Books Secrets: Blink

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996, and is the author of five New York Times bestsellers - The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath.

Family

Gladwell was born in Fareham, Hampshire, England. His mother is Joyce Gladwell, a Jamaican-born psychotherapist. His father, Graham Gladwell, is a mathematics professor from Kent, England. Gladwell has said that his mother is his role model as a writer. When he was six, his family moved to Elmira, Ontario, Canada.

Education

Gladwell's father noted that Malcolm was an unusually single-minded and ambitious boy. When Malcolm was 11, his father, who was a professor of mathematics and engineering at the University of Waterloo, allowed him to wander around the offices at his university, which stoked the boy's interest in reading and libraries.

During his high school years, Gladwell was an outstanding middle-distance runner and won the 1,500 meter title at the 1978 Ontario High School 14-year-old championships in Kingston, Ontario.

In the spring of 1982, Gladwell interned with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.

He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto in 1984.

Career

Gladwell's grades were not good enough for graduate school, so he decided to go into advertising. After being rejected by every advertising agency he applied to, he accepted a journalism position at The American Spectator and moved to Indiana.

He subsequently wrote for Insight on the News, a conservative magazine owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.

In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for The Washington Post, where he worked until 1996.

Gladwell started at The New Yorker in 1996 and gained popularity with two articles, both written in 1996: "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt". These two pieces would become the basis for Gladwell's first book, The Tipping Point, for which he received a $1 million advance.

Now Gladwell continues to write for The New Yorker and he also serves as a contributing editor for Grantland, a sports journalism website founded by ESPN's Bill Simmons.

Works

Gladwell has written five books. When asked for the process behind his writing, he said:

"I have two parallel things I'm interested in. One is, I'm interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is I'm interested in collecting interesting research. What I'm looking for is cases where they overlap".

Book Title	Year	Summary
The Tipping Point : How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference	2000	In this book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at why major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas, behavior, messages, and products, he argues, often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave, or a satisfied customer fill the empty tables of a new restaurant. These are social epidemics, and the moment when they take off, when they reach their critical mass, is the Tipping Point.
Blink : The power of thinking without thinking	2005	Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant--in the blink of an eye--that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?
Outliers: The Story of Success	2008	There is a story that is usually told about extremely successful people, a story that focuses on intelligence and ambition. Gladwell argues that the true story of success is very different, and that if we want to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time looking around them-at such things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth date. And in revealing that hidden logic, Gladwell presents a fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential.
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures	2009	What the Dog Saw bundles together Gladwell's favorite articles from The New Yorker since he joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1996. The stories share a common theme, namely that Gladwell tries to show us the world through the eyes of others, even if that other happens to be a dog.
David and Goliath: : Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants	2013	Gladwell looks at the complex and surprising ways in which the weak can defeat the strong, how the small can match up against the giant, and how our goals (often cultural determined) can make a huge difference in our ultimate sense of success. Drawing upon examples from the world of business, sports, culture, cutting-edge psychology and an array of unforgettable characters around the world.

Reception

The Tipping Point

Named as one of the best books of the decade by Amazon.com customers, The A.V. Club, The Guardian, and The Times.
Barnes and Nobles's fifth bestselling nonfiction book of the decade.

Blink

Named to Fast Company's list of the best business books of 2005,
Number 5 on Amazon customers' favorite books of 2005,
Named to The Christian Science Monitor's best nonfiction books of 2005,
In the top 50 of Amazon customers' favorite books of the decade.

Outliers

Number 1 The New York Times bestseller for 11 straight weeks,
Time's number 10 nonfiction book of 2008,
Named to the San Francisco Chronicle's list of the 50 best nonfiction books of 2008.

Awards and Honors

2005 : Time named Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people.
2007 : American Sociological Association's first Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues.
2007 : Honorary degree from University of Waterloo.
2011 : Honorary degree from University of Toronto