chooses essays that are sophisticated and make the reader think, to try and figure things out for himself. The book proves how successful Gladwell is at finding flaky subjects missed by other writers. To wit . . . the history of women's hair-dye advertisements; the secret of Heinz's unbeatable ketchup. He even writes on the effects of women's changing career patterns on the number of menstrual periods they experience in their lifetimes.

He can dissect a subject, such as the fall of Enron, and actually show the reader how things look through the eyes of someone else --- in this case, a dog.

Gladwell takes an idea, recasts it as a human story, and works it through to the natural ending. He raises provocative arguments and makes the reader think for himself, trying to figure out the truth of the situation.

I like this type of writing because it's at once sophisticated and brilliant but, at the same time, it makes the reader think. It takes the best of a good advertising copywriter and the non-fiction magazine writer and combines them into a powerful method of creative writing.

Highly recommended.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson

Malcolm Gladwell's fourth book is a collection of articles he produced for the New Yorker, from 1996 to 2008. One of the other reviewers notes that you can access this archive from the author's website, but in doing that, you'd miss this book's introductory essay and the effect of Gladwell's culling and organizing into the thematic strands: Obsessives/Pioneers/Other Varieties of Minor Genius, Theories/Predictions/Diagnoses, and Personality/Character/Intelligence. In other words, reading article by article off the internet is not as rich or organized an experience as reading the collection in this the book.

The thing I enjoyed about Gladwell's three previous books--The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers--is the way he precisely asks the questions that may lie more vaguely in our own wells of curiosity, about how and why things are and work (or do not). Each article in this book is a mini-version of the way the author comes to a phenomenon in media res, then tracks back to research, interviews and readings on the topic. The full-length books stretch far and wide with the inquiry at hand; the articles hug close to the shore with fewer dimensions. If you are coming to the short works after acquaintance with the other books, you may feel that disconnect of being on a faster than expected elevator ride that is over before you even thought it began. Also, in the case of those articles that track closely to the topics of the previous books, by comparison the articles seem like an artist's sketchbook while the books compare with the completed full-size mural or sculpture.

That said, I really enjoyed What The Dog Saw. Gladwell does a convincing job of analyzing topics that are as diverse as how Cesar Milan is able to tame bad dogs, why the FBI and CIA are at odds with one another, or why the military is not always successful in hitting targets (the same reason why mammography is not a perfect diagnostic tool). Gladwell also organizes his information logically in attractive sentences. Everything he writes has narrative flair without sacrificing truth. Where applicable, he provides updates at the end of articles for which new information has emerged since original publication.

What Malcolm Gladwell does, is look at something differently.

This book is a compilation of his stories previously published and there are 3 parts made up of a total of 22 stories. Some have similar themes but all have the author's quintessential, let's look at something and then analyze it. Then look at it again via that analysis. Sometimes, his conclusions are easily followed, other times you are blindsided by his take on the issue. I'm not saying you would disagree, but you might not even think of the solution he presents. Some stories have a single theme and several different angles of the same idea. I thought that was an interesting thing to do.

I have a colleague that does not care for this author's viewpoint. He considers his work pop-pseudo-science, but unless you are basing major life decisions on a single hardcover book, I consider it harmless. His take on a variety of topics, forces you to examine, why things are they way they are. If you don't agree, that's fine. If nothing else, it makes you think.

For instance, his discussion on profiling and considering the accuracy relative to crime solutions. Apparently in some studies it was found that profiles provided were tantamount to what a huckster or fake psychic would use; vague predictions that when fastidiously recorded were inexact science that lead no where. (My words are harsher than his). I don't know it is true, but if I really cared about this, I might look into it.
Similarly in one segment, there was critique on profiling for terrorists and suggested using a less personal characteristic based checklist than an action based checklist. This way, the terrorists would be less likely to figure out the characteristics being used and not be able break the system. I'm not sure any of his suggestions have merit, but they do bear scrutiny.

The only disappointment in the book would be the section on Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer. It was 23 pages long, but given the title of this section formed the title of the book, I was expecting it would have been more of the 410 pages. I think this book should have been named something else if this was only 5% of the content. It was an interesting take on a popular figure, but not enough for a book titled thus. Unless of course the author considers himself the observant dog?

All in all and interesting bit of observations.

If you liked Gladwell's "Outliers" and "The Tipping Point," you'll most likely enjoy this book, too. But it is different in one important way: It's a collection of articles he wrote for the New Yorker over the last ten years or so. For that reason, the book isn't actually thematic. I think that's the main reason some reviewers don't care for it.

As Gladwell says in his Preface, he's more interested in how people think and how they feel about how they're thinking than he is about what they think about. For instance, there's a chapter ostensibly about the plane crash in which John F. Kennedy, Jr., died. However, there's not really much in it about the people, the airplane, the weather conditions, etc. Rather, he analyzes the difference between panic and choking in the face of a crisis-- the difference between thinking too much and thinking too little-- in order to understand the mental processes that can lead to a plane crash.

On the one hand, this makes the book fascinating. On the other hand, some of the essays just won't appeal to every reader, simply because they won't be interested in their particular subjects. I personally found the vast majority of the essays very interesting. And the writing is typical Gladwell. A bonus is that since the essays were written over a ten-year period, you can see the evolution of the Gladwell style that made his best-selling books so appealing.

Many of the essays will leave you thinking, "You know, I never thought of that." As is the case with his other books, he enjoys tweaking his readers' sense of what is "common knowledge." For example, in essays devoted to mammograms and military intelligence, he argues convincingly that the real problem is that modern technology and practices give us too much information, not that we have too little. He describes this as the difference between a puzzle and a mystery, and it's a fascinating concept.

Of course, it's possible to disagree with Gladwell's choices of essays to include in the book. That's a matter of judgment and taste, and the plain fact is that it's his book, so he gets to pick the essays. However, like all of his choices or not, there's no denying that he approaches all of his subjects in an original and entertaining manner and, more importantly, that he knows how to tell us the story in a way that we're not likely to forget.

I recommend this book very highly.

For example, I liked the definition of "choking" as when your conscious mind in times of stress takes control of implicitly learned actions. I never thought of it that way, and that insight actually improved my game when I played tennis after reading the book. I realized that one of my main problems in tennis was that I was thinking too much about my shots and my form. Instead, I should just relax and go with the flow and let my unconscious, implicit learning stay in control. I also liked the essay debunking the FBI profiler, because I've always been skeptical of criminal profilers and criminal investigation in general as portrayed in the popular media. I felt smugly satisfied to read a piece that affirmed my presuppositions. I think the media greatly exaggerates the competence and capabilities of criminal investigators and their tools and procedures. That's also why I like the film Zodiac so much because it seems like a more realistic portrayal of such investigations. Another thing I liked about the essay is the analysis of the profiler's rhetorical techniques. Those techniques are so often used by politicians and their cheerleaders in the media, religious leaders, fortune tellers and astrologers, advertising agencies, sales people, hustlers, etc. Aside from a few nuggets of insight here and there, I breezed through most of the book without too much enjoyment.

Let me start by saying that I am a complete fan of Malcolm Gladwell's intellect, and his writing capabilities. I think he is an outstanding thinker, and his ability to see the big picture, dive into the details, connect the dots, and draw inferences is spectacular. Further, he is a great writer, and his ability to translate complex ideas into simple, pleasant reading is second to none. Hence, I will always read whatever he writes.

The above notwithstanding, I can't help feeling let down by this book. Here's what the book really felt like: a long, long after-dinner, brandy supping, fireplace confabulation about a set of desultory ideas and opinions between the author and a bunch of other smart people. Some of those conversations hit bull's eye, while others entirely missed the board. It wasn't that there were badly written pieces - in fact, Gladwell continues to write extremely well and still manages to keep one engaged, but one couldn't help wondering what the purpose of some of the pieces was. Some articles have a point, make you think once you are done with them, but a lot of pieces just end arbitrarily. They feel more like pieces of fiction then insightful and deductive pieces of logic. And while that isn't necessarily bad, it isn't what one expects of a Gladwell book. I'm willing to give a little more credit for the writing because I think it might have made much more sense as individual newspaper / journal articles, but then why collect them into a book? Shouldn't there me some thematic connection and sensibility about the whole thing?

Overall, I'd still suggest reading it, though I wouldn't make it a top priority. And when you do read it, use it as a background book, and read it as individual pieces over a period of time - you'll probably enjoy it more that way.

This is a book by Malcolm Gladwell.

The book is actually a collection of essays by him that have been in the New Yorker Magazine. Truly an interesting group too - probably something for everyone.

There are around 20 essays in the book. Some of my favorites are the essays on: (1)Ron Popeil aka Mr. Ronco - there is more to those infomercial products and the guys behind them than you might think; (2) the ladies who promoted hair dye - where you learn about the famous line "Does she or doesn't she?" and other interesting items; (3)Enron - actually there are two essays featuring it, and it was even weirder there than you might have thought; (4)Solving homelessness - you might never believe this cost effective method until you hear the whole story; (5)Panic and Choking - the kind involved when you are stressed and don't function correctly, and it really made me think about things I have seen/experienced from a new viewpoint; (6) Hiring and Interviewing - actually two essays and really worth considering.

The title comes from one of the essays that was about a very talented dog trainer. Not one of my favorites, but then I never had an unruly dog.

The author has a very fresh and interesting way of presenting things. Many times he is showing readers (without beating them over the head or putting them on the defensive) how wrong the conventional wisdom about things really is. He has a great writing style and is very persuasive.

Of course, the best thing about the book is probably the selection of topics themselves. This is an art form as done here.

This is a very entertaining book, and I think that most if not all readers will learn something useful from it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Have you ever wondered why there are dozens of different types of mustard but only one kind of ketchup? How about the difference between a puzzle and a mystery and why too much information can be a bad thing? Did it ever occur to you that having talent can be highly overrated?

If you've ever thought about any of these questions, and even if you haven't thought about these but enjoy reading about oddities in human behavior than this book is for you.

Yes, it's What the Dog Saw. Which is a fantastic book written by Malcolm Gladwell. This is a non-fiction book that is a collection of articles written by Gladwell over the years that he has worked for The New Yorker. For those not familiar with Gladwell's work, he writes a lot of stories about somewhat off the wall topics. While he uses a lot of psychological research in his writing, it never reads as a psychology journal article. His writing is always very accessible no matter how technical his writing gets. He also always manages to relate all of the stories to everyday people so that we all know exactly what he is saying.

This book, being a collection of articles written over the years, is not as focused as his other books, but it's still very well written. A couple of the articles in this book weren't quite as successful as others for me, specifically there was an article dealing with hair dyes and how that reflected part of the change in American culture, but while that one wasn't as successful for me, it was still well written and I'm sure other people will love it.

Overall, the book is excellent, if Malcolm Gladwell isn't the best person writing non-fiction in America I'd like to know who is. The book is fantastic and I highly suggest it as well as every other Gladwell book.

10/10

You know Malcolm Gladwell. He's The Tipping Point author. He looks at events and tries to help us figure out why and when and how-to-do-it-again-better. What the Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell's articles. I wanted to hit the save button several times as I read this book. One article I had to reread was "Most Likely to Succeed." It compares finding good teachers to finding a good NFL quarterback. Apparently good teachers are the most important thing in enhancing student performance: "...many reformers have come to the conclusion that nothing matters more than finding people with the potential to be good teachers." It is also hard. It's hard to find those good teachers. What does it take? How does one become a good teacher? A few qualities this article examines are regard for student perspective, the teacher's ability to allow students flexibility in becoming engaged in the lesson; personalizing the material, making the material live for each student; and, most important, feedback, "direct, personal response by a teacher to a specific statement by a student." Just one of twenty or so little articles Gladwell wrote about issues you thought you knew about, you thought you understood...but that science tells you to reexamine.

I like his other book Outliers but this book is a drag. At the beginning of each chapter he introduced two similar stories then made some narratives on each. He then quickly jump to conclusions without much analysis. As such the conclusions are not convincing. I don't find the book interesting. I got impatient at times.

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell is a collection of essays written by the author and originally published in The New Yorker magazine. Topics range from ketchup to Ron Popeil to failure to Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer (and the inspiration for the title).

I listened to the audio version of this book, and as you would expect, I found some essays to be better than others. The book is read by the author and at first, I didn't think I would like his narration, but I grew to enjoy it, even though his pronunciation of a few words sounded funny to my Southern ears.

I imagine my mother's glad I finished What the Dog Saw because I told her more than she probably wanted to know about a few of the essays. I found "What the Inventor of Birth Control Pills Didn't Know About Women's Health" and "Mammography, Air Power, and and the Limits of Looking" particularly fascinating. I thought the articles were well-researched and thought provoking. When Gladwell made a point, he often used more than one source to back it up. "How Nasim Taleb Turned the Inevitability of Disaster into an Investment Strategy" was over my head and I felt like I might have understood it better if I'd been able to read it, rather than listen to it.

The audio book is on 10 CDs and takes about 13 hours to listen too. With over 20 essays, it's easy to listen to a complete one in a short time. I enjoyed my first experience with Malcolm Gladwell's work and would like to read more of it now.

This collection of articles will probably have something of interest for most people, but they may find only a few of the articles all that interesting. Of course, it will likely be different articles for different people!

The chapters are good for introducing points/ideas, but not particularly thorough--as one should expect for a collection of previously published articles that were not fleshed out to make the book chapters. In the chapter on mammography interpretation, for example, the effect of digital mammography on accuracy of diagnosis is ignored, and the idea of cost-effectiveness is never touched upon.

The chapters on the "Dog Whisperer" and the development of the Ronco empire were interesting personal stories, but that was about all to me--not much take home that I see applicable in the average person's life. The history of birth-control pills and the Catholic church was interesting, but the implication that a different pitch might've made them acceptable is a bit thinly stretched (in my opinion). The premise of hair dye advertisements advancing from "dyeing your hair for him" to "dyeing your hair for you" as an illustration of some changes in society is interesting, but he lost the fact that these are not changes that are particularly complete right now--witness the ads for weight-loss products that testify how women's husbands now think they look so much better after losing weight.

Malcolm Gladwell has a formula: take a bit of common wisdom, something most people accept without question, and pick each assumption apart until you find that that bit of wisdom isn't really supported by facts. Sure, it's a formula -- but it also tends to be pretty entertaining. "What the Dog Saw" is a collection of wisdom-inverting essays written by Gladwell for various magazines spanning a period of about 10 years or so. The range of topics is pleasantly diverse, from questions such as: "are professional FBI profilers any better than parlor psychics at identifying criminals?" to "are pit bulls really more dangerous than other dog breeds?". Gladwell reaches conclusions that you may not always agree with, but he certainly provides you with food for thought, citing plenty of reasonably credible sources along the way. I think of him as the man who paved the way for people like Dubner and Levitt who stretched his formula to near absurdity in "Freakonomics." Gladwell exercises more restraint.

There's always one problem with any collection of essays: the format tends to become monotonous if you insist on reading straight through. I had to put this book down several times and move on to others to relive the repetition, but I found that when I finally did return, the material and style was once again attention-grabbing. Probably a perfect book for airline travel.

I read book this as an Audible title, which in no way diminishes the experience. It is BRILLIANT. I have also read "The Tipping Point", which I equally enjoyed.

Malcolm Gladwell is an expert at taking a central core issue, finding multiple apparently disjoint case studies, and then bringing them all together into a coherent whole with fresh perspective. His writing is well organized, insightful, and very well presented. His articles are the kind that are certain to get thoughts moving and discussions started.

This book is a compilation of some of Malcolm Gladwell's reprinted New Yorker articles. they highlight the work of people whom Gladwell considers to be geniuses.

Many of these articles focus on geniuses that come up with quantifiable solutions to problems such as reducing vehicle-emitted air pollution in a convenient an cost-effective manner or reducing the taxpayer cost of providing homeless people with housing and health care.

There were also articles in the book that were simply portraits of geniuses without any Freakonomics-like slant to them. Those were the articles that I enjoyed the most. They include the article that the book was named after, which is a profile of the "Dog Whisperer", Cesar Milan.

All in all, this book is wonderful reading. Gladwell is a fantastic writer with interesting ideas. His magic really shines through when he stops grappling with big ideas such as preventing terrorist attacks or reforming the educational system, and focuses instead on profiles of the unrecognized geniuses and heroes among us.

WHAT THE DOG SAW is another collection of articles astutely written by Malcolm Gladwell, columnist for the New Yorkers and best-selling author of TIPPING POINT, BLINK, and OUTLIERS.

No one juxtaposes events or topics like Gladwell. He takes two apparently-unrelated topics and finds that weird intersection where they collide. He makes sense of the universe in a quirky, unconventional way which is invariably insightful, funny, and thoughtful.

In WHAT THE DOG SAW the reader is treated to a comparison and contrast of bomber pilots and mammograms, the secrets of marketing hair color and postwar America, plagiarism and creativity.

In addition, he is sometimes simply riveting. Writing about Cesar Millan and his gift of understanding dogs, Gladwell is beautiful, artistic and insightful. His essay on Enron did the impossible, brought into doubt the indubitable; the guilt of Enron and its officers. He writes powerfully, painstakingly and impartially about homelessness and the price of public programs.

He thinks critically, writes boldly, and muses wisely. Gladwell is smart. And thoughtful. And so is the reader for simply having read his stuff.

This book consists of a collection of stories that have previously appeared in The New Yorker, all written by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is a talented writer who is able to draw from many disciplines and change the inane to the interesting. These shorter works are disconnected, only loosely fitting into the three categories that Gladwell divides them into: Minor Geniuses, Theories, & Intelligence. Gladwell's Blink and The Tipping Point remain his best works, but this book is still an entertaining, thought provoking read.

The section on Minor Geniuses covers Ron Popeil, Ketchup, Taleb and the Black Swan, Hair Dye, the inventor of birth control, and the dog whisperer. The two that stand out in this section are the first and the last. Ron Popeil's history is interesting and Gladwell sheds light onto his personality and business style like few interviewers good. He manages to capture Popeil's zeal for his products in way that may compel you to purchase a Showtime Rotisserie after reading this chapter. The other highlight of the Minor Geniuses section is the chapter on Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer. Having never seen the show, Gladwell once again excels in conveying both Millan's electric personality and his passion for his business. The animal psychology that Millan specializes in is fascinating and makes a great read.

The next section is devoted to Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses and covers information theory, how to solve homelessness, the limits of photography, plagiarism, intelligence reform, the difference between choking and panicking, and the Challenger Explosion. The first chapter that stands out in this section is the one on homelessness. Gladwell presents an economic case for social reform. While there are some pieces missing to the puzzle, this chapter is thought provoking and will get you to think about solving social problems in new ways. Gladwell's greatest gift, in my opinion, is attacking subjects from a new angle, coming at them sideways instead of headlong, and allowing the reader to think in fresh ways - the chapter on homelessness, Million-Dollar Murray, is a great example. Others that are worth spending some time on include The Picture Problem and The Art of Failure.

The final division in What The Dog Saw is dedicated to Personality, Character, and Intelligence. This was certainly the most consistent section, no duds to be found. The chapters cover how we define genius, hiring practices, criminal profiling, the talent myth, interviews, and what pit bulls can teach us about crime. The section on criminal profiling was new information to me and is presented in a credible way. Gladwell gently tries to pry away the assumptions that we have about criminal profiling and does a great job. Again, this is not a complete picture, but Gladwell gives just enough information to prove his point valid and warrant further research in one is inclined to learn more. The other standout in the section is the last chapter on crime and pit bulls, though each chapter in this section was worth reading.

In my estimation, Gladwell is one of the best writers that we have now. He has combined great writing skill and a knack for exposing excellent stories where there seem to be none. Some have warned that he is not a scientist, does not provide enough information, and does not provide enough research to prove his points. I agree with all of that to an extent, but am thankful for it. Writers who are able to take the hard sciences and popularize them with stories and anecdotes are a gift and we need more of them, not less. This is thought provoking, entertaining literature and is recommended.

Malcom Gladwell can write. Of course, he can think too. You couldn't write as he does without being smart, though you could certainly be smart without writing like he does. His great knack for finding interesting topics comes in part from those smarts and skill: he finds what is interesting about a topic and conveys it clearly and provocatively. I've long been a Gladwell fan, even before he started writing books. Yet, I have not loved the other books he has written. He always has one very interesting and slightly contrarian observation, and at book length, I find he is beating me over the head with it. Tipping Point, Blink, Ok, I get it. In fact, I could get it from the first chapter. . . . That was why this book was so wonderful. The New Yorker length article is, to my mind, the perfect format for Gladwell, and I could read his stuff in those size chunks all day long. This collection of his New Yorker "greatest hits" really is that; there are no duds in the bunch. Pure Gladwell fun.

I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell and although this book was a big disappointment I still remain his fan. This book is a collection of his writings and does not follow the same plot that his other books. From tomato ketch ups to women mansteration cycle - the author goes into purposeless inordinate amount of details on topics of no real significance. Something we usually don't associate with an author of his caliber. This book is a blip on an otherwise brilliant track record.

There are few authors that I know of that create that "have to read" feeling for me but Malcolm Gladwell is one of them and this book did not disappoint. What the Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell's articles written in The New Yorker where he has been a staff writer since 1996. What amazes me the most about Gladwell is his ability to take the seemingly mundane, pair it with two or three other seemingly mundane topics, and make the story interesting and relevant while touching on topics that impact our daily lives.

One of the articles that caught my attention was written about the inventor of the birth control pill, John Rock. He was a Catholic man who was deeply concerned about the approval of his church and, due to his concern, created the placebo pills that women are still taking today. The significance of the placebo pill was to prove that this was a natural form of contraception and no different than the most popular method being employed by the Catholic Church at the time. (Sadly, John Rock was eventually excommunicated and lost his faith even after he worked so hard and, at times, seemed to have the approval of many within the Vatican.)

By calling the pill natural Rock proves that there are many things science knows, such as how to stop women from ovulating, and then there are things science won't, or can't, understand until after they have had time to see the long term effects of their actions. Something that is said to be "natural" or "safe", such as birth control pills made from progestin cannot not actually be accurately judged until enough time has passed to clearly prove the truth behind the statement. (Progestin actually increases the chances a woman will have breast cancer.) Gladwell also points out that as family sizes have decreased and the number of times women menstruate has increased from about 100 times in their lifetime to 350 or 400 times, that the possibility of cancer from cell reproduction in that process has also increased the chances of ovarian and breast cancer.

This actually leads me to something in my life that has been weighing on me heavily. Science introduced vaccines in 1798 (smallpox) and has steadily increased the number of vaccines available (and required by schools/states in most cases) ever since. Undoubtedly most doctors who administer vaccines as well as those who research and invent vaccines have society's best interest in mind and then the drug gets shoved down our throats via the government and the special interest money they so eagerly accept. My point of this is I have no idea what is "necessary" for my child and what will only harm them. My book for week 3 is a vaccine book that is not anti vaccine but takes a more cautious approach than that of Paul Offit. (see Wired Magazine article: An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All)

I already have a healthy fear of the unknown and uncontrollable, and it really bothers me that the first choice I have to make on behalf of my child may bring harm. Vaccines are not something that you can easily research because much of the research is paid for by people who have an interest in finding data either for or against them. Also, you can't pick and choose single vaccines because they are combined with a number of other vaccines that, no doubt, I won't want to give. I'll move on.

Among the other articles Gladwell touches on the actual value of an interview, why knowing if someone will be a good teacher is the same as knowing if a great college quarterback will be great in the NFL and the difference between what it is to "choke" and panic.

You can find Gladwell's bio and most recent articles here.

What the Dog Saw is not only worthy of a read but also a purchase as are the other 3 he has written. (The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers)

I hope this finds you well.

~jc

"What the Dog Saw" is a collection of some of Malcolm Gladwell's best articles that have been featured in the New Yorker since 1996. Each one takes you headlong into a world where seemingly every day subjects & some not seemingly every day ones are presented in a way that just make you sit up - and think. As you read about Enron, 9-11, Watergate, World War II & Cold War in the same breath, you are suddenly made aware that there is a difference between a puzzle and mystery. Jana Novotna's Wimbledon loss and John F. Kennedy Jr's death teach you that choking and panicking are not the same. You are asked why more pedestrians are killed crossing the street at marked crosswalks than at unmarked ones, the answer to which leads into a lesson on 'risk homeostasis', that, in turn, helps us better understand the Challenger crash.

Malcolm Gladwell is known to take disparate ideas & weave them into a page-turner. You may not agree with everything he puts across, but you are certain to at least evaluate the merits of his argument. And I guess that is his intent as well. As you flip through the pages, you come across many statements that hold you down by their insight. Sample this:
- If everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing.
- A prediction, in a field where prediction is not possible, is no more than a prejudice.
- Another word for generalization is stereotype.
- Genius is popularly tied up with precocity. But sometimes genius is anything but rarefied; sometimes it's just the thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table.
- Power-law problems leave us with an unpleasant choice. We can be true to our principles or we can fix the problem. We cannot do both.

An enjoyable read. While regular readers may find it more convenient to just access his website for all articles (available for free), if you are looking for a select set, "What the Dog Saw" is the right pick.

I just finished this book on CD version this morning and it was excellent! The title really tells very little of the book since only 2 of the 19 segments relate to dogs. I found it hard to get into Gladwell's other books like Blink, but the vast majority of this book was just very enjoyable and interesting. I am well-educated, but I frequently found myself thinking, "Wow, that is so interesting, I'll have to remember that." If you find yourself bored on a section, skip it because the next one is sure to keep your interest. If you don't read anything else, definitely read the last section on pit bull dogs and profiling. I rarely buy books, but I will definitely be buying this book for my family and friends.

The biggest criticism of this book is that it is a reprint of articles that appeared in the New Yorker. Of course you're going to be less impressed if it is not new material to you, but to most readers it will be.

Spends too long on Ron Popeil in the beginning of the book, which sparked regressed memories of my childhood insomnia summer days when the TV would always pause the video and say, "HOLD IT RON!!! THE NEW X-O-MATIC IS NOW ONLY X easy payments of XX.99!!!!". He described ron popeils contraptions as if he was advertising for them and complimented the guys looks way too much. Ron's head looks like it's composed of 70% mouth. There's at least (current-population-of-the-world minus 1) other people more deserving of a further detailed look into their lives than Ron. How about Norman Borlaug? He wasn't rich or famous. Worse than regressing about him, now I'll always know his last name and family history. Not the kind of person I was ever interested in knowing the most minimal trivia about, up there with boy bands in my sh yte list. I thought he was going to talk about the minor geniuses from the start of the book but he did a lot of random stuff. It does have little truths here and there about things to take into account that are not so obvious in specific but common situations. These make the book more than worth it. If he had connected all the stories into something greater like he did with outliers or tipping point it would have been much better. Instead it's as if it's the type of random interesting facts you'd get if you had to eat lunch with him everyday. The Kennedy crash and discussion about the homeless was really interesting. His book cover is a shoe. I think he winged it and bet his friend/mom it'd still be a best seller, seeing as he's kind of an odd guy.

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell is a collection of essays first published in The New Yorker. These vignettes are both entertaining and thought-provoking!

What I love most about Gladwell's writing is his approach to the subject. Gladwell is a gifted writer who is able to turn the ordinary (ketchup) into the extraordinary (an expansive essay as to why there is only one kind of ketchup). He is also able to translate the complex (Wall Street maneuvers) into the comprehensible (so that a layman is able to understand the transactions). In addition, Gladwell convincingly, elevates subjects such as infomercial king Ron Popeil, founder of Ronco and maker of the Showtime Rotisserie, into a "minor genius."

What the Dog Saw is a fun and fascinating celebration of the ordinary world as you've never seen it!

Hachette Audio; Unabridged edition (October 20, 2009)
Advance Review Copy Provided Courtesy of the Publisher.

This work is a compilation of Gladwell's favorite New Yorker articles. It may be redundant for those who have already read these stories, but the collection as a whole- for those of us who are late to the party- is a thought-provoking, well-written collection of interesting pieces in three broad categories. Fans of Gladwell's other books will not be disappointed, although New Yorker readers might see this collection as an unnecessary cash grab. I would recommend, but only to those who have not consumed these pieces in another format.

Excellent, easy to read collection of vignettes. I especially enjoyed the ones related to heuristics and other limitations of our psychology. I also enjoyed Gladwell's contrarian take on Enron (i.e., the disclosure paradigm), his equally provocative view on plagiarism (i.e., are boilerplate descriptions of complex concepts something you should have title to?) and finally, his discussion of the inherent risks of abstruse technology (i.e., failures and disruptions are inevitable, though are much preferable to abandoning the value they add to human progress and enjoyment). Overall, worth your time.

The book is a collection of "intellectual adventure stories", as the author calls them, spanning a wide variety of subjects, but many of which all of us deal with in everyday life: paradox of choice, dealing with uncertainty, prodigy vs. late bloomer, and the list goes on. Each of the stories is a highly engaging read and one that is guaranteed to make you re-examine your own beliefs and assumptions.

The first time I've picked up the book, I've read right through it - it's hard to stop. Since then, I have enjoyed going back to re-read specific stories several times only to discover more nuance and ideas to stimulate my own thinking and discussions with friends.

Last but not least, it should be noted that most of these stories have appeared in The New Yorker and you can also find them for free on authors own site. Having said that, it is a fantastic book and one well worth the investment.

At least one of the essays in this collection was expanded into a book that I'd already read, and one about the Dog Whisperer was reminiscent of Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, but most of this was new material for me. Now I'll always know the difference between panicking and choking. When you panic, you forget to think, and when you choke, your over-analyzing keeps you from relying on your instincts and muscle memory. Gladwell also has an unusual perspective on copyright infringement. I think he sees it more as flattery than theft. I loved his analysis of Enron's collapse. Apparently their leaders valued talent over anything else, promoting the brightest and giving them free rein to do whatever they liked. Successful companies, like Southwest Airlines and Procter & Gamble, emphasize organizational strengths.

I can’t say I learned anything new, or increased my knowledge in any areas. While I was mildly entertained reading about how Ron Popeil is a master salesman, or the ingredients of ketchup, I can’t imagine these stories will linger long in my memory.

The other essays either pick on easy targets (Enron, intelligence failures, failure of current homeless policy), parrot conventional wisdom, or try to defend the status quo. Rather than stimulating thought many of these essays actually do the opposite by pushing a narrative that may or may not be true..

I’m sure the chapter on Cesar Millan’s training methods helped promote his business, but why should a reader invest valuable time learning about him?

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

Gladwell always seems like a precocious seven year old who will corner you and tell you what he is excited about this week, and won't let you go until he has finished his story. His enthusiasm for whatever it is he is talking about is endearing (usually) and informative, always. In this series of articles previously published in "The New Yorker" you will be bound to find several topics that interest you.
His first story is about the pitchmen from Ronco, who manufacture, among other things, the Showtime Rotisserie. Gladwell is as much of a pitchman as Ron Popeil, so much so that after reading the piece, I ordered the rotisserie.
He also got me to place several books he alluded to on hold at my library as well as ordering one my library doesn't have.
This book is not as edgy as "The Tipping Point" nor as glib as "The Outliers" or "Blink". But it is fun, and I'm glad I read it.

What the Dog Saw and other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell is a collection of his essays written for New Yorker. I have read two other books by Mr.Gladwell (Blink and Outliers) and in my opinion this is the least impressive of the three books. Its a collection of essays, some interesting, some boring. I didn't find the first quarter of book interesting, partly because the essays deal with domains which I don't find interesting. Also, unlike his previous books where the message was directly nailed and communicated, the message was convoluted and indirect. It was hard to grasp the message in the first 2-3 essays. The remaining essays are interesting and deal with important topics. Also, he retains his style of making a direct point while giving relevant examples.

Overall, its worth reading, but probably not as exciting as Blink or Outliers.

This is as entertaining as the rest of Gladwell's books. I don't read his New Yorker articles, so these were all new to me! There are loose thematic joints to the selection, but Gladwell doesn't work to draw together any broadcloth conclusions, as with his other work. This is an anthology of essays from a great writer. If you're new to Gladwell, I recommend starting with another work, perhaps Blink. Enjoy!

"What the Dog Saw" is a reprint of over twenty of Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker Magazine articles. Each is about 15 pages long and easy and fun to read. I found nothing that tied the articles together but for the author himself and individual exceptionalism.
The articles are fascinating and educational.
Listed are a few of the titles...
Why Problems like Homelessness May Be Easier to Solve than Manage.
Mammography, Air Power, and Limits of Looking.
Why Some People Choke and Others Panic.
Each article is fascinating and has an interesting twist to it.
Great book for the beach or a plane ride.

After the third book by this Canadian, I think I finally broke the code and have now discovered what makes him so engaging: It is not just that his books are about the "hidden ordinary," but also because they are about ordinary people going about the business of survival in ordinary situations in a complex modern technological world. When you think of it, that in itself is pretty heady stuff?

Plus, there are no "hidden agendas" in Gladwell's work. He is not trying to "train us" to think politically or ideologically, as does almost everything else in American's hidden oppressive culture does. His mission is to share the wealth of what others have discovered and are discovering. There are "hidden treasures" just around the corner in everyone introduced in this and each of his other books. There is for instance, the tale of the inventor of the birth control pill; of the man who got rich selling rotisserie chickens; and of course my favorite, the art of dog training.

One example that I have always been curious about since I love dogs (and am about to adopt one) is the magic of training dogs as that technique is packaged in one short energetic Mexican-American named Caesar Millan. The logic of Caesar's technique always seemed just a bit too "pat" and simple to make sense to me, let alone be effective. Yet, as Gladwell explains so clearly here, dogs are hyper-sensitive observers of human beings. They treat us like we are giant two-legged dogs. As evolution has predisposed them to take cues from their pack leaders, they watch them for both intentional and unintentional signaling. It is a sophisticated survival tool.

With humans too, dogs watch all the hidden variables in the dance that goes on between our bodies, eyes, and our minds; that is to say our "presence:" Presence is about posture, demeanor, and our confidence. To dogs, everything is a matter of gravitas. Leaders have it, the rest of the pack does not, period. Its about that "leadership thing" inherent but hidden deeply in the human personality and spirit. According to the author, unlike chimps, dogs see this. They are students of human movement, especially human eye movement: They "get" human body language better even than humans themselves do.

Thus, in the best sense of the phrase, Gladwell too is like the best of the human canine breeds. He too "gets" all the hidden variables and with them all of the hidden meanings. He reads the meanings behind the human facade and gets to the pure essence of what is meaningful in both human and dog nature; but also in science, in business, in mathematics, and in both simple and complex processes.

It is something they try to teach you in the best graduate schools and in the best military academies. In each case they are all lessons that cannot be taught directly, but only through osmosis; thorough engaging the human at the spiritual level. No one does this better than Gladwell. Another five "Woofs" for this author who keeps on getting it, and getting it right.

My husband greatly enjoyed this book, but as an aerospace worker for 35 years he found it incredible that the blatant mis-spelling of an acronym in "The Picture Problem", written in 2006, could have made it into an anthology published in 2009. The article refers to the "LANTIM" navigation and targeting pod carried on the F-15E Strike Eagle during the first Iraq war (Desert Storm) and used for hunting Scud missile launchers. As a quick trip to Wikipedia will verify, the acronym is "LANTIRN", standing for "Low Altitude Navigation and Infra-Red Targeting for Night". Not quite as bad as the cable news announcer talking about the F-15Es taking off for their missions with their "thruster-boosters" blazing (proper US usage is "afterburners", UK prefers "reheat"), but Mr. Gladwell mustn't have much of a following among Eagle drivers (or lawn-dart pilots for that matter) if no one called the typo to his attention.
Anyway, he highly recommends the book, and has no argument with its observations or conclusions, especially with the underlying theme that all conclusions should always be suspect because the complexity of even a "simple" issue defies our ability to completely understand it.

I've been listening to Gladwell's podcast, Revisionist History. I've also read a few of his other books.
This book is a collection of his New Yorker columns.
Like every other Gladwell work (whether book, column, or podcast), the reader learns to THINK. The reader learns to learn.
As a reader and a lifelong learner, I place great value in this notion.

Like James Burke's great book (Connections) and TV series (Connections 1 (5 - Disc Set)), Malcolm Gladwell takes up subjects which are seemingly unrelated and shows how they intersect in surprising and enlightening ways. He does it with pit bulls and racial profiling, interviewing skills and teacher appraisals, nuclear accidents and corporate culture, and several more. The 22 essays all appeared originally in the New Yorker magazine, between 1996 and 2008, and are uniformly entertaining, surprising and thought-provoking. I thoroughly enjoyed Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking but this book is a whole other level of wide-ranging Burkeitude.

Malcolm Gladwell is a phenomenon. He has written four books and, at this moment, all of them are on the New York Times list of bestsellers, two in hardcover and two in softcover. Add them all up and you find that his books have spent 420 combined weeks on the list. That is, frankly, almost unbelievable. His most recent title is What the Dog Saw and it is quite a bit different from the other three. Where The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers dealt with a single theme and carried it from cover-to-cover, What the Dog Saw is a round-up of some of the best of the articles he has written for The New Yorker. It is about twice the length of his prior books but very much the same in the style of writing and in what makes Gladwell both so popular and so distinctive-his way of taking two or more topics that seem completely disconnected and then building a bridge between them.

The book has a little bit of internal structure in the way it has been divided into three parts. The first part focuses on minor geniuses, not world-changers like Winston Churchill but figures like Ron Popeil who has made a lesser mark but a mark nonetheless. The second part looks at theories, of ways of organizing experience. Here we are challenged about how to think about homelessness or a disaster like that of the space shuttle Challenger. The final part comments on predictions and our ability to make judgments about people-their intelligence, their talent, their future.

Having finished What the Dog Saw, I've now read all of Gladwell's books. I think I would rate this one at the back of the pack. It's not that there is anything inherently wrong with it, but more that Gladwell seems to be at his best when writing at greater length, when going into greater detail. Also, 400 pages of his writing, hopping as he does from topic-to-topic, proves to be just a little bit too much, at least to this reader. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, but found it just a little bit too long by the end. I might recommend reading it in smaller portions rather than straight-through as I did.

One thing about Gladwell's writing came into clear focus as I read chapter after chapter, article after article. It is his reliance on statistics and studies, often ones that are rather insignificant. Very often he relies on rather niche studies or psychological experiments to carry along his arguments. And often I wonder if these studies are significant enough that they should be used in such a way. I do believe there is value to be found in studies and statistics, but the fact is that if we look hard enough we can find something, somewhere that will help prove what we are trying to say. While Gladwell does have a team of fact-checkers following along behind him, I still do wonder at just how valuable all these experiments and studies and statistics really are.

For Gladwell fans, there is really no question: add this to your collection. For those who have never read any of his works, this might be a good introduction. Then again, I would probably be more inclined to hand someone The Tipping Point which is, I'm convinced, a better book.

Gladwell is an edge pusher. He loves to force us to think, even when we want answers without putting much elbow grease into ideas.
This is like a spark plug for the mind. You don't necessarily have to enjoy every essay, it's a pick and choose kind of book. This is not about agreeing or disagreeing, it's more about something we do less and less of these days, it's about thinking.
This is a great example of the way today's fast paced world works; we flit and stop only to flit again. Thus you can go from thinking about Enron to Dog Whispering, back to Enron if you choose, and then to mammograms.
What keeps the mind active and engaged is to say "I never thought of it that way before". The hope is that this will then activate some of one's own creative thinking. It did for me.
Sylvia Lafair, author, "Don't Bring It to Work"

During summer 2002, I was taking a long international flight from Mumbai to Frankfurt. This time I realized that I had forgotten to carry some good book to read during the eight hour flight. With just a few minutes left to board, I rushed to the nearest book shop at the airport, and picked up an interesting title with an even more attractive cover picture: "The Tipping Point". This book transformed the eight hours of flying into an exciting and interesting journey, page after page.

I became an instant fan of Malcolm Gladwell. His unique perspective of looking at things very differently, demystifying complexity and the ability to keep us absorbed in a range of topics is exemplary.

His subsequent two books, `Blink" and "Outliers" compete with each other and also the first. If I were to recommend only one book amongst these three to a very good friend, I would go to the book shop and buy all the three and gift them all to him.

When I heard the publication of "What the dog saw", from the store.com, I was really excited and wasted no time in grabbing a copy.

Here are my comments:

The first few pages in Preface are inviting, in typical Malcolm Gladwell style. Moving over to Chapter 1, "The Pitchman", I looked at the cover page again to confirm that I am reading the right book. Chapter 2 "The Ketchup Conundrum" doesn't taste very good to me, an Indian citizen, who really does not understand the difference between ketchup and mustard. Given a choice, I would avoid both and be content with freshly made "Chutney" at home. My point is that when a chapter becomes very specific to a particular culture or country, it fails to impress global readers, who may not appreciate the context. I faced the same difficulty in appreciating many more chapters. Each chapter is an essay on a chosen topic and there are many essays that perhaps only a US citizen will appreciate.

Still, Malcolm Gladwell is at his best in many of the essays that I could fully comprehend and appreciate. `Blowing Up" on Nassim Taleb"s ability to see a "Black Swan" and convert that into a huge investment opportunity is one. "Connecting the Dots" on linking up information on Intelligence is another.

I found the "Picture Problem" to be an excellent essay. Mammography, the American failure to neutralize the German capability to manufacture bearings at Schweinfurt in the second world war, and even several decades later the American Air Force's fiasco in eliminating the Iraqi Scud launches in the first gulf war is fascinating - Malcolm Gladwell at top gear. Pictures, it appears, deceive and there is more in reality than what they reveal.

Despite the nuggets of excellence, there seems to be lack of continuity and theme as found in Malcolm Gladwell's earlier three books.

To by best friend, I would still go ahead and gift the first there books from this brilliant author.

There seems to have been a bit of a backlash against Malcolm Gladwell during the last year, but this book, a collection of his New Yorker pieces, reminds us why he achieved such prominence to begin with. Gladwell's particular talent is to take a subject which might seem initially to be irredeemably dull and to poke at it from all sides until he locates the particular angle which will allow him to tell a story, simultaneously entertaining and edifying his readers. There's a little more to it than that, of course: in particular, a seemingly unbounded curiosity about why the world is the way it is, and the skill to craft narratives that engage the general reader without being either boring or condescending. One of the factors which contributes greatly to his success is an almost uncanny ability to explain technically complicated material in an accessible manner - he makes this seem so effortless that I think people have begun to take this aspect of his work for granted. I think it's anything but effortless, that it takes hard work every time and he is one of only a handful of writers to pull it off regularly. You may find yourself disagreeing with something that Gladwell is telling you, but you generally won't have too much difficulty figuring it out.

Gladwell groups the essays in this book into three broad categories:

Part 1: Obsessives, pioneers, and other varieties of minor genius
Part 2: Theories, predictions, and diagnoses
Part 3: Personality, character, and intelligence

In the first part, which includes profiles of Ron Popeil (the infomercial king), Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer), Nassim Taleb (contrarian investor and author of "Fooled by Randomness"), as well as chapters on ketchup, hair coloring, and the history of the contraceptive pill, Gladwell sticks closest to his source material, avoiding the kind of premature generalization that is his Achilles heel. He isn't always successful in doing so in the remaining parts so that, while his lucid common sense on the topics of mammography, plagiarism, homelessness, and criminal profiling is a breath of fresh air, his arguments about organizational culture (the Enron debacle, the Challenger explosion) and predictors of individual performance (why some people choke and others panic, are smart people overrated?) are not entirely persuasive.

Nonetheless, this is a fine collection. Gladwell on a bad day still manages to eclipse most other non-fiction writers out there.

This collection of New Yorker articles from Malcolm Gladwell is perhaps the least noteworthy of all his books, and yet it's another brilliant win from one of my favorite authors. I burned right through it. With Gladwell, I rarely preview what topic he's written about. I'm happy to sit back and follow his lead.

My favorite essays were The Pitchman, The Ketchup Conundrum, Blowing Up, John Rock's Error, Open Secrets, Million-Dollar Murray, The Art of Failure, Blowup and Late Bloomers.

"What the dog saw" is a collection of different stories that the author has previously written in the New yorker. I have never read the New yorker and so for him to compile all these articles into a book helps those who do not subscribe the New yorker. This book cast a glimpse about how ordinary people uses their talents to benefit society as a whole. The stories in this book forces the reader to cogitate the minuscule things that change the dynamics of our society. I love the author's authenticity to use corroboration evidence to support his ideas. Mr. Gladwell has the aptitude to unpack complexity of ideas to simple ones for even the neophyte to understand. If you are a person who longs for comity in our society, read this book and you will become an active participate in changing this country for the better.

I love Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Outliers. They're outstanding, compelling works. It speaks to how deeply ingrained those works are in the American consciousness to note how easily people inflect their conversations with the terms 'tipping point' and 'outlier'. I'm party to that and I hear it quite a bit from others. And though Gladwell isn't anyone's idea of a narrator from Central Casting, his quirky, breathless, enthusiastic inhabiting of his own words makes the audio version a better option for the complete Gladwellian experience.

I enjoyed this compilation of his works from The New Yorker, but I'm not going to press it into people's hands like I do Outliers and Tipping Point. I liked some of the pieces, got quickly bored with some of the others. If you don't cotton to the subject of a particular piece, you're in for a tough slog because Gladwell's "delightful side excursions" (to quote one of the professional reviewers here) - while thrilling and exciting on subjects you like - can be akin to Chinese water torture on subjects you don't. So, while I listened intently on the Cezanne/Picasso piece and the Cesar Milan piece (just picking examples from my head), I used the 'next track' button on a couple of others. [I did listen to all but two of pieces in their entirety.]

Fans of Malcolm Gladwell owe to themselves to buy this book. Those new to Gladwell should start with Outliers or Tipping Point.

I really hate the "collection of essays" books. They always seem disjointed and a way to re-profit on something already written.

This may be the first one I've actually enjoyed. Why? Because the articles are cohesive. They all have the same premise: seeing things from someone else's perspective. Almost every article will make you say "wow, I've never thought about it that way." Whether it is reading about why we only have one kind of ketchup (but hundreds of mustards), or why most job interviews are ineffective, this book delves into some of the aspects of daily life we just take for granted.

A quick and easy read, this is recommended for anyone with an inquisitive mind.

This was the first time that I read anything by this author and it was very interesting. His writing style is reader friendly and he presents his concepts in an easy to understand format. I like his way of looking at issues and the book had quite a few articles so there was a wide presentation of concepts. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

In "The Ketchup Conundrum" essay of this book, Malcom Gladwell deconstructs ketchup in an attempt to fathom why its composition--unlike that of its mustard condiment counterpart--has stayed the same the throughout the years. The secret behind ketchup's success rests in its precise combination of ingredients which together hit all of the "primal buttons" of the tongue, producing a high amplitude, full sensory experience.

Malcom Gladwell's writing in _What the Dog Saw_produces the literary equivalent of the ketchup experience. Each of his individual delicious words gracefully complements and feeds off each other, inevitably resulting in a completely satisfying literary creation that hits all of the right buttons. His ability to seamlessly mix together seemingly disparate ideas and concepts is nothing short of genius, and his talent for transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary is beyond words. Whether he's investigating the uncanny success of infomercial king Ron Popeil, proposing why the homelessness issue may be easier to solve than to manage, telling the story of postwar America through hair dye, or showing how the Enron scandal was actually a case of too much information, Gladwell delivers an incredibly satisfying literary masterpiece. Once again, Gladwell's journey through the familiar becomes a surprising and unforgettable voyage.

Malcolm Gladwell writes in an astonishingly engrossing style about a number of disparate subjects, though somewhere there is a unifying thread - which is not the '3 parts' logic of the book and also nothing else which I could understand - probably it is simply the gift to see events from a non-conformist perspectiv.
Thus he explains why it might be so difficult to create a new Ketchup taste, why 9/11 might not have been the catastrophic intelligence failure which it is always claimed to be and why the pill in its current common usage might be used incorrectly. (Though frankly speaking, regarding 9/11 I have my doubts. Gladwell argues that either one can have one agency bringing all information together into one single, but possibly flawed, recommendation or to have several agencies which bring divergent views and therefore leave room for an executive decision. Yet though there are instances when it might be good to have several opinions, I prefer the engineers of my cars brakes to agree on some basics like 2+2=4 rather than leaving this as an unresolved matter).
Yet he is clearly right that our notions of plagiarism have clearly gone overboard. And deep inside I always have suspected that the famed FBI profilers are just a bunch of conceited para-psychologists, using the language of professional astrologers ('If the murderers hair is not black than it might be either brown or blond').
What a refreshing book!

Sometimes the obvious is not that evident and the hidden is not buried after all. The supremacy to think beyond the boundaries of obvious does not come easy - rather it is gifted. Gifted to those who seek to expand the confines.

You must have used ketchup. Some people can’t eat food without it. But have you ever ‘thought’ about it? Why it is so universally eminent and quintessential to fast food? Is it because of the taste or color or is there something else. And Why does it tastes same almost everywhere. The answers let alone, even the questions may have never come across your mind.

But there is a man who thought about these. His name is Malcolm Gladwell. He has produced the implausible tale of the ketchup in his book ‘What The Dog Saw and Other Adventures’. The book is a master piece. It touches ordinary mind-set and objects just to provide a view that is dissimilar and stimulating. He tells the story of a pitchman, Ron Popeil and sat down with him as he pitched the oven. He talked with a person who can calm the dog with the movement of his eyeball. He tells the story of famous entrepreneurs, scientists and organization in association with their blunders and debacles. His untold stories are sometimes aggressive but mind blowing. You might not agree to all view points (I do not) but it is still a book worth reading.

let me point out a few negatives also. Malcolm Gladwell writings need facts - it’s his job and there is nothing wrong in it. However, at certain times, there are too much facts and reader gets lost in all the details and looses sight of the subject at hand. This becomes the case esp. when reader is not knowledgeable about the subject for e.g. ‘options trading’(mentioned in one of his articles).

The book is arranged into series of articles, that were published in New york Times (written by Malcolm Gladwell). The topics are quite wide ranging and that makes it a book for everyone

Malcolm Gladwell is a captivating author. If you have read The Tipping Point or Blink then you already know this. Reading Gladwell's new book What the Dog Saw seemed like a no-brainier to me.

First of all, What the Dog Saw isn't really a book. It's a compilation of Gladwell's articles from The New Yorker magazine. All of these articles can be found on Gladwell's website ([...]). If I knew this simple fact, I would have picked up Gladwell's book Outliers instead.

With that aside, What the Dog Saw is still an interesting read, even though some articles were published back in 2000 and feel out of date. Gladwell's stories are each unique and fascinating in their own right. My personal favorites include the subjects of Enron, mammograms, and the Dog Whisperer (what the title is based on). Because so many topics are covered, What the Dog Saw makes for great conversation and a chance to show off your knowledge.

Gladwell is a great writer, but What the Dog Saw is not comparable with his other books because it is simply not a complete "book." Although I still look forward to reading Outliers, I am slightly disappointed with What the Dog Saw. But, I picked up a relatively cheap paperback version, so I can't really complain.

7.5/10 -> 4/5

What can I say? Gladwell is one of the most poignant and yet unassumingly controversial writers of our generation. He has this gift of making the most critical issues facing our modern world seem like simple problems that can be examined and proven preventable or at least not as easily encapsulated as we think they might be. He eloquently asks the simple questions that could lead to the complex solutions that our society seeks out so laboriously through theories, generalizations, and unfounded assumptions.

Perhaps the complexities of Gladwell's arguments actually reside in the exquisitely obvious truths that are buried beneath the complex methodologies we think we need to construct in order to feel validated
.
Gladwell's works exhibit the same cohesive style of setting the scene and then deconstructing the key characters' thought processes and perspectives before, during, and after the discussed events. Although this may appear to be formulaic the reader never tires of it. Perhaps its Gladwell's unique intellectual curiosity and his ability to pull patterns from seemingly unrelated themes that compel the reader to follow. Either way, this reader remains enthralled and eager to read his next work.

I have yet to read anything by Gladwell that I do not find exciting; he has a fresh perception on topics I would never have been curious about, until he applies that topic, often seemingly frivolous, to something that is very important to me. An example is hair color advertising and what it tells us about the progression of women's rights. These are all short pieces previously published in The New Yorker, so if you have religiously read that magazine for years, don't buy it. However, I do get the magazine and had not read 75% of these pieces. (OK, I admit it, in a bad week I only read the cartoons.) As always, his writing is crisp and accessible. I don't find myself laboring over interpretation or having to reread a passage to get what he meant or to untangle dense prose. When I have double checked some of his data I've found it scrupulously correct. He is incredibly even handed in the handling every topic. Most important, Gladwell's books are just a lot of fun to read. Also, I am finding these short pieces, all about 25 pages, are easier to keep track of around the holidays than a complete book read in only bits and pieces. This would be a great present for any thoughtful person on your list, as would any of his other 3 books.

I just finished What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, and for the first time I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps I've been spoiled by his previous books Tipping Point and Outliers, but this one just didn't do it for me. I think the main problem was that unlike those two books, this one didn't have a central hypothesis or theme. It was just a collection of Gladwells columns that had a kind of "half-hearted" thematic structure imposed on them ex post facto.

Don't get me wrong, the writing is good and most of the columns, taken by themselves, are interesting, but at the end of the day, I was looking for something better, some flash of insight and genius such as those provided by Gladwell's other books.

I have enjoyed almost everything I have ready by Malcolm Gladwell. I admit to having checked this one out from the library, after a long waitlist. It was worth it.

But I will admit that this is a collection of article previously published in the New Yorker. If you read the magazine regularly, you have probably seen at least some of these. Also, last time I checked, the articles were also available on Gladwell's website. Unless you really have to have the paper book in your hands, you may want to pass on buying this one (but do read it).

Oh, and as some have mentioned, not every article is of interest to all, but overall, I think it is worth a 4 star.

An interesting collection of articles by Gladwell. I didn't find these as engaging as his previous works of The Tipping Point and Blink however they are still an interesting and thought provoking read.

The book is very easy to read and being composed of a number of articles provides more variety than perhaps a single topic like Gladwell's previous books. If you already read his articles in the New Yorker magazine then all this book can probably offer is a summary of what appear to be the most though provoking stories.

Overall, if you are a fan of Gladwell's work then this book will certainly appeal. However, if you are looking for something at the same level of the Tipping Point and Blink then you maybe disappointed.

The first two or three essays are examples of how _not_ to tell a story--no story arc, abrupt shifts to dull tangents, meandering thoughts. Later articles are better, though marred by inaccuracies when Gladwell encounters topics about which he clearly knows nothing. For example, on pg. 71 he writes "igon value"(!), which should be "eigenvalue"; see a good analysis if this error at [...].

His article on space shuttle disasters is a borderline literary crime, as if Edward Tufte and Richard Feynman haven't tackled this subject better and more accurately (Chapter 2 of Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative, and Appendix F of What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character, respectively). Gladwell's flawed position is, "Oh well, disasters are inevitable, we can't avoid them"; the saving grace is that he advocates for unmanned scientific space flights, as both better science and less dangerous for humans.

On the plus side, the article "John Rock's Error" convincingly makes the case for menstruation being harmful to women's health (counter to prevailing medical intervention of unnecessarily regulating and prolonging menstruation in women). His 2 chapters on dogs are educational, as is the revelation that credentials have zero correlation with teaching ability.

In short: enjoy selectively, and don't believe everything you read.

This collection of Gladwell's favorite New Yorker pieces is consistently fascinating, offering fresh takes on such topics as the danger of pitbulls, the absence of designer ketchups, the triumph of pitchman Ron Popeil, the secret, central role of hair dye in modern society, and the unexpected lessons of Enron.

We're in the midst of a backlash of sorts against Gladwell, who is accused of following a formula and skating over complex topics. In fairness, there is a certain sameness in some of the stories, particularly in the middle section which focuses on the science and possible futility of extracting intelligence from complex systems. But that doesn't make any of the individual pieces any less fascinating.

If you're looking for a definitive analysis of any particular subject, I suspect Gladwell himself might direct you elsewhere. But that's not the purpose served by his compulsively readable books, including What the Dog Saw. I see his books as vehicles for making you look at something in a new way, and challenging conventional wisdom. It's not critical that you agree or disagree with his often contrarian conclusions in order to enjoy the books. You can simply appreciate them for the fresh perspectives they offer.

This book is comprised of many of the articles (and or the extensions to articles) from his years as a writer for various newspapers and magazines. Many of these are things that you can easily see what inspired his other published works, others are simply interesting concepts but probably wouldn't warrant a full publication on it's own. All of these various subjects are written in typical Gladwell styling that often pull your interests and offer thought provoking conclusions. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Gladwell is famous for taking social studies and turn them into interesting stories with twists and turns. This is a different book from "tipping point" or "blink". It's a collection of stories from his New Yorker column. I have heard some of the studies but still find Gladwell's storing telling engaging. If you sit down and read all his books back to back, I can imagine you'll have some criticism about this particular one such as shown in earlier reviews (e.g., lack of a central theme). Personally, I felt that I was pretty satisfied with the book. It may not be the most brilliant book I read, but is pretty decent for entertainment and some reflection over a cup of tea. If you are a casual reader like me, I think you'll like this book.

I did not read any of the author's previous books so I didn't have any expectations for this one. His style of writing surely is entertaining but this book is weak on content. Chapter 1 is decent enough but it goes downhill after that.

My main complaint is that the "articles" never seem to go anywhere; often I would finish one and think "ok...then what?". I believe that most other reviews with low scores echo my thoughts on the book and do a better job at explaining why.

I will definitely check Gladwell's other works; as for this one, just not worth the money or time.

Gladwell's subject matter is intentionally, wildly far flung. In addition, one story will go micro and the next will go macro. He revels in the swing. Like a provocative comedian, Gladwell chooses familiar rocks and then breaks them open for the pay off. He exposes the human motivations and the surrounding group dynamics that contribute to any number of calamities. As a premier American Social Scientist, Gladwell is many things; part intuitive savant, part psychologist and sociologist and part investigative interrogator. Above all these gifts, Gladwell is an excellent story teller. He often tackles huge and complex topics with simple unflappable logic. Gladwell's patented "reveal" is his franchise trademark. First he presents an interesting dynamic or problem. He then presents a second, seemingly unrelated problem. Gladwell toggles between the two stories and rolls them out on two long converging lines, logically inching them forward, step-by-step. At the end of each essay, there is a single resolve with an implicit social commentary, (`... the teacher's have an NFL quarterback problem"). He often concedes that knowing the logical answer won't necessarily change the next inevitable outcome. So rest assured, due to our own human nature, curious Mr. Gladwell will never run short of flamboyant material.

An intriguing and entertaining compilation of Mr. Gladwell's unique and contrarian perspective on commonly held beliefs. Some of the refutations have been written about by others, e.g. test scores are poor predictors of performance, but what is a viable substitute? And more importantly, what does the fox say?

Malcolm is a good author his book tipping point really impressed me and had a big impact on my way of thinking but this book titled "What the dog saw" is a complete waste of time I did not complete reading the book I am confused I do not know what to do with it knowing that not many people would enjoy reading such a book. The title is not very good and the content is not any better. Please do not buy this book there are better things to do in life.

A collection of Gladwell's New Yorker stories, so this was a little choppy and the Preface gave away the gist of most of the stories. I enjoyed the one about Nassim Taleb the author of The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness - I probably should read those. I had never heard of using Laban Movement Analysis to make sense of movement - maybe I would be a better hockey player if I did this. I liked Philip Manganos approach to homelessness - "Our intent is to take homeless policy from the old idea of funding programs that serve homeless people endlessly and invest in results that actually end homelessness."

While I've read all of Gladwell's earlier works and found them very interesting and entertaining, this collection of already published articles just didn't hold my interest. Part of the reason was the shifting in the subject matter in the various stories, but I think that that the real reason was probably due to the limitations set on him from the magazine, likely both in terms of word count and direction of the articles. With the standalone books, Gladwell would have had more freedom to follow the stories where they lead without worrying about fitting in a magazine article, and not being able to do so with these articles clearly causes this work to be his least inspired to date as a whole.

By comparison, his previous three books are much more insightful and well written than this collection of his New Yorker articles, of which many outstanding ideas had been consummated in those books. On the other hand, I must congratulate Gladwell that he had been improving his writing and story telling skill brilliantly over the years. Pity that I realized so with my finding some chapters in it quite boring indeed. In short, I strongly suggest potential readers to try this in a bookstore before they make a purchase. You may thank me for that.

Malcolm Gladwell has written three of my favorite non-fiction books: THE TIPPING
POINT, BLINK and OUTLIERS . . . I'll now add his latest, WHAT THE DOG SAW,
to that list.

This is actually a collection of 19 of his essays from THE NEW YORKER magazine,dating back to 1996 . . . they cover an eclectic range of subjects and personalities,
and each accomplishes exactly what the author says in his preface:

* 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's head.

It was almost as if I was personally meeting such notables as Ron Popeil, the
legendary pitchman for numerous kitchen products . . . I got to better
understand his success when I heard him say:

* I know how to ask for the money. And that's the whole business. . . . [Gladwell
then goes on to comment] When Michael Jordan pitches a product, he is the
star. When Ron Popeil pitches a product, the product is the star

WHAT THE DOG SAW also got me thinking about such other topics as why
the screenings for cancer are often misleading:

* We simply don't trust our tactile sense as much as we trust our visual
sense,

In addition, the book looked at education and made this observation:

* Your child is actually better off in a bad school with an excellent teacher
than in an excellent school with a bad teacher.

I had the pleasure of listening to a CD version of the above . . . Gladwell was
the narrator, and he did an excellent job.

What the Dog Saw is what critics have been calling Gladwell's books for years 'a collection of New Yorker articles' and every authors dream: Becoming famous enough to publish old work in a collection that perhaps wouldn't haven't have made best-sellerdom otherwise.

Not to criticise this book. It is an excellent collection of insightful articles ranging from medical diagnosis to job interview techniques. There is no real correhence to the articles, this book is merely a collection of non-fiction articles, so if you are looking for a central thesis look to Gladwell's earlier works.

The articles of female reproductive health and mammography are actually frightening, and the pieces on criminal profiling, and plagerism are absolute must reads. I recommend reading over several sittings as after a while the articles start to blend, and all have a similar Gladwell style to them (particularly the way he describes individuals).

What the Dog Saw is required reading for anyone who likes to see a little deeper into the world and likes confront issues in original ways. In a piece of homelessness Gladwell brings up an interesting philosophical argument around providing the destitue with resources the rest of us have to work for (effectively saying the priority is either solving the problem, or following an abstract morality of deserving) which I would be interesting in hearing more about from Gladwell.

Can't wait for the next one.

Some reviewers complain that this book is really just a collection of articles -- which I agree with -- but I would argue that that's actually something good about the book (and Gladwell's books in general). I thought most of the book presented really interesting thoughts/stories, with the exception of about 25% of it which I wasn't as enthralled with (for example, I didn't find the first 50 pages or so with Ron Popeil, etc to be that interesting although I understand the point the author was trying to make). Overall definitely worth reading though. The only problem with this author's books is that I tend to read them too fast.

What the Dog Saw is more like a greatest hits of Gladwell's last 3 books. And while there is nothing inherently wrong with that, this being the premise of the book I felt a little cheated. I read this book while I was in Army AIT training. I was so happy to see that Gladwell had a new book out and being away from home I snapped it up as fast as I could without reading any of the book in the store. I have already read a majority of these stories in his articles and in Outliers, Blink, and the Tipping Point. All great Books. So, if you missed reading any of this last 3 books, pick this one up and you'll be updated on Gladwell's writings. Gladwell is an great observer of human social behavior and he has a knack of telling you his observations and studies. Gladwell is as sharp as a tack and has great wit; I was just hoping for newer material.

I read Gladwell's "Blink" and "Outliers" and wasn't particularly impressed. They were good, in my opinion, but not great. I have read a few of his articles in The New Yorker and enjoyed them.

This is a collection of 22 of his articles from The New Yorker.

It is wide-ranging, running from the dominance of one ketchup brand to a unique perspective on the inventor of the birth control pill to the "perils of too much information", plagiarism and criminal profiling.

The writing is crisp and authoritative. Gladwell, in my opinion, handles the short form article much more competently than he did the chapters in "Blink".

This is not a deep book: it's a fun book, illuminating diverse corners of life and knowledge.

Overall, a delight for enjoyable leisure time reading.

Jerry

I love Malcolm Gladwell's books and this was no exception. It's a collection of lengthy essays published over the last decade or so, which he neatly ties together into three related themes that give the book a cohesive feeling, despite its otherwise random topics. And, each of those topics are, like those of his other books, incredibly interesting and eye-opening! I can't say I took too much away from this book in the same way I did from "Blink" or "Outliers", but I still thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to all.

Most of the essays, reprinted from The New Yorker Magazine, were a thought-provoking interesting read. I especially enjoyed the biographical sketch of inventor Ron Popeil, the piece about why their is no dijon ketchup, the investment strategy of Nassim Taleb, the Enron debacle and several others. All in all, a good read. In addition, there are generously 22 essays in this collection and there is simply no way the reader is going to like them all. But they are all worthy of inclusion in the magazine, so they are all at least readable, and some are downright fascinating.

This book made me think and it did so without stressing my brain. Malcolm has a very calm and simplistic way of considering matters that helps you to understand why someone would do something in a certain way. He even used controversial issues that at the time and probably even now could cause heated debate among those who were affected. I dare say he could persuade you to root for the underdog even if you weren't that type. I learned a lot about subjects that I may not have even explored before. He never lost my interest. Well worth reading.

I simply loved it. Such everyday subjects as ketchup or selling a better grill, fascinated me, since it deals with our very humane nature. From a different perspective, things are not the same; post hoc intelligence shows things would've been predicted, but the truth is there are many other factors we oversee once the events occur.
What the dog saw? Loved the description about Millan, "el perrero". Difference between panicking and chocking? Great, when you deal with training people and trying to make them give their best.
I devoured it. I recommend it very much; it's and ejoyable, non pretentious book.

Great reading.

I've read almost every issue of The New Yorker for years and find it very informative and entertaining. Perhaps individually, each of these articles provides a light couple of minutes of reading within the magazine. Approached as a collection in a single publication, however, I found myself basically - well, rather bored. Taken as a whole, the pieces are random, usually end abruptly and don't contain any new material.
I really don't understand what there is to get excited about here. The only bright spot for me is that I got the paperback at a free book exchange!

I have finally read all of Gladwell's books and I remain a fan. These are a far reaching collection of New Yorker articles written as ever in his quixotic style. I was reading the one the analyzed the "choke" of professional athletes ( Golf and tennis) while the Vancouver Canucks were 'choking" in round one of the hockey playoffs vs the Chicago Blackhawks. The topic was completely relevant and I did not hold out that much hope that they could rise above it. Like all his books this one is very hard to put down.

How do we even go about understanding that publishing and cultural phenomenon that is Malcolm Gladwell, who has made millions by writing in sometimes eloquent and compelling, but mainly clear and prosaic language the bleeding obvious. He is not as brilliant as Michael Lewis, who sometimes has profound and important things to say -- read "Liar's Poker" to understand why Wall Street ultimately had to implode, and read "Moneyball" to understand how to properly manage and do business in this world. But Gladwell comes across as someone who's nice and decent and humble, and if someone had to succeed in publishing most people would choose him over the arrogant and neurotic depressives in the publishing world.

Gladwell's decency is so obvious in his prose. He doesn't challenge, and he doesn't condescend. He's just looking for the truth, even if he may not possess neither the logical reasoning skills nor the experience required to understand the truth. There are many holes in his arguments, and his arguments will either be entirely obvious or flawed, but flawed in a way that caters to the prejudices of the Upper East Side liberal crowd that control publishing. We do not expect Gladwell to tell us something we don't know or that outrageously challenges our sense of things -- rather, he just adds a new insight or example that already confirms our understanding of things -- that there are problems in this world, but they can be fixed, and if they can't the world is still a good righteous place to live in. There is no darkness and no depth in Gladwell's writings -- just a lot of cotton candy and floss.

"Outliers" is really Gladwell's best book, and the book he'll be remembered for, if at all. "What the Dog Saw" is a collection of his New Yorker articles that demonstrate how superficial and lame his reporting, thinking, and writing truly are.

This was probably the Gladwell book I was least excited to read. In fact, it sat on my shelf for a good while before I even took a peak. I truly enjoyed Outliers and was thinking that a collection wasn't going to match up well with a book that had an overall thesis. As it turns out, I like this book just as much. There are a couple of misses, like the one about ketchup, but most of the book is entertaining, engaging, and revealing. I am so envious of Gladwell. He simply wanders the earth, finds things he is curious about, and gets paid to research and write about them. This is a fun read and the best part is that just because you don't like one chapter, doesn't mean you won't like the next!

I listened to the audiobook and I think that was a good idea. First off, Gladwell has a great vocal quality that can both present information in a neutral tone (avoiding the problem of biasing the reader straight from the start) but is also very animated and really helps bring the information alive. Although the words themselves are what is important, without the additional presentational quality of the author I feel this book may come off as dry or too factual (as opposed to the stated purpose of providing an alternative idea). He takes you along the entire thought process behind the theories and ideas he is writing about so that you aren't simply confronted with the "solution" but get an idea of each step taken to arrive at that conclusion.

Some of the endings are blunt, which may work well for The New Yorker (where the articles were sourced from) but do seem a bit abrupt for a collection of stories in a book. Gladwell is fantastic about bringing each story around full circle and creating a through-line which, rather than sounding like a college paper (as these articles could have been doomed in another author's hands), provide a rich plot which happens to provide valuable information in the mean time. You will learn something even if you don't mean to and in the context of this book that is a positive factor.

All in all this book deserves your attention (it sure managed to capture mine).

See the full review at: [...]

Malcolm Gladwell has assembled a collection of his articles from The New Yorker into a new book titled, What the Dog Saw. Although I had read most of these articles when they were first published, they still felt fresh as I re-read them. Gladwell's writing style is always interesting and compelling, and his approach is often creative and unusual. The result is an enjoyable reading experience, especially for those readers who prefer short doses of reading on a variety of topics.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

Malcolm Gladwell is a good writer
unfortunately this book is positively annoying for the following reasons

Its convoluted and trite

he may have done his homework in relation to most of the articles
but they are generally a pastiche of real analysis

I would not recommended this book and I have read his other works

David and Goliath is much more cohesive

So it begs the question , why such a famous commentator cobbles together a book that is basically tedious

I would say he at the point of writing this particular book he was just full of himself

Bit of shame really

An eclectic mix of articles originally published in The New Yorker. Only skimmed through a couple of stories (Enron and mammography/military weaponry). The chapters on ketchup, which I knew nothing about, and evaluating teaching practices, which I know a lot about, were my favorites. This mix of familiar and unfamiliar topics made for some interesting reading.

"What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures" is a collection of articles to begin with. This makes it unnecessary for the reader to start from the beginning and follow the text to the end, but in my case, it was impossible not to do exactly that. Each article is a compelling story magnificently told. In fact, the storytelling is so good that I just couldn't get enough of it. In the end one reads articles one after another going deeper and deeper into the Gladwellian world of amazing facts and fantastic analysis where even sheer statistics seem delightful to learn about.

There are people who criticize Gladwell for the improper use of academic works. Knowing this while reading, I paid attention to this and what I think is that maybe it's us who hold wrong ideas about the use of academic papers. Author of this book has his own way of doing it and it is worth examining.

To quote the author: "I've called these pieces adventures, because that's what they are intended to be. Enjoy yourself." Each of these pieces certainly qualifies for being a fantastic adventure, but the book as a whole too, is a mind-blowing experience. And I have certainly enjoyed myself.

If you have a curious mind that likes to wonder about the origins and stories of things as obscure as tomato ketchup, Malcolm Gladwell's articles will (partly) sate your curiousity. This is a brilliant collection of his New Yorker articles, and Malcolm is especially good at dovetailing research with story, making each piece enlightening and intriguing. It makes you want to know more.

I particularly liked his chapter on Late Bloomers, and the research findings here ties in very nicely with his book "Outliers" where he argues that success is more often than not a congruence of factors, and not just a few. In Late Bloomers, Malcolm argues that those whose talents are recognised late in life often owe it to generous and supportive patrons who encourage their work and who believe in them when the rest of the world would happily have ignored them.

The chapter on why there isn't much variety of tomato ketchup is also excellent, and some of the insights he shares into the human mind (and our emotions) are refreshing views.

This is a wondeful collection of essays. Highly recommended even for those who normally stay away from non-fiction.

I usually don't go in for essays or short stories. But this book comes together and makes a whole. I enjoyed the book. Gladwell often takes a position opposite the general thought on a given topic, then explores the topic and illuminates it, often teasing out thoughts and information that are counter-intuitive. I am not always sold on his position, but I always enjoy his work.

What the Dog Saw (Audio) by Malcolm Gladwell
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: 3/5

What the dog saw tells some interesting stories and gives details about things that you never thought about, and probably never wanted to know. It was entertaining but a little silly when you get right down to it. I mean, do I really want to know the in depth process for making the perfect tomato sauce? No, not really.

It was a bit hard to listen to this for more than 45 minutes at a time, and I would recommend listening to one "story" at a time so that you don't get overwhelmed.

The writing was clear but not flowery or over descriptive, and it was read by the author who did a great job, but read without much enthusiasm or inflection, making it difficult to listen to for too long.

Recommendation: Ages 12+. I would think that the people who would enjoy this most would be Journalists, History lovers, or anyone on a long car ride.

What a relief to have Gladwell back! Not that he went anywhere, but he is my favorite essayist since EB White (sedaris has to be excepted from this statement; he is so much more than an essayist), and recently with "Outliers," and to some extent with "Blink," it just felt that he was stretching what should have remained an essay into more than it should have been.

Now, with this collection of essays, he's right back where he's dependably brilliant.

Where to start when you get this book? You can start at the beginning, or anywhere that suits you. Which makes it a perfect read for a busy season. I started with the "title track" about the dog whisperer, jumped over to the essay about the Black Swan fellow (Taleb), then on to the poignant sketch regarding plagiarism. All great, as were the rest.

"What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures" is a collection of essays that Malcolm Gladwell wrote for The New Yorker Magazine. As was the case in the two other Gladwell books that I have read, each chapter or essay was well written and made me think about different aspects of life from a slightly different angle. While people often challenge his ideas, the fact that he gets people to think is an achievement in itself.

I'm a big fan of Gladwell's previous three books and how each of them took an idea and fully developed it over the course of a book. Admittedly the books were small, but that makes sense because I don't think you could write another 100 pages or so on any of those topics and keep the books as interesting to read as they were. When I saw a new book by Malcolm Gladwell out I jumped on it and went ahead and ordered it without even looking at a description of the book. Shame on me for granting Gladwell the status of having anything bought site-unseen. This book is merely a collection of previously published articles written for the new Yorker magazine. As articles they lack the depth and level of development seen in his previous books. Articles seem to be just that, magazine articles covering one subject rather than trying to take one idea and really expand upon it and explore it in depth. Yes, the articles are organized into an attempt to tie them more together into what the subject matter they are covering but that feels forced and like it was the little work the publisher had Gladwell do in putting this book together before they could print it and sell it to you.

Buy it if you don't get the New Yorker and don't really care that it isn't anything new or very similar to his previous books.
Don't buy it if you can wait for the paperback, or have already read his articles in the New Yorker, or are thinking this will be something like his previous books.

This book is a collection of articles from the New Yorker that the Author wrote over time. It's not that the book is awful, its a disappointment to me, I like the Authors work but this one seemed to run on and on at times. He challenges your thinking on many issues. He also makes some leaps with his conclusions on several of his studies. It's interesting. A little slow and maybe a little too much of the same.

Certainly a nice collection of some of Malcolm Gladwell's writings, but I didn't find anything to be truly thought provoking and paradigm changing as his other works. Some articles were fascinating, but there were more than a couple that bored me. If you're a fan of his exploratory work, the book certainly warrants a read - just don't expect to be blown away with something you and your book club could talk about for days on end.

This newest book from Malcolm Gladwell is a collection of articles written for The New Yorker Magazine. I found some of the articles long, convoluted and seemingly pointless, while others were very insightful and interesting. I loved Tipping Point, Blink, and my favorite Outliers, but only a handful of the articles in this book match the caliber of writing in those three books. I can see where he found some inspiration for his books in some of these articles. Worth a read, but I checked it out at the local library, and I'm glad because I wouldn't reread this one like I did with the others.

"You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth." -- Psalm 71:20

Before thinking about buying or reading this book, please be aware that all the articles were originally published in The New Yorker. If you are a loyal reader of that excellent publication, you may well have read all these articles before.

The strength of Mr. Gladwell's writing in these non-fiction articles is his ability to become fascinated with something that most people either don't notice . . . or don't long think about. With the persistence of a terrier, he keeps asking questions until some new perspectives appear. In almost all cases, these new perspectives will advance your thinking from where it is today. Unfortunately, in some cases, his curiosity will leave you short of satisfying answers to new questions that his writing raises.

Some of the articles are either brilliant . . . or just short of being so, listed here in the order in which they appear:

Blowing Up: How Nassim Taleb Turned the Inevitability of Disaster into an Investment Strategy
What the Dog Saw: Cesar Millan and the Movements of Mastery
Million-Dollar Murray: Why Problems Like Homelessness May Be Easier to Manage Than to Solve
Connecting the Dots: The Paradoxes of Intelligence Reform
Late Bloomers: Why Do We Equate Genius with Precocity?
Most Likely to Succeed: How Do We Hire When We Can't Tell Who's Right for the Job?

Some of the other stories don't work nearly as well as they might have:

The Pitchman: Ron Popeil and the Conquest of the American Kitchen (doesn't have enough development of why we like to buy gadgets pitched on television)
The Ketchup Conundrum: Mustard Now Comes in Dozens of Varieties. Why Has Ketchup Stayed the Same? (focuses on taste research in the context of a poorly designed ketchup product rather than the question that's stated)
True Colors: Hair Dye and the Hidden History of Postwar America (too slim a premise to capture the important shifts in female self-image)
John Rock's Error: What the Inventor of the Birth Control Pill Didn't Know About Women's Health (the article's point is pushed too far, assuming that Catholic doctrine can be predicted based on health benefits)
Open Secrets: Enron, Intelligence, and the Perils of Too Much Information (doesn't succeed either as an expose or fully as irony)
The Picture Problem: Mammography, Air Power, and the Limits of Looking (too much information for what the subject will bear)
Something Borrowed: Should a Charge of Plagiarism Ruin Your Life? (too speculative to be very helpful)
Dangerous Minds: Criminal Profiling Made Easy (the point is hammered a little too hard)
The Talent Myth: Are Smart People Overrated? (the point is too obvious to keep our interest)

A few of the stories just didn't seem worth including:

The Art of Failure: Why Some People Choke and Others Panic (not much content here)
Blowup: Who Can Be Blamed for a Disaster like the Challenger Explosion? No One, and We'd Better Get Used to It (the point is pretty obscure and I suspect many people won't be interested)
The New-Boy Network: What Do Job Interviews Really Tell Us? (much ado about first impressions)
Troublemakers: What Pit Bulls Can Teach Us About Crime (much data about the dangers of drawing conclusions from impressions of popular press reports)

At any rate, you'll have lots of new information to use for dinner conversation, if nothing else.

Have fun!

Yet another brilliant installment by Malcolm Galdwell in his expanding body of work.

For those in the crisis, risk, security professions; some outstanding insights and observation on critical incident planning and the shortfalls of corporate teams. Further, marvelous references to examples and professional reviews of crisis events.

A very compelling read in it's own right but all the more significant for those interested in or specializing in enterprise resilience and the psychology of decision making, or the lack thereof.

I will certainly be making more reference to these and many other examples in the coming months

I took my chances buying this book. Despite its popularity, I found The Tipping Point lacking in solid facts and didn't finish Blink for similar reasons. What the Dog Saw is a fun collection of short essays that challenge how we are told to perceive the world around us. For example -- outlaw pit bulls because they are dangerous? Mr Gladwell notes that the breed isn't as dangerous as their owners. A person wanting an aggressive dog will create one -- pit bull, rottweiler, you name it. Overall, a fun book for casual reading.

Malcolm Gladwell sees things that the rest of us don't see. Part of this is because of his journalistic days, but most of it is because he didn't just report, he delved into things. Why do things work the way they do? How does intuition work with logic? Malcolm answer some incredible questions (that I didn't even have when I started the book) and delves into manner matters which truly interest and excite.

Some reviewers have complained that, unlike Gladwell's previous works, this book has no overall theme or unifying argument because it is essentially an anthology of his articles previously published in The New Yorker magazine. I think the claim is dubious; one of his interests throughout is certainly the way that human beings process the world around them, from the mundane to the extraordinary. In any case, for me this book served as an ideal introduction to an author whose works immediately become bestsellers. If, as I did, you want to know why Gladwell is so popular, then this book might be a good place to start.

A bit academic-minded, I have no time for pop-psychology, and that was what I was afraid I might find here. Instead, what I discovered was more along the lines of industrial or social psychology. And even when I thought the arguments were weak (there are plenty of arguments made by analogy, for example, and connections that seem more contiguous than causal), they were always provocative. In fact, what makes his eloquent writing particularly engaging is not so much the subject matter, but precisely what I criticized above: his ability to connect or juxtapose seemingly disparate objects or events.

There are times when I think that Gladwell gets it wrong or overlooks important parts of the equation. His discussion of the teaching profession and teacher impact on student success (doubtfully measured by standardized tests) almost bizarrely neglects the student-half of the problem. To use an analogy that Gladwell might appreciate: this is a bit like attributing the success or failure of a meal to the chef without considering the quality or freshness of the ingredients (and not allowing the chef to choose them). Still, Gladwell remains provocative throughout, and the book introduced me to concepts such as "risk homeostasis" and "the fundamental attribution error," among others.

You'll want to read this book with a pencil in hand: to underline new concepts, to write a resounding "Yes!" in confirmation of a well-put idea, or to scribble in a doubtful "???" along the margin of a less convincing one. Either way, this isn't a book you'll be able to read passively.

As for me, precisely because I do not want to read something that is merely a confirmation of my own beliefs, yesterday I bought "Blink" and "The Tipping Point" too.

Then I sharpened my pencils. I can't wait to read more from this guy.

If you've been a dedicated reader of the New Yorker for more than a dozen years there won't be much new in Gladwell's latest work - a collection of columns. If you shirked your obligation as a reader of the best of the best and missed his periodical work, jump on board! Reserving my 5-stars for the very best of writing was difficult with this collection, and perhaps there is some measure of familiarity breeding contempt. And jealously, of course.

In the "I coulda been a contenda" mode, I imagine I could have written so many of these stories ... but ... I am immeasurably gratified to have read them. Gladwell, you rock!

Just throwing this review out there towards Gladwell. Personally, I find his contributions to the New Yorker irrelevant! This man has an amazing ability to write and very successfully convey his message. He doesn't use redundant terminology to show a strong understanding of the English language. Instead, he takes what he wants to say, breaks it down, puts it back together and shows you where that information came from. He focuses on his message and not on vocabulary and for some reason I absoluteness love that. His books are mind-opening, easy to read and extremely quick to read therefor.

One man's opinion, Malcolm Gladwell is at his best when writing essays for magazines (notably The New Yorker) or when writing Outliers: The Story of Success, his most recently published book. (I do not share others' enthusiasm for his earlier books, The Tipping Point and Blink.) In Outliers, he provides a rigorous and comprehensive examination of the breakthrough research conducted by Anders Ericsson and his associates at Florida State. One of the major research projects focuses on individuals who have "attained their superior performance by instruction and extended practice: highly skilled performers in the arts, such as music, painting and writing, sports, such as swimming, running and golf and games, such as bridge and chess." Geoff Colvin (in Talent Is Overrated) and Daniel Coyle (in The Talent Code) also discuss the same research.

In this volume, we have 19 of Gladwell's essays, all of which originally appeared in The New Yorker. They are organized within three Parts: Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius (e.g. "The Pitchman: Ron Popeil and the Conquest of the American Kitchen"); Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses (e.g. "Million-Dollar Murray: Why Problems Like Homelessness May Be Easier to Solve Than Manage"); and Personality, Character, and Intelligence (e.g. "Dangerous Minds: Criminal Profiling Made Easy"). In the Preface, Gladwell observes, "Curiosity about the inner life of other people's day-to-day work is one of the most funfamental of human impulses, and that same impulse is what led to the writing you now hold in your hands."

The title of the book is also the title of one of the essays in which Gladwell provides a profile of "The Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan, the owner of the Dog Psychology Center in South-Central Los Angeles whose television program is now featured on the National Geographic channel. Although a long-time dog owner, I did not know - until reading this article - that dogs are really interested in humans. Interested, observes anthropologist Brian Hare, "to the point of obsession. To a dog, you are a giant walking tennis ball." Apparently to an extent no other animal can, a dog can "read" humans like the proverbial open book. What they "see" determines how they will react. The key to Millan's effectiveness with dogs is his understanding of their need for exercise, discipline, and affection. What he calls an "epiphany" occurred when he realized that they have their own psychology. For him, he realized this, it was "the most important moment in his life, because it was the moment when he understood that to succeed in the world he could not be just a dog whisperer. He needed to be a people whisperer." According to Gladwell, "A dog cares, deeply, which way your body is leaning. Forward or backward? Forward can be seen as aggressive; backward - even a quarter of an inch - means nonthreatening. It means you've relinquished what ethologists call an intentional movement to proceed forward." Ethologist Patricia McConnell and the author of The Other End of the Leash adds, "I believe they pay a tremendous amount of attention to how relaxed our face is and how relaxed our facial muscles are, because that's a big cue for them with each other."

Gladwell seems to have an insatiable curiosity about individuals, situations, and locations that may be, at least unitially, of little interest to others...until he shares what he has learned about them. Ketchup, for example. It is essential to my enjoyment of burgers, meatloaf, and french fries and yet I assumed that all ketchup is the same. Not so! In "The Ketchup Conundrum," Gladwell explains that tomato ketchup "is a nineteenth-century creation - the union of the English tradition of fruit and vegetable sauces and the growing American infatuation with the tomato. But what we know today as ketchup emerged outof a debate that raged in the first years of the last century over benzoate, a preservative widely used in the late-nineteenth century condiments." When I first read this essay in 2004, I was tempted to stop at this point. A debate about benzoate? A condiment controversy? Who cares? It is to Gladwell's credit that he rewarded my continuing to read the article by providing some truly interesting information about a subject in which I had little (if any) prior interest.

The next article in the anthology, "Blowing Up: How Nassim Taleb Turned the Inevitability of Disaster Into an Investment Strategy,"an article first published in 2002. Over a period of many months, Gladwell spent a great deal of time with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, founder and CEO of a hedge fund, Empirica Capital. "Taleb likes to quote David Hume: `No amount of observations of white swans can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion.'...[Taleb] has constructed a trading philosophy predicated entirely on the existence of black swans, on the possibilty of some random, unexpected event sweeping the markets. He never sells options, then. He only buys them. He's never the one who can lose a great deal of money if GM stock suddenly plunges. Nor does her ever bet on the market moving in one direction or anitger. That would require Traleb to assume that he understands the market, and he doesn't." Years later, he wrote a book he called The Black Swan and during the subsequent financial crisis of 2008-2009 "made a staggering amount of money for his fund."

In this article and in all of the others, Gladwell demonstrates the skills of a world-class cultural anthropologist as he seeks out information from a wide variety of sources, interviews authorities on the given subject, observes behavior of those involved in the given activities, and then explains to the extent possible - in layman's terms - the meaning and significance of what he has learned. Each article is a gem. Together in one volume, they are a treasure.

Great collections of many snippets of theories. This is more of a quick reference on different toppics then the indeth approach of his other works.
Highly recommended especially if you have read all his other works.

What makes Malcolm Gladwell's writing so successful? Why is he so interesting to read? Why is it that once one has begun an essay of his one devours it greedily, hungrily consuming the details?
One reason no doubt is that he chooses fascinating characters, people from everyday life whose stories he makes us feel to be remarkable. He has an appreciation for people with special gifts and abilities. He often connects the stories of the individuals with larger social trends. The most notable case of that is of course in his first book,'The Tipping Point'. He in the course of the writing overwhelms us with interesting detail. He is a great reporter, and the writing is tremendously alive. He too is an enthusiast and that enthusiasm for the story he is telling, the life he is examining, the social reality he is investigating transmits itself directly to the reader.
This present collection of nineteen articles of his previously published in the 'New Yorker' has many remarkably interesting characters.. For instance Ron Popeil of the opening piece, 'The Pitchman' is a master inventor of kitchen gadgets and supersalesmen of them. Gladwell in telling his story tells the story of a whole industry and also the story of a unique family. He gives in this piece as he does in all his pieces the sense of informing us about important realities we know little about. He has the ability to make us take interest in people who we would ordinarily not necessarily think of as 'creative' or 'interesting'.
Surprisingly in this present collection he does not include two of his all- time most interesting pieces. One is called 'Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg'. It provides the best explanation I have ever seen of how social- networking is done and how there are special individuals who seem to put together a tremendous variety of worlds and peoples. Another remarkable piece has to do with ' physical intelligence' and explains how the super- athletes the Wayne Gretzkys and Michael Jordans have abilities which put them in another league.
But whether he is talking about why there are so many kinds of ketchup and not so many of mustard, or about why it is a common error to believe poetic creation belongs only to the young, Gladwell is always fascinating.
He is a writer who simply cannot write in a not interesting way about whatever it is he chooses to write about.
A writer who deservedly is recognized for what he is - at the top of the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest Gladwell book, although "Blink" is still my favorite. This is a little disjointed because it is a collection of his essays from the New Yorker magazine. Many of them are quite old, dating back to 2000 so they're a bit dated. He has an amazing way of leading you down a road only to pull a complete 180 in the end, what you thought was the logical outcome is totally and completely disproved. He turns conventional wisdom on it's end. I loved the articles on Enron and about Mammograms/Breast Cancer - although I felt like some of the articles left me hanging for a conclusion, like the Cesar Milan story that the book is named after. Again, not near the masterpiece of "Blink" - but well worth the read. If you enjoy this type of book, you'd love the two Freakonomics books as well.

If you're an avid reader of "The New Yorker" over the past decade or so, you probably would've read most of the stories Malcolm Gladwell pieced together to produce this fascinating book; perhaps you would've felt cheated that he's simply rehashing old stuff.

Luckily for me, I don't read "The New Yorker", so all of Gladwell's "adventures" that have been compiled for this endeavor are new to me; and I found them to be quite interesting and unique. The end result is a book that anyone with an inquiring mind would certainly enjoy. I loved it.

The topics covered in this quirky series of essays are as far-flung as Ron Popeil and the psychology of dogs; whether you find each one to be of interest is debatable. Certainly, what some people would find interesting, would bore others to death. To nit pick each separate chapter would be a futile endeavor; simply enjoy the essence of Gladwell's engaging prose, and explore the fascinating perspective he lends to our crazy existence.

In the end, you'll discover a different perspective on a lot of things you never even thought about before; and isn't that the reason for expanding our intellectual horizons? Quite simply, this book accomplishes its mission; I highly recommend reading it for yourself.

Yet another brilliant installment by Malcolm Galdwell in his expanding body of work.

For those in the crisis, risk, security professions; some outstanding insights and observation on critical incident planning and the shortfalls of corporate teams. Further, marvelous references to examples and professional reviews of crisis events.

A very compelling read in it's own right but all the more significant for those interested in or specializing in enterprise resilience and the psychology of decision making, or the lack thereof.

I will certainly be making more reference to these and many other examples in the coming months

I took my chances buying this book. Despite its popularity, I found The Tipping Point lacking in solid facts and didn't finish Blink for similar reasons. What the Dog Saw is a fun collection of short essays that challenge how we are told to perceive the world around us. For example -- outlaw pit bulls because they are dangerous? Mr Gladwell notes that the breed isn't as dangerous as their owners. A person wanting an aggressive dog will create one -- pit bull, rottweiler, you name it. Overall, a fun book for casual reading.

Malcolm Gladwell sees things that the rest of us don't see. Part of this is because of his journalistic days, but most of it is because he didn't just report, he delved into things. Why do things work the way they do? How does intuition work with logic? Malcolm answer some incredible questions (that I didn't even have when I started the book) and delves into manner matters which truly interest and excite.

Some reviewers have complained that, unlike Gladwell's previous works, this book has no overall theme or unifying argument because it is essentially an anthology of his articles previously published in The New Yorker magazine. I think the claim is dubious; one of his interests throughout is certainly the way that human beings process the world around them, from the mundane to the extraordinary. In any case, for me this book served as an ideal introduction to an author whose works immediately become bestsellers. If, as I did, you want to know why Gladwell is so popular, then this book might be a good place to start.

A bit academic-minded, I have no time for pop-psychology, and that was what I was afraid I might find here. Instead, what I discovered was more along the lines of industrial or social psychology. And even when I thought the arguments were weak (there are plenty of arguments made by analogy, for example, and connections that seem more contiguous than causal), they were always provocative. In fact, what makes his eloquent writing particularly engaging is not so much the subject matter, but precisely what I criticized above: his ability to connect or juxtapose seemingly disparate objects or events.

There are times when I think that Gladwell gets it wrong or overlooks important parts of the equation. His discussion of the teaching profession and teacher impact on student success (doubtfully measured by standardized tests) almost bizarrely neglects the student-half of the problem. To use an analogy that Gladwell might appreciate: this is a bit like attributing the success or failure of a meal to the chef without considering the quality or freshness of the ingredients (and not allowing the chef to choose them). Still, Gladwell remains provocative throughout, and the book introduced me to concepts such as "risk homeostasis" and "the fundamental attribution error," among others.

You'll want to read this book with a pencil in hand: to underline new concepts, to write a resounding "Yes!" in confirmation of a well-put idea, or to scribble in a doubtful "???" along the margin of a less convincing one. Either way, this isn't a book you'll be able to read passively.

As for me, precisely because I do not want to read something that is merely a confirmation of my own beliefs, yesterday I bought "Blink" and "The Tipping Point" too.

Then I sharpened my pencils. I can't wait to read more from this guy.

If you've been a dedicated reader of the New Yorker for more than a dozen years there won't be much new in Gladwell's latest work - a collection of columns. If you shirked your obligation as a reader of the best of the best and missed his periodical work, jump on board! Reserving my 5-stars for the very best of writing was difficult with this collection, and perhaps there is some measure of familiarity breeding contempt. And jealously, of course.

In the "I coulda been a contenda" mode, I imagine I could have written so many of these stories ... but ... I am immeasurably gratified to have read them. Gladwell, you rock!

Just throwing this review out there towards Gladwell. Personally, I find his contributions to the New Yorker irrelevant! This man has an amazing ability to write and very successfully convey his message. He doesn't use redundant terminology to show a strong understanding of the English language. Instead, he takes what he wants to say, breaks it down, puts it back together and shows you where that information came from. He focuses on his message and not on vocabulary and for some reason I absoluteness love that. His books are mind-opening, easy to read and extremely quick to read therefor.

One man's opinion, Malcolm Gladwell is at his best when writing essays for magazines (notably The New Yorker) or when writing Outliers: The Story of Success, his most recently published book. (I do not share others' enthusiasm for his earlier books, The Tipping Point and Blink.) In Outliers, he provides a rigorous and comprehensive examination of the breakthrough research conducted by Anders Ericsson and his associates at Florida State. One of the major research projects focuses on individuals who have "attained their superior performance by instruction and extended practice: highly skilled performers in the arts, such as music, painting and writing, sports, such as swimming, running and golf and games, such as bridge and chess." Geoff Colvin (in Talent Is Overrated) and Daniel Coyle (in The Talent Code) also discuss the same research.

In this volume, we have 19 of Gladwell's essays, all of which originally appeared in The New Yorker. They are organized within three Parts: Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius (e.g. "The Pitchman: Ron Popeil and the Conquest of the American Kitchen"); Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses (e.g. "Million-Dollar Murray: Why Problems Like Homelessness May Be Easier to Solve Than Manage"); and Personality, Character, and Intelligence (e.g. "Dangerous Minds: Criminal Profiling Made Easy"). In the Preface, Gladwell observes, "Curiosity about the inner life of other people's day-to-day work is one of the most funfamental of human impulses, and that same impulse is what led to the writing you now hold in your hands."

The title of the book is also the title of one of the essays in which Gladwell provides a profile of "The Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan, the owner of the Dog Psychology Center in South-Central Los Angeles whose television program is now featured on the National Geographic channel. Although a long-time dog owner, I did not know - until reading this article - that dogs are really interested in humans. Interested, observes anthropologist Brian Hare, "to the point of obsession. To a dog, you are a giant walking tennis ball." Apparently to an extent no other animal can, a dog can "read" humans like the proverbial open book. What they "see" determines how they will react. The key to Millan's effectiveness with dogs is his understanding of their need for exercise, discipline, and affection. What he calls an "epiphany" occurred when he realized that they have their own psychology. For him, he realized this, it was "the most important moment in his life, because it was the moment when he understood that to succeed in the world he could not be just a dog whisperer. He needed to be a people whisperer." According to Gladwell, "A dog cares, deeply, which way your body is leaning. Forward or backward? Forward can be seen as aggressive; backward - even a quarter of an inch - means nonthreatening. It means you've relinquished what ethologists call an intentional movement to proceed forward." Ethologist Patricia McConnell and the author of The Other End of the Leash adds, "I believe they pay a tremendous amount of attention to how relaxed our face is and how relaxed our facial muscles are, because that's a big cue for them with each other."

Gladwell seems to have an insatiable curiosity about individuals, situations, and locations that may be, at least unitially, of little interest to others...until he shares what he has learned about them. Ketchup, for example. It is essential to my enjoyment of burgers, meatloaf, and french fries and yet I assumed that all ketchup is the same. Not so! In "The Ketchup Conundrum," Gladwell explains that tomato ketchup "is a nineteenth-century creation - the union of the English tradition of fruit and vegetable sauces and the growing American infatuation with the tomato. But what we know today as ketchup emerged outof a debate that raged in the first years of the last century over benzoate, a preservative widely used in the late-nineteenth century condiments." When I first read this essay in 2004, I was tempted to stop at this point. A debate about benzoate? A condiment controversy? Who cares? It is to Gladwell's credit that he rewarded my continuing to read the article by providing some truly interesting information about a subject in which I had little (if any) prior interest.

The next article in the anthology, "Blowing Up: How Nassim Taleb Turned the Inevitability of Disaster Into an Investment Strategy,"an article first published in 2002. Over a period of many months, Gladwell spent a great deal of time with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, founder and CEO of a hedge fund, Empirica Capital. "Taleb likes to quote David Hume: `No amount of observations of white swans can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion.'...[Taleb] has constructed a trading philosophy predicated entirely on the existence of black swans, on the possibilty of some random, unexpected event sweeping the markets. He never sells options, then. He only buys them. He's never the one who can lose a great deal of money if GM stock suddenly plunges. Nor does her ever bet on the market moving in one direction or anitger. That would require Traleb to assume that he understands the market, and he doesn't." Years later, he wrote a book he called The Black Swan and during the subsequent financial crisis of 2008-2009 "made a staggering amount of money for his fund."

In this article and in all of the others, Gladwell demonstrates the skills of a world-class cultural anthropologist as he seeks out information from a wide variety of sources, interviews authorities on the given subject, observes behavior of those involved in the given activities, and then explains to the extent possible - in layman's terms - the meaning and significance of what he has learned. Each article is a gem. Together in one volume, they are a treasure.

Great collections of many snippets of theories. This is more of a quick reference on different toppics then the indeth approach of his other works.
Highly recommended especially if you have read all his other works.

What makes Malcolm Gladwell's writing so successful? Why is he so interesting to read? Why is it that once one has begun an essay of his one devours it greedily, hungrily consuming the details?
One reason no doubt is that he chooses fascinating characters, people from everyday life whose stories he makes us feel to be remarkable. He has an appreciation for people with special gifts and abilities. He often connects the stories of the individuals with larger social trends. The most notable case of that is of course in his first book,'The Tipping Point'. He in the course of the writing overwhelms us with interesting detail. He is a great reporter, and the writing is tremendously alive. He too is an enthusiast and that enthusiasm for the story he is telling, the life he is examining, the social reality he is investigating transmits itself directly to the reader.
This present collection of nineteen articles of his previously published in the 'New Yorker' has many remarkably interesting characters.. For instance Ron Popeil of the opening piece, 'The Pitchman' is a master inventor of kitchen gadgets and supersalesmen of them. Gladwell in telling his story tells the story of a whole industry and also the story of a unique family. He gives in this piece as he does in all his pieces the sense of informing us about important realities we know little about. He has the ability to make us take interest in people who we would ordinarily not necessarily think of as 'creative' or 'interesting'.
Surprisingly in this present collection he does not include two of his all- time most interesting pieces. One is called 'Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg'. It provides the best explanation I have ever seen of how social- networking is done and how there are special individuals who seem to put together a tremendous variety of worlds and peoples. Another remarkable piece has to do with ' physical intelligence' and explains how the super- athletes the Wayne Gretzkys and Michael Jordans have abilities which put them in another league.
But whether he is talking about why there are so many kinds of ketchup and not so many of mustard, or about why it is a common error to believe poetic creation belongs only to the young, Gladwell is always fascinating.
He is a writer who simply cannot write in a not interesting way about whatever it is he chooses to write about.
A writer who deservedly is recognized for what he is - at the top of the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest Gladwell book, although "Blink" is still my favorite. This is a little disjointed because it is a collection of his essays from the New Yorker magazine. Many of them are quite old, dating back to 2000 so they're a bit dated. He has an amazing way of leading you down a road only to pull a complete 180 in the end, what you thought was the logical outcome is totally and completely disproved. He turns conventional wisdom on it's end. I loved the articles on Enron and about Mammograms/Breast Cancer - although I felt like some of the articles left me hanging for a conclusion, like the Cesar Milan story that the book is named after. Again, not near the masterpiece of "Blink" - but well worth the read. If you enjoy this type of book, you'd love the two Freakonomics books as well.

If you're an avid reader of "The New Yorker" over the past decade or so, you probably would've read most of the stories Malcolm Gladwell pieced together to produce this fascinating book; perhaps you would've felt cheated that he's simply rehashing old stuff.

Luckily for me, I don't read "The New Yorker", so all of Gladwell's "adventures" that have been compiled for this endeavor are new to me; and I found them to be quite interesting and unique. The end result is a book that anyone with an inquiring mind would certainly enjoy. I loved it.

The topics covered in this quirky series of essays are as far-flung as Ron Popeil and the psychology of dogs; whether you find each one to be of interest is debatable. Certainly, what some people would find interesting, would bore others to death. To nit pick each separate chapter would be a futile endeavor; simply enjoy the essence of Gladwell's engaging prose, and explore the fascinating perspective he lends to our crazy existence.

In the end, you'll discover a different perspective on a lot of things you never even thought about before; and isn't that the reason for expanding our intellectual horizons? Quite simply, this book accomplishes its mission; I highly recommend reading it for yourself.

After you read this book you will doubt everthing you believe you learned from life experience. Gladwell supports his findings with a lot of research but makes each story interesting with real people examples. Second book I read by this author. Looking forward to more.

Very interesting book with some slow spots. I'd say 70% kept my attention with a few areas I had to skip over. Nice and broken up if your like me and like to read a chapter or two before going to bed without worry that you'll be so into the book you forget to go to sleep! Also good for the reader who carries a book around to appointments, short reads that keep you thinking.

What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures is a collection of articles written by Gladwell taken from the New Yorker.

Unlike his previous books, this book does not have a common theme. (Outliers was about success, The Tipping Point was about social influence by individuals). However, I did come away to a subtle theme based on a number articles - social mannerism is an underrated but very important human skill.

This was a pretty good book overall. There were some pretty interesting articles. Compared to previous books that I read (Outliers and The Tipping Point), I would rate this book in the middle. To people unfamiliar with Gladwell's work, this book maybe worth their while.

Among the topics covered in the book, were these interesting subjects:

- Nassim Taleb and the Black Swan
- Potential health effects caused by the Pill
- The Dog Whisperer
- The Near-Worthlessness of Mammograms
- The non-scandal scandal of Enron
- The inability to connect the dots due to too much information
- an effective way to handle interviews
- The difference between panicking and choking
- one solution to homelessness

Excellent educational and entertaining book. Initially l hesitated in buying this book as I thought how could topics like the difference between mustard and ketchup or hair color products be interesting? Well, they are and offer excellent insights on how to view, analyze, and tackle problems. I have not been a big fan of Gladwell's other books but this was a pleasant surprise.

Gladwell's writing is so good that I'd read anything he puts out. Substance-wise, I think some of his other works (particularly Outliers) are more interesting than What The Dog Saw, but you will not be disappointed by the crystal-clear and thoughtfully organized prose that is quintessentially MG. Recommend.

As this is a collection of short pieces published in THE NEW YORKER, it tends to be light and breezy and makes for good subway reading, although most of the pieces seem to end abruptly and without resolution either stylistically or conceptually. Gladwell often turns up interesting facts and is at his best when deconstructing orthodox opinion. Unfortunately, however, Gladwell has a rather annoying habit when attacking the lack of justifications for a given orthodoxy of pulling from equally dubious parallel orthodoxies. The most egregious case that springs to mind comes when Gladwell criticizes talent-centered management paradigms by drawing on one of the few things that can be "softer", less quantifiable, and more abstracted than management philosophy--psychology of management philosophy. Gladwell trots out arbitrary terms from a psychology article, "The Dark Side of Charisma", as if unveiling heretofore unknown natural kinds: High Likability Floater, Homme de Ressentiment, and Narcissist. Gladwell never makes a case for why we should accept these vagaries over the vagaries he's attacking--and this immediately after a piece attacking the convenient ambiguities and parlor tricks of psychological profiling.

This quote from a bit later in the same essay exemplifies Gladwell at his worst: "The distinction between the Greedy Corporation and the Narcissistic Corporation matters, because the way we conceive our attainments help determine how we behave." He often makes this type of assertion without any real argument, assertions predicated on the reification of a rhetorical false dichotomy, i.e., he sets up an opposition for the sake of argument and then begins to treat this opposition as if it were a true property of the subject being discussed rather than a rhetorical device along the lines of "there are two types of people in the world..." Then, after asserting the importance of his "discovered" dichotomy, he tries to bolster this importance by suggesting a causal link to a second assertion that is a logical non sequitur to the first assertion, usually as a segue to introducing tangentially-related but widely-quoted studies whose presence is an attempt to introduce a kind of validation by association with the previous arbitrary dichotomy. Take for example my attempt at Gladwell logic:
"Gladwell's essays fall into two categories: the Why-Did and the Blew. Though the Why-Did and the Blew are both well read, this distinction should be of great concern to us because they actually function in opposite manners. The Why-Did offers a heretofore desired explanatory mechanism while the Blew deconstructs an explanatory mechanism that has been found wanting.These two types of essays may seem to both fall under the rubric of explanation but recent findings by neuroscientists may give us reason to think that, despite their apparent similarity, the two types are, mentally at least, as different as night and day."

This is a thought-proving, fascinating collection of essays. You can skip around to read about topics you're keen on, but each and every essay is really interesting and compelling reading. Bravo, once again, Malcolm Gladwell!

"What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures" by Malcomb Gladwell is the latest in a string of best selling books that started in 2000. With the publishing of The Tipping Point, Mr. Gladwell soon became one of the most popular nonfiction writers of the new century. Soon came "Blink" and then my personal favorite, "Outliers" in a steady stream of provocative thoughts that leaves the reader stunned and enlightened.

"What the Dog Saw" is different in that it is comprised of previously published material. I wouldn't call them essays but perhaps that's what they are. At any rate, Mr. Gladwell is consistently surprising in his thoughts. Being a regular reader of the New Yorker, I've seen most of the included material before. [...]. I'm not convinced that this information will hurt the sale of "What the Dog Saw" since carrying the book around is a lot easier than hauling a laptop everywhere.

I don't want to rehash each of the essays here. Suffice it to say that you can pick the book up and look at it in the store. I will say that I found two of the articles to be interesting and insightful. The first, The Art of Failure, examines the relationship between panicking and choking in a tense situation. I suspect the average person on the street sees the terms as being nearly synonymous and would be surprised that Mr. Gladwell sees them as different. The second, The Ketchup Conundrum examines the profoundly important question as to why there are so many different types of mustards and yet only one type of ketchup. Of course, for those of us old enough to remember, there was a time when the American consumer was given a chance to buy barbeque and pizza flavored ketchup. Both were quickly withdrawn when consumers failed to buy them. Still, the Ketchup section of the supermarket provides no choices beyond brand. Troubling in the extreme!

Gladwell's ideas are always interesting. I have no doubt that "What the Dog Saw" will be equally as successful as his previous travels into book publishing. I don't think there is much doubt that Malcomb Gladwell in one of the premier minds working in the country today.

I highly recommend "What the Dog Saw".

There are articles in this collection that are brilliant (though perhaps overly long). There are others that fizzle out. As a result, I find that some of Gladwell's observations and conclusions stay with me, others I can't even remember. Perhaps this would have worked better as, say, a 240-page book rather than a 410-page book.

By the end of chapter one, I found myself not only wanting to have lunch with Ron Popeil but also wanting to buy all of his gadgets! Although a collection of articles, this book was highly engaging and entertaining. Malcolm Gladwell has a unique ability to make you feel like you know the people in each chapter intimately. I found myself thinking about how this book was similar to Freakonomics, but approaching the subjects from the human side rather than through economics.

Malcolm impressed me again.In the "connecting the dots" chapter, the discussion resolves around how time and again, obvious glaring intelligence information is missed/ignored and the effects on society. His conversation on the paradoxes of intelligence reform got me hooked. I enjoyed the narration of the adventures.

While I found the stories enlightening, the book as a whole didn't keep my attention. I read Gladwell's other books straight thru without stopping, but this book I'd read a story or two, then read a different book. I probably checked it out of the library 3 or 4 times (because I never could renew it) before I finished.

I had never heard Gladwell's name until I saw him promoting this book on the Colbert Report, and then suddenly he was everywhere. Not being a reader of The New Yorker or his website, all the content was new to me, and all the articles were fascinating. Many of them made me think about things in new ways, or exposed me to background information that I didn't know about familiar topics.

What I felt was lacking was an overall structure to the order of the essays. One would seem to imply that success is a skill, then the next would seem to suggest that it's simply a matter of chance. I finished the book having enjoyed almost all of the vignettes, but unsure about what overlying message I was meant to have taken away from it all.

In a compendium of previously published articles (as old as 1996 and as recent as 2008), Gladwell attempts to provide a unique window to the human psyche mostly in terms of its creativity, inventiveness, decision making and biases. While the articles themselves are very engaging read and informative, the compendium-of-best-articles, leaves the reader fairly direction-less due to the lack of an explicit theme or an overarching premise to contextualize the articles. Moreover, Gladwell doesn't use the opportunity to self-critique older articles and provide any additional insights that would have significantly helped the reader. Gladwell fans and frequent users of his website/blog may find the lack of new material disappointing.

In the first part Gladwell zigzags his way through kitchen gadgets, ketchup, Wall Street, hair dyes, birth control and dog whisperers. The range of the topics, notwithstanding, the reader is treated to unique glimpses of "hidden extraordinary" as the book jacket frames it. (Other reviewers have talked about the contents in the other two parts, but expect a wide plethora of topics) In a way, the lack of cohesiveness of the topics encourages the reader to wander to very different topics which oftentimes leads to surprising insights. The articles being written at different times shouldn't be expected to be able to maintain a uniform sense of engagement or interest to the reader.

After reading through the entire book,the reader is likely to have come across few instances or discussions that will force you to rethink, but overall, the book doesn't provide a relatively succinct theme or question such as the Outliers did for understanding success or the Tipping Point's take on ideas or Blink's take on gut responses. As entertaining and interesting a compendium this turned out to be, a reader will need to manage expectations with respect to this collection of articles.

This book is excellent. It has something in it for everyone no matter your sex, age, race or occupation. This book is just like the author's other books. He takes some story from pop culture and explains it. As he explains this story he unveils little known facts or points of view. He takes the reader into a path that unveils a new way to look at the problem. He does this in every chapter. When you finished the book you will feel you view the world with new eyes.

What the Dog Saw will make you smarter, if you're dumb enough to buy it. Malcolm Gladwell's essays are easily readable and he presents his conclusions in a very compelling way. But, they're all available on his Web site. For free. I'm smart enough to figure that out, but I still bought the book. And this paradox is just the kind of thing he'd write about. Go figure.

I hadn't read a book from Malcolm before. Just know him from a TED presentation. This book was enjoyable. Some stories much better than others, but overall it was oke. Funny that he choose the dog story for the title of the book, because this was pretty mediocre. Likeed the hair dye story a lot. In the beginning I read it was a bundle of articles previously publsihed. This may disappointed readers of The New Yorker.

I've read and enjoyed most of Malcolm Gladwell's books. This compilation of articles is both interesting and eye opening in many areas. He dispels many myths and also questions conventional wisdom. Well worth the read.

another extraordinary book by Malcolm Gladwell - i'd give it 6 stars if i could - obviously, i really recommend it - and, you'd be really doing yourself a disservice if you didnt check out Live Like A Fruit Fly - also on the store

Great book. Typical Gladwell fare: takes peculiar/seemingly random subjects, fleshes them out with fascinating, well-written details and some sort of vague but compelling overall meaning that leaves you pondering them long after putting each piece down. Some reviewers here criticized the book for being a collection of articles. Duh! It's a collection of articles. If they don't like reading articles they shouldn't have bought the book. I greatly enjoyed it.What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

I had mixed feelings picking us this book. I had read some very good while some not so good reviews about this but I did enjoy reading Gladwell's older books so decided to give it a try. Overall, I was a bit disappointed with 'What the dog saw'. The writing style of Gladwell is very good and there is good information in the book but that is all it seems to be: a collection of interesting past studies about various topics. Some of the statements seem somewhat confusing to me particularly ones about MSGs and umami. The best part of the book was the chapter on Taleb but then again I would much prefer reading Taleb's 'Fooled by Randomness' to know about Taleb's philosophy in investing and his thoughts on randomness. This is a good read but did not feel upto expectations compared to Gladwell's previous books.

This book reminds me of my good friends: At times, it might be incorrect, but it's often intelligent, informative, and interesting. Gladwell has a curious mind and a gifted pen, and the result is surprisingly engaging.

Gladwell enjoys gently upsetting the status quo, like an excitable graduate student taking on established professors. Importantly, he rarely lets his personality intrude, but allows his investigation and the facts to speak for themselves. He probes into the reasons why some people are successful in the financial markets, and others aren't. He chooses as his case study a hedge fund manager called Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who believes that essentially it's all luck. His fund, Empirica, turns over the traditional psychology of investing. For years he makes nothing - he sits and waits, joshing with his partners (who all believe in him). He loses money, day after day. And then, while all around him crashes, his fund makes millions and Taleb becomes famous. There is an incisive study of the Enron scandal. They were always open about their investment policies, Gladwell argues, but they were just too complicated for most of us to understand. They involved SPEs (special purpose entities) which basically meant Enron selling bits of itself to itself in order to raise money from banks. These SPEs involved thousands and thousands of pages of paperwork, so even the summaries are indigestible. The problem was, according to Gladwell, not that Enron was hiding information from its investors - but that it was giving them too much. He also suggests the culture at the company, where "talent" is given precedence over experience, helped it to go under, as no one was ever in the same department for long enough. Effectively, these sparky MBA graduates didn't know what they were doing, and were parachuted into jobs that they messed up - only to be given more rewards and promotions.

Malcolm Gladwell has the ability to inform and entertain at the same time. He has shown me different ways to think--I get out of my own "mental box". And who knew that seeing the world through a dog's eyes could teach us so much about being truthful and authentic with other human beings? Well worth the price--I look forward to re-reading this book again and again!

In his previous books, "The Tipping Point," "Blink" and "Outliers," Malcolm Gladwell had me in awe: Gladwell comes at the reader from such a different understanding of many world situations (both big and small), that I was left elated! I had been given so much to think about, to re-evaluate and to enjoy that every page was worth my time. In "What the Dog Saw," Gladwell provides knowledge on a mixed bag of subjects, yet all of these subjects in some way or another benefit either my thinking processes, or add to my basic knowledge on subjects such as the connection between many years of ovulation and breast cancer. Gladwell is truly "out most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary."

After reading the Tipping Point I had very high expectations from Gladwell as an author, but this book was a bit of a let down. The book is basically a collection of stories that are unrelated and the book doesn't have much of a "theme" too. I lost interest half way through and didn't finish it.

For fans of Gladwell, as I am, "What the Dog Saw" is a continuation of his exploration into what we perceive to be true. Questioning the truths that we use to make decisions is a worthy quest. However, unlike "The Tipping Point" and "Outliers," I found this reading to be mostly tedious with insight harder to find. If you haven't read the other titles, get them first!

Malcolm wowed me with his ability to apply psychology, statistics and economics research into daily life. Most people don't have the time to go through scientific journals to read these researches. Thanks to Malcolm, this book is like a social science version of McDonald meal.

This book is, in essence, a compilation of essays on unusual as well as every day topics. The style is very much Gladwell - Sharp, contrarian, surgically insightful, and -yet - accessible to many readers. This is not as compelling of a read as his other books (i.e. Blink, Outliers, Tipping Pointetc.), but is worth getting if you are a Gladwell fan, as I have become. This book can be read in a few hours. Yuri Vanetik

"But what if we look at that problem through someone else's eyes, from inside someone else's head?" writes Malcolm Gladwell in his collection of chosen New Yorker magazine articles. Malcolm has certainly succeeded in writing another entertaining and thought provoking book that inspires the reader to look outside their own world and satisfy their curiosity of how others live and work. Curiosities of how people think, day in, day out, in all types of occupations lead us to inventions like the ez squirt Heinz ketchup bottle! Simple, yet amazingly brilliant!

Another book I highly recommend is called "Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life" by Ariel & Shya Kane. Their ideas showed me ways to create and maintain a life worth living with satisfaction and meaning. Good news is you can also hear the Kanes on their radio show titled "Being Here".

Pick up either book for entertainment but trust me - you will also find inspiration and awe for the wonders of the world you live in and of which you are a part.

This is a good book. I have read all of Gladwell's other books except for tipping point. This one has some lulls that I was not expecting and didn't see in his other books. Some of the essays are a little bit dry. However, each one is treated with the thoroughness that you would expect from Gladwell. I recommend it to others.

This book has something for everyone.

Malcolm Gladwell ties his stories well together - he is a master at making things previously unnoticed incredibly interesting.
His books are very fast and easy reads and yet very applicable to your everyday life and outlook.

MG is a great writer. I don't deny it. The book is very creative and helps us to think outside the box. Great effort in getting us to think. However, I think this book is really just a collection of articles. I am not sure if MG is trying to sell us the New Yorker or his creative writing abilities. Whatever be the case, it falls short by miles. I would like if MG takes time to write great books rather than fall for the pressure of delivering "the message." I would suggest MG to take the time and please write great books. Good is not enough when you have already got some Great ones out there. Let's keep the bar high. Any more of such books would pull the bar down way low.

Good work and thanks again for a good work. I wish you well and believe you can get some Great work out for us. Good Luck. --- Joe.

Gladwell's prose is easy and fun to read. It has a deftness and lilt to it.

The essays are divided into three parts: individual people; broader theories; and personality theories.

These essays are at their best when they discuss specific people. Gladwell's strength is in evoking an individual's personality.

The best of the essays is one on Ron Popeil. It shows how much depth and thought go into something people might have thought was rather mindless, namely late-night infomercials. You'll never watch one of those the same way again after reading this superb essay.

I thought the essay on mustard and ketchup was also fascinating for the way it gives readers a new way to look at and to understand common objects.

The essay on Taleb, a trader who specializes in long-shot investments that are high-risk and very high reward (but inexpensive) was interesting, but somewhat weakened by its lack of detailed mathematical analysis or indeed any quantitative analysis. It was interesting to read, but had too much speculation about market strategies with insufficient detail.

The hair dye essay was very interesting, particularly for malleable consumers are in the face of skillful ad campaigns.

The essay on John Rock seemed a bit dull and pointless, not sure why it was in here. I started it but gave up halfway through. I was also unimpressed by the essay on Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer (it is the title of this essay that serves as the book's title). Dogs are fine, it's people that are the problem - train them, is my view.

The next section of the book deal with broader "theories."

The Enron essay was interesting - Gladwell is one of the few authors with the serenity to point out the hyperbole in some of Skilling's detractor's rhetoric. The article on homelessness was unconvincing to me, but it was nonetheless quite interesting. The mammography essay was again thought-provoking. I skipped the plagiarism essay. "Connecting the dots" was another clear-headed analysis of certain issues that are often discussed fallaciously. "Art of failure" was a useful distinction between "choking" (thinking too carefully about what one does so not being able to do it) and "panicking" (freezing). It was informative. Similarly, the Challenger essay was quite good.

Taken together, the essays in that section showed mainly how common it is for innumerate people or people who reason anecdotally to infer incorrect conclusions from selected data (however, Gladwell never actually says this).

The weakest part of the book is the third, where Gladwell discusses personality traits.

The essay on why we equate genius with precocity was mediocre - the examples given hardly seemed like ones of genius, among other problems.

An essay on hiring was fairly superficial, not much there, although I suppose the fact that it is difficult to predict quarterbacking success is interesting.

I skipped the criminal profiling essay, it seemed rather ludicrous to me.

The essay on whether "smart people" are overrated was weakly reasoned. It argued that companies like Enron gave too much free rein to smart and talented people. But it never gave any evidence that the people to whom Enron gave such free rein were actually smart or talented (if anything, the reverse, when it pointed out that one person kept being promoted despite losing a lot of money). Moreover, there was no good causal link between Enron's problem and this policy. Better examples of extraordinary successes where truly smart people were given great freedom would be the Manhattan Project, the Apollo Project, and Google (or many software startups). Gladwell's failure even to mention these, and his conflation of popularity and intelligence, made this essay to me rather irritating. Surely there's enough anti-intellectualism in the culture already without Gladwell's having to throw his weight behind the movement.

The job interview essay again argued that some people do well in job interviews, and that this is a sign that they will do well. It uses as an example a successful applicant whom Gladwell and others find likable. Tellingly, though, the applicant failed his programming test. I found this essay again to be superficial and, like the previous one, to be constantly conflating popularity with skill.

I skipped the pit bull essay.

In conclusion, it is difficult to avoid being somewhat mesmerized by Gladwell's stream of anecdotes and fascinating facts or factoids. Lurking beneath some of his philosophy, however, is a certain superficiality of outlook and infatuation with popularity and fashion. Nevertheless, it's hard to imagine anyone not enjoying some of these essays, and even the bad ones are done with skill.

without the cohesion of a singular topic Gladwell's collection comes across as a hodgpodge. a disconnected series of well written, sometimes boring but often interesting collection. in the end it feels like a best of designed to capitalize on previous successes. not even that great a time passer.

If you liked Outliers, you will like this book as well. Interesting concepts presented to make one think. Time and place affect the outcome in life of the people/events covered but well worth the read. I especially enjoyed the hair dye marketing many years ago.

If you are a fan of Malcolm Gladwell's other books, you will be disappointed in this book as most of the ideas have been re-written and expanded in his other books, and there will be very little that is new to you. If you are new to Malcolm Gladwell, this jumbled collection of short pieces is probably not the best place to start being blown away by his ideas and writing. I feel this book is a lazy money making exercise by Malcolm's publishers.

A very interesting book that explores some important topics.
Malcolm Gladwell always makes me think while providing first rate entertainment. If you enjoy articles in the New Yorker, you'll love his work

No matter the subject, he brings a fresh perspective. I'd read all his other books previously, but I'd never dug into the essays. You can get lots of good ones for free on his website if you want, but this book pulls so many great ones together and is well worth the price in my opinion.

This compilation of Gladwell's articles has some great pieces and some less great. A little too much Enron. "What the Dog Saw" is the best of the bunch; I'm not surprised that's what was used for the title.

Malcolm Gladwell is the new benchmark for modern writers. Funny, ironic, original: all his books have been greeted by readers as highly interesting and have received widespread enthustiastic acceptance BUT..Malcolm Gladwell has made a mistake. In commenting about the reasons which explain why Heinz Ketchup has no rivals since appearing on the market and mustard hasn't received the same acceptance, Malcolm Gladwell demonstrates he is not a marketing expert. He shows no knowledge of the branding concept which is the 'reason why' Heinz could slowly shape a ketchup culture and buyers could shape this culture enriching it and making become something independent from the brand itself. Ketchup has become a mythical product while mustard hasn't and these kinds of processes are slow and not easy to change drastically in the eyes of consumers. So, Mr Gladwell, when you speak about branding, do your homework please..though I will still buy your books!

I especially enjoyed hearing about late bloomers...gives hope to those of us still waiting to find our hidden talent. And on the differences between panic and choking: I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that. Wonderful selection to help add grooves in your brain.

Once again, Gladwell has made me really think in a critical manner, and has changed my views of things I was pretty sure about. This is a ver good read, and will definitely give you pause to think and rethink.

Nothing ties these essays together. The only thing clever about this book is the title. Each story left me hanging, like someone telling you a story and just stops mid sentence. After reading each one, I found myself saying "...and?....?

About: A collection of Gladwell's essays that were previously published in the New Yorker

Pros: Well written essays on a myriad of topics such as choking in sports, the Challenger explosion and condiments.

Cons: No cites. It would've been nice for Gladwell to expand or add more to the essays.

Grade: B+

I've been reading his articles in the New Yorker for years. This book is a compilation of some of them. I buy his books on CD because I drive way too much and enjoy his reading. This book was a delight! I'm going to listen to it again.

I have enjoyed Mr. Gladwell's previous books and was anxious to read this one. The thing I enjoy the most about his writing and research is the way in which he makes the reader stop to ponder things you just never seem to give much notice to. We move through our lives being stressed or worried most of the time, but never really feeling in control of our lives and in the world we live. When I read a book like this, I appreciate the ingenuity and creativity of humans and it gives me hope for our future. Thank you, Mr. Gladwell, for writing this book.

This book is a collection of classic essays from the author tackling different interesting subjects. What makes the book stand out is the author's incredible ability to tackle a topic, start the essay with a seemingly trivial story, and relate it to another plot that you'll never imagine being connected to it.

I just purchased what the dog saw and i just love it!!! his writing is so easy to get into right away - i am just about done w/ the book and i just started - very interesting - insightful - i look forward to more!!!!