After I read a collection of Tim Hartford’s Financial Times articles in Dear Undercover Economist, it was only logical to follow up with a collection of Malcolm Gladwell’s articles in the New Yorker, especially as I truly loved his last book Outliers.

The book is a compilation of Gladwell’s favorite articles. They are split into three parts:

1. The life stories of obsessives and minor geniuses
2. Theories and ways of organizing experience
3. Thoughts on the predictions we make about people

The first part was actually the worse – Gladwell’s writing is excellent, but I just did not care about some of the stories. I loved some of the biographies as well so it made that section uneven.

The second and third sections were truly thought provoking. He covers a wide range of topics including the Enron blowup, homelessness, the Challenger disaster, how we hire people, how society should best deal with pit bull attacks.

What I loved is that most of his conclusions are counter intuitive yet logical and require thoughtful analysis.

Read the book, it will open your mind!