Malcolm Gladwell Quotes

Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.

Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not, With the slightest push - in just the right place - it can be tipped.

Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.

It's challenging, it's not hopeless. You have to come up with something. You have to figure out a way to help them, because people must have hope to live.

Hard work is only a prison sentence when you lack motivation

I've been in auditions without screens, and I can assure you that I was prejudiced. I began to listen with my eyes, and there is no way that your eyes don't affect your judgement. The only true way to listen is with your ears and your heart. (p.251)

The entire principle of a blind taste test was ridiculous. They shouldn't have cared so much that they were losing blind taste tests with old Coke, and we shouldn't at all be surprised that Pepsi's dominance in blind taste tests never translated to much in the real world. Why not? Because in the real world, no one ever drinks Coca-Cola blind.

Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action."(p.115)

But this same dilemma comes up again and again in our own lives, and often we don't choose so wisely. The inverted-U curve reminds us that there is a point at which money and resources stop making our lives better and start making them worse.

Whenever we have something that we are good at-something we care about-that experience and passion fundamentally change the nature of our first impressions.