# New Malcolm Gladwell Book (Talking To Strangers)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-malcolm-gladwell-book-talking-to-strangers/840020>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 11, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-malcolm-gladwell-book-talking-to-strangers/840020 "2019-09-11T02:30:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-malcolm-gladwell-book-talking-to-strangers/840020/1 "2019-09-11T02:30:02Z")

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Read the new Gladwell book today after reading some mixed reviews. I liked it. I thought he did a credible job of making the point that it is easy to misjudge people, because our expectations of how they should behave are flawed, and our faith in our ability to judge is misplaced. Gladwell calls this an inability to talk to strangers.

But some of his examples don’t seem too tightly tied to this thesis. Some critics complained that Gladwell himself had reached a Tipping Point.

Anyone else here read this yet, or have any thoughts?

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-malcolm-gladwell-book-talking-to-strangers/840020/2 "2019-09-12T00:03:34Z")

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I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’ve listened to some other materials, and subscribe to his podcast. I regard him as entertaining, and he does make some good points, but you have to be very careful with him, as he has a tendency to lead you to draw conclusions on one subject by explaining something obvious about another topic, i.e., introducing parallels that might not be really parallels.

I’m sure I’ll enjoy it, because I love listening to things critically, and he’s legitimately talented in how he executes his approach. I’d love to have a Blue with him.

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**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-malcolm-gladwell-book-talking-to-strangers/840020/3 "2019-09-12T01:37:06Z")

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> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> But some of his examples don’t seem too tightly tied to this thesis. Some critics complained that Gladwell himself had reached a Tipping Point.

I felt the same about his podcast: a few related stories, then some random stuff he wanted to rant about.

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-malcolm-gladwell-book-talking-to-strangers/840020/4 "2019-09-12T02:33:37Z")

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I actually unsubscribed to the podcast. The built-in advertisements were too much.