Book: What the Dog Saw and Other AdventuresAuthor: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: Allen Lane (Penguin)
Pages: 410
Price: Rs 479
Eisha Sarkar
Posted on Mumbai Mirror Monday, April 05, 2010 at 03:05:22 PM
The book's cover shows a dog wearing a lampshade over its head and the naked lamp on a table beside it. The back cover shows that the lamp's lit, the dog with the shade still over its head basking in the glow. The picture is funny and wouldn't have made it to the cover of a book unless it was about the dog in the picture. But this is Malcolm Gladwell's book. Expect the unexpected.
Those who've read Gladwell's previous books, Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers, know well that Gladwell talks of the most common of common occurrences, beliefs, events, observations and myths, puts them under a psychologist/sociologist's microscope and decodes why humans behave the way we do. With What the Dog Saw, he has extended his scope. For now he has found why dogs behave the way they do.
The book is named after an article on Cesar Millan, the so-called dog whisperer. Gladwell writes, "Millan can calm the angriest and most troubled of animals with the touch of his hand. What goes on inside Millan's head as he does that? That was what inspired me to write this piece. But after I got halfway through my reporting, I realised there was an even better question: When Millan performs his magic, what goes on inside the dog's head? That's what we really want to know - what the dog saw."
What makes Gladwell a brilliant writer is that he asks questions that wouldn't even have occurred to most of us. The book's not about dogs. It's about how faulty our perceptions can be. He illustrates this in the article, The Picture Problem. Gladwell draws parallels between mammography and satellite images used during the Gulf War. In either case, experts had trouble identifying 'the threat'. So while tumours in the dense areas of the breast may not show up during a regular mammography exam, an oil tanker can mislead analysts to believe that it's a Scud missile. What one man perceives as threat can well alter another man's life.
From hair colour to pitchmen, 'Black Swans' to late bloomers, Enron to Iraq, dangerous minds to troublemakers, talent myths to new-boy networks, plagiarism to intelligence, all form part of this anthology of Gladwell's articles that were published in the New Yorker Magazine. What the Dog Saw encompasses over a decade's worth of well-written, thought-provoking articles. The book's divided into three parts - Part One on obsessives, pioneers and other varieties of minor geniuses, Part Two on theories, predictions and diagnoses and Part Three on personality, character and intelligence.
To his credit, Gladwell quotes extensively from literature and experts to illustrate his point. He does like to hammer it down till you fall in line with his way of thinking (or at least give it an appreciative nod). He skims the surface and digs deeper and deeper till he leaves you with the feeling, "It just can't end here."
That Gladwell is an excellent storyteller and researcher is well-known. But where he scores most is in his underlying humour that he sometimes but powerfully laces with sarcasm to make an impact. He makes you think, when you think he has put it all down for you. That is his genius!
Publisher: Allen Lane (Penguin)
Pages: 410
Price: Rs 479
Eisha Sarkar
Posted on Mumbai Mirror Monday, April 05, 2010 at 03:05:22 PM
The book's cover shows a dog wearing a lampshade over its head and the naked lamp on a table beside it. The back cover shows that the lamp's lit, the dog with the shade still over its head basking in the glow. The picture is funny and wouldn't have made it to the cover of a book unless it was about the dog in the picture. But this is Malcolm Gladwell's book. Expect the unexpected.
Those who've read Gladwell's previous books, Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers, know well that Gladwell talks of the most common of common occurrences, beliefs, events, observations and myths, puts them under a psychologist/sociologist's microscope and decodes why humans behave the way we do. With What the Dog Saw, he has extended his scope. For now he has found why dogs behave the way they do.
The book is named after an article on Cesar Millan, the so-called dog whisperer. Gladwell writes, "Millan can calm the angriest and most troubled of animals with the touch of his hand. What goes on inside Millan's head as he does that? That was what inspired me to write this piece. But after I got halfway through my reporting, I realised there was an even better question: When Millan performs his magic, what goes on inside the dog's head? That's what we really want to know - what the dog saw."
What makes Gladwell a brilliant writer is that he asks questions that wouldn't even have occurred to most of us. The book's not about dogs. It's about how faulty our perceptions can be. He illustrates this in the article, The Picture Problem. Gladwell draws parallels between mammography and satellite images used during the Gulf War. In either case, experts had trouble identifying 'the threat'. So while tumours in the dense areas of the breast may not show up during a regular mammography exam, an oil tanker can mislead analysts to believe that it's a Scud missile. What one man perceives as threat can well alter another man's life.
From hair colour to pitchmen, 'Black Swans' to late bloomers, Enron to Iraq, dangerous minds to troublemakers, talent myths to new-boy networks, plagiarism to intelligence, all form part of this anthology of Gladwell's articles that were published in the New Yorker Magazine. What the Dog Saw encompasses over a decade's worth of well-written, thought-provoking articles. The book's divided into three parts - Part One on obsessives, pioneers and other varieties of minor geniuses, Part Two on theories, predictions and diagnoses and Part Three on personality, character and intelligence.
To his credit, Gladwell quotes extensively from literature and experts to illustrate his point. He does like to hammer it down till you fall in line with his way of thinking (or at least give it an appreciative nod). He skims the surface and digs deeper and deeper till he leaves you with the feeling, "It just can't end here."
That Gladwell is an excellent storyteller and researcher is well-known. But where he scores most is in his underlying humour that he sometimes but powerfully laces with sarcasm to make an impact. He makes you think, when you think he has put it all down for you. That is his genius!
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