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Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head.

Malcolm Gladwell

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Malcolm Gladwell
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: September 3
Journalist
Screenwriter
Sociologist
Writer
Malcolm Timothy Gladwell
Writing
Head
Fails
Make
Ability
Glimpse
Success
Engage
Good
Else
Fail
Think
Someone
Communication
Thinking
Doe
Succeed
Give
Failing
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Giving
Strength
Persuade

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Sometimes [genius] is just the thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table.
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Innovation-the heart of the knowledge economy-is fundamentally social.
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Sometimes constraints actually create success. Not being able to swim made me run. And running taught me the discipline I needed as a writer.
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What is learned out of hard work and trial is inevitably more powerful than what is learned easily.
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My earliest memories of my father are of seeing him work at his desk and realizing that he was happy. I did not know it then, but that was one of the most precious gifts a father can give his child.
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Happiness, in one sense, is a function of how closely our world conforms to the infinite variety of human preference.
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If everyone has to think outside the box, maybe it is the box that needs fixing.
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Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.
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If you think advantage lies in resources, then you think the best educational system is the one that spends the most money.
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My writing model is my mother, who is a writer as well. She always valued clarity and simplicity above all else. If someone doesn't understand what you're writing, then everything else you do is superfluous. Irrelevant. If any thoughtful, curious reader finds what I do impenetrable, I've failed.
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I don't want to be like the angry old guy in the corner who is always ranting and raving about the same things - but I don't mind doing that just a little bit!
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It wasn't an excuse. It was a fact. He'd had to make his way alone, and no one - not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses - ever makes it alone.
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That is the paradox of the epidemic: that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.
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The Rule of 150 says that congregants of a rapidly expanding church, or the members of a social club, or anyone in a group activity banking on the epidemic spread of shared ideals needs to be particularly cognizant of the perils of the bigness. Crossing the 150 line is a small change that can make a big difference.
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People are experience-rich and theory-poor. I help people organize / make sense of their experiences.
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You don't manage a social wrong. You should be ending it.
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Incompetence annoys me. Overconfidence terrifies me.
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When it's easy to make money, you have no incentive to think about development of talent.
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I've been in auditions without screens, and I can assure you that I was prejudiced. I began to listen with my eyes, and there is no way that your eyes don't affect your judgement. The only true way to listen is with your ears and your heart. (p.251)
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Asian culture has a profoundly different relationship to work. It rewards people who are persistent.
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