Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds.
Malcolm GladwellWe overlook just how large a role we all play--and by 'we' I mean society--in determining who makes it and who doesn't.
Malcolm GladwellThereโs this powerful phrase in the legal world, โDifficult cases make bad law.โ The exception is the difficult case. You canโt generalize them by definition. So although they are fascinating, they donโt solve any problem because theyโre so one of a kind.
Malcolm GladwellThe conventional explanation for Jewish success, of course, is that Jews come from a literate, intellectual culture. They are famously "the people of the book." There is surely something to that. But it wasn't just the children of rabbis who went to law school. It was the children of garment workers. And their critical advantage in climbing the professional ladder wasn't the intellectual rigor you get from studying the Talmud. It was the practical intelligence and savvy you get from watching your father sell aprons on Hester Street.
Malcolm GladwellJenny Simpson loses her shoe in the women's fifteen hundred, with a lap and a half to go, destroying her chances to repeat as world champion, and she gives the most gracious interview afterward about how she's had a wonderful career already. Great for Jenny Simpson. Bad for the sport! We need drama!
Malcolm Gladwell