My highest compliment is when someone comes up to me to say, "My 14-year-old daughter, or my 12-year-old son read your book and loved it." I cannot conceive of a greater compliment than that - to write something that as an adult I find satisfying, but also that manages to reach a curious 13- or 14-year-old.
Malcolm GladwellRadio stations have constructed a narrow door[way], and that's because they don't understand how complex and paradoxical our snap judgments are. It's hard to measure new songs.
Malcolm GladwellPeople are in one of two states in a relationship,โ Gottman went on. โThe first is what I call positive sentiment override, where positive emotion overrides irritability. Itโs like a buffer. Their spouse will do something bad, and theyโll say, โOh, heโs just in a crummy mood.โ Or they can be in negative sentiment override, so that even a relatively neutral thing that a partner says gets perceived as negative.
Malcolm GladwellThe 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.
Malcolm GladwellScience fiction annoyed me because it was like, "Why is the world as it is not enough for you?"
Malcolm GladwellWe don't know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don't always appreciate their fragility.
Malcolm GladwellDavid Epstein, the author of the best book on athletics in recent memory - "The Sports Gene" - wrote to me to say that he thinks I'm being overly generous. He points out that, for years, there used to be an "all-star challenge" on television, in which the best professional athletes from a variety of sports competed in a kind of makeshift decathlon.
Malcolm Gladwell