Incompetence is certainty in the absence of expertise. Overconfidence is certainty in the presence of expertise.
Malcolm GladwellThe conventional wisdom is often wrong. Crime didn't keep soaring in the 1990s, money alone doesn't win elections, and - surprise - drinking eight glasses of water a day has never actually been shown to do a thing for your health. Conventional wisdom is often shoddily formed and devilishly difficult to see through, but it can be done.
Malcolm GladwellI'm convinced that ideas and behaviors and new products move through a population very much like a disease does.
Malcolm GladwellEconomists often talk about the 80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the โworkโ will be done by 20 percent of the participants. In most societies, 20 percent of criminals commit 80 percent of crimes. Twenty percent of motorists cause 80 percent of all accidents. Twenty percent of beer drinkers drink 80 percent of all beer. When it comes to epidemics, though, this disproportionality becomes even more extreme: a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work.
Malcolm Gladwell