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There’s this powerful phrase in the legal world, “Difficult cases make bad law.” The exception is the difficult case. You can’t generalize them by definition. So although they are fascinating, they don’t solve any problem because they’re so one of a kind.

Malcolm Gladwell

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Malcolm Gladwell
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: September 3
Journalist
Screenwriter
Sociologist
Writer
Malcolm Timothy Gladwell
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More quotes by Malcolm Gladwell

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Incompetence annoys me. Overconfidence terrifies me.
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If there is one thing I learned by reading Epstein's The Sports Gene it is that world-class athletes are, by definition, abnormal: that is, the kind of person capable of competing at that level is necessarily very different from the rest of us physiologically. They are outliers.
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Humans socialize in the largest groups of all primates because we are the only animals with brains large enough to handle the complexities of that social arrangement.
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So long as the stereotype is used as a way of understanding how to fix the problem as opposed to demonizing a people or writing them off, then I think it's OK.
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We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.
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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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What interests me about fiction is plot. And what interests me about plot is whether someone tells a story that moves me within the constraints of storytelling. And I have narrowly defined storytelling.
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What we do as a community, as a society, for each other, matters as much as what we do for ourselves. It sounds a little trite, but there's a powerful amount of truth in that, I think.
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If you look at the careers of great entrepreneurs and you look at the moment they took their plunge, the plunge is rarely a great financial or material risk, it’s a social risk. At the moment they started their new businesses, everyone around them said ‘you’re an idiot’.
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..... it would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and draws all sorts of conclusions.
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Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.
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I'm a purist: I start to wrinkle my nose when the Cold War ends.
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It's very hard to find someone who's successful and dislikes what they do.
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Father: 'Anything but journalism.' I rebelled.
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The first person who throws the rock is a lot more radical than a hundredth person.By the time the riot has attracted a hundred people, you don't have to be nearly as much of a daredevil or a hothead or committed or any of those things to want to engage in a riot.
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if we can control the environment in which rapid cognition takes place, then we can control rapid cognition
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Track is full of the absolute nicest and most polite athletes in all of sports, and where does it get us?
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To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success--the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history--with a society that provides opportunities for all.
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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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I should point out that I have a picture of Asbel Kiprop as the screensaver on my phone. Is that embarrassing?
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