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What the Dog Saw

By: Malcolm Gladwell
Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
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Publisher's summary

The best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia focuses on "minor geniuses" and idiosyncratic behavior to illuminate the ways all of us organize experience in this "delightful" (Bloomberg News) collection of writings from The New Yorker.

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?

In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.

Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.

"Good writing", Gladwell says in his preface, "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". What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

©2009 Malcolm Gladwell (P)2009 Hachette Audio
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What listeners say about What the Dog Saw

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Gladwell at his best

If you've read any of Gladwell's other books, this will sound like a lot of mini-books put together - and that's because that's what this is. I'm a big fan and love the way he puts his arguments. In many of these stories, he doesn't come to a conclusion, but rather (as he puts it in the introduction) tries to engage us in the story and make us think about it. It's wonderful to see how mundane topics that we'd never think twice about can be wonderful stories.
He's also a great narrator of his books.

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9 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Felt a little bit like an infomercial

I recommend pretty much every book by Gladwell except this one. I'm still glad I listened to this book even though it wasn't his best.

There were some interesting points made in this book but nothing you couldn't get out of all the other books by Malcolm Gladwell.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Maybe the best

This ended up, so far, being my favorite of the Gladwell books, even though it's all reprints. I knew none of the essays before and was very glad to find them. A couple of them are nearly perfect in structure and language craft. All are very good; some are worth multiple reads. All are Gladwellian in approach, but more focused and structured than the full-length books. Some were precursors to the existing books; some, I hope, are precursors of other books. I enjoy hearing Gladwell read his own work; that's a bonus. I can't imagine another doing as well.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

So so

Interesting articles, but doesn't seem to come together. Some parts of this book were very boring. This pains me to say, because I am a huge fan of Malcolm's Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

As always

Malcolm Gladwell never disappoints! You will enjoy this group of stories ~ he keeps giving me a different perspective on life!

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great clips!

Having heard his other books, these are a great sample selection of his article work that he has done.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Another eye opening book by Gladwell.

Malcolm Gladwell always give you something to think about. It never really is how it looks that tells the whole story.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not as Amazing as Outliers and Tipping Point

Outliers and Tipping Point were fascinating to me. I found my mind wandering while listening to What the Dog Saw. Of course the topics that appeal are a matter of personal taste. You might prioritize these three books differently.

Gladwell has a wonderful voice, and he reads his material beautifully.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Who Needs Fiction?

Who needs fiction when real life is so damned interesting? This book tells stories, some decades long in the making, that bring to life the impacts humans and their choices and capabilities have on the course of all kinds of social and scientific history. I actually stopped listening to NPR in the car until I'd finished it...!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I'm in love with Malcolm Gladwell

All of his books are captivating & this one takes the standpoint that not all of our "facts" assumptions or profiling has any basis to reality. Makes you question why you believe what you believe.

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