REVENGE of the TIPPING POINT: OVERSTORIES, SUPERSPREADERS, and the RISE of SOCIAL ENGINEERING (audiobook) by Malcom Gladwell

Published in 2024 by Little, Brown, and Company.
Read by the author, Malcolm Gladwell.
Duration: 8 hours, 25 minutes.
Unabridged.

Malcolm Gladwell delivers another immensely entertaining and informative rambling discussion of, well, so many things in Revenge of the Tipping Point.

Ostensibly, this is a look at the opioid epidemic, but Malcolm Gladwell's style always reminds the reader that the world is inter-related and complicated and so very interesting.

I plowed through this 8 hour audiobook in just a couple of days. I listened whenever I could and, honestly, I forgot that this was supposed to be a book about the opioid crisis during the 2nd hour and I did not remember he directly came back to the topic during hte 7th hour. In the meantime we had discussed medicare fraud in Florida, Cheetahs in zoos, the dangers of monocultures, Los Angeles as the country's epicenter of bank robberies, COVID superspreaders, vehicle emmissions, and more.

It was all so interesting and he does tie it all together. Also, we learn about unintended consequences in the last half hour.

This is my 8th review of a Gladwell book and I rated them all as 4 or 5 star books. I always think hard about listening to a new one because I know I am about to be immersed into a complicated, riveting set of stories and that's a commitment.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: REVENGE of the TIPPING POINT: OVERSTORIES, SUPERSPREADERS, and the RISE of SOCIAL ENGINEERING by Malcolm Gladwell.

THE BOMBER MAFIA: A DREAM, A TEMPTATION and the LONGEST NIGHT of the SECOND WORLD WAR (audiobook) by Malcolm Gladwell

 

Published in 2021 by Pushkin Industries.
Read by the author, Malcolm Gladwell.
Duration: 5 hours, 14 minutes.
Unabridged.

Before there was a U.S. Air Force, there was the U.S. Army Air Corps. Before the Army Air Corps (re-organized as the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942) built the largest collection of flying fighting machines to relentlessly bomb the Axis Powers in World War II, they had a tiny budget and a few air bases. One of these was Maxwell Field, a training facility in Alabama. That facility became the intellectual home of a group of pilots who espoused the concept of precision bombing. They were known as The Bomber Mafia.

Precision bombing is the theory that teaches that you don't have to blow an enemy's entire military to pieces, you can just hit certain key industries and choke out their ability to produce more weapons/feed their people/move soldiers and so on. This was intended to be a more humane way to wage war - an antidote to the mass slaughter the world saw in World War I. Precision bombing could end wars before they got to that point by simply forcing an opponent to stand down. The invention of the Norden Bomb Sight convinced them that bombers could fly as high as they wanted over the enemy and could still drop bombs precisely where they wanted them

The other argument when it comes to bombing is strategic bombing. Strategic bombing, in simple terms, is brute force bombing. It is simply dropping bombs on enemy territory to inflict maximum mayhem and damage with the goal of breaking the morale of the enemy. Think of it as something like Sherman's infamous March to the Sea from the Civil War, but delivered from the air.

In the European Theater, the U.K.'s Royal Air Force followed a policy of strategic bombing. They flew at night in order to give their pilots cover and they indiscriminately dropped bombs on German cities. The Americans flew during the day and used the daylight to try to hit certain high value targets as part of a precision bombing strategy. 

This audiobook is about the debate over the two points of view, specifically in the Pacific Theater. For months, the United States tried precision bombing, but a combination of things made it difficult, including factors like the weather was much more erratic and the manufacturing base was more diffuse (a lot of parts were actually made by small-time family-based manufacturers).

US Navy Grumman TBF Avenger aircraft dropping
bombs on Hakodate during July 1945

When Curtis LeMay arrived in the Pacific Theater, he brought a different plan. He had personally flown and led precision bombing missions and was not impressed. He brought massive fire bombing campaigns to Japan and leveled city after city.

Gladwell comes up with a mixed bag of conclusions. He gives the impression that strategic bombing was the obvious choice, but it clearly wasn't that simple. LeMay leveled huge chunks of 66 Japanese cities and the Japanese kept on fighting. Tokyo was hit so hard that it was actually removed from the official target list. 

Imagine of the situation was reversed and America was subject to such attacks. New York City would be hit so hard that it was effectively gone and so would the next 65 cities by population. That would include Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas, of course. But that would also include the destruction of such smaller cities as Indianapolis, Albuquerque, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Fresno, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Tulsa, Corpus Christi, Tampa and Cincinnati.  Would we have kept fighting?

I say we would have kept right on fighting. Strategic bombing was used against England at the beginning of the war and, in the end, it seems to have made England all the more determined to fight and inflict as much strategic bombing as possible on Germany. One could argue that the Germans and Japanese surrenders owed more to fear of Soviet occupation than a desire to end the firebombings. 

Gladwell brings the discussion into the modern world with discussions of cruise missiles that can hit specific GPS locations and drones that can target individual people. He gives the impression that precision bombing is actually the way to go. 

But, did our targeted "Shock and Awe" campaign in the Iraq in 2003 make the Iraqi people decide to just go along with America's plans? Did the Taliban just quit even though we killed who knows how many of them with drone attacks that demonstrated we have the ability to sift through all of the data, figure out who they are and find them no matter where they hide?

What were are left with is an unresolved question even though Gladwell gives the impression that he did provide them.

But, the discussion was interesting.

This audiobook was produced by Gladwell's podcasting company. He includes special effects and audio from the time period and interviews that were conducted after the war. It was a really slick production.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE BOMBER MAFIA: A DREAM, A TEMPTATION and the LONGEST NIGHT of the SECOND WORLD WAR (audiobook) by Malcolm Gladwell.

THE TIPPING POINT: HOW LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE a BIG DIFFERENCE (audiobook) by Malcolm Gladwell

Original edition published in 2000.

Updated edition published by Hachette Audio in 2006.

Read by the author, Malcolm Gladwell.

Duration: 8 hours, 34 minutes.
Unabridged. 

Malcolm Gladwell's first book is about "tipping points" - that moment where an idea, a fad, a political candidate, a disease (or whatever) catches on and spreads like wildfire.

Gladwell looks into the human factors that contributes to spread of all of the things I mentioned in the first paragraph boils it down to three types of people that are needed. He details those personality types, describes why they are important and provides real world examples of those personality types. For example, he goes into a lot of detail into why Paul Revere was absolutely necessary for the success of his midnight ride. There was another rider, but he achieved little.

Paul Revere, on the other hand, was wildly successful for a number of reasons related to how well-connected he was. His ride resulted in the Minutemen coming out to fight and the victory of the Minutemen over the British in the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Without those early victories, there may not have been a Revolutionary War. Who Paul Revere was made him the tipping point. He delivered the same message, but it had much more of in impact coming from Paul Revere.

As with all social sciences, there is never a perfect answer to anything because human behavior is so hard to definitively quantify. But, this book is immensely interesting and there are lots of good things to think about. Plus, Gladwell's voice is quite pleasant to listen to.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE TIPPING POINT: HOW LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE a BIG DIFFERENCE by Malcolm Gladwell.

TALKING to STRANGERS: WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT the PEOPLE WE DON'T KNOW (audiobook) by Malcolm Gladwell

Published in September of 2019 by Hachette Audio
Read by the author, Malcolm Gladwell
Duration: 8 hours, 42 minutes.
Unabridged

Malcolm Gladwell always writes an interesting book. When you listen to him as an audiobook, it can be frustrating as well because he throws so many ideas at you that you can't possibly write them all down (I couldn't if I wanted to anyway, I do a lot of my listening as I drive).

The general premise behind Talking to Strangers is that it is very hard for people to "read" other people - even people that we see every day. It is even harder for us to read strangers and even harder to read people from different cultures. The more different the culture, the harder to read.

Gladwell starts with the story of the death of Sandra Bland, an African American woman from Chicago who killed herself after a questionable arrest after a questionable traffic stop in Texas.

From there we wander far and wide - cold war espionage cases, policing strategies in Kansas City, Neville Chamberlin's meetings with Adolf Hitler, sociology experiments with participants trying to read facial expressions, judges who grant bail, Bernie Madoff, the affects of alcohol on judgment, famous authors who committed suicide...and more.

Eventually, Gladwell makes his point (some reviewers don't think he made it, but I think he did) - it just takes such a long, circuitous route to get there that, in the end, his final point is a bit underwhelming.

The audiobook was read by the author. He usually reads his audiobooks and does a good job. Lately, he has been doing a regular podcast and he brings the some of the techniques of podcasting to this audiobook. One of the best features is that he uses the actual recordings of people's voices as much as possible when quoting them. It is a great touch that I wish more authors used with their audiobooks.

Rating this audiobook is hard. I enjoyed almost all of it. It was very interesting, even compelling. But, the ending just was underwhelming as I already noted.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: TALKING to STRANGERS: WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT the PEOPLE WE DON'T KNOW.

DAVID and GOLIATH: UNDERDOGS, MISFITS, and the ART of BATTLING GIANTS (audiobook) by Malcolm Gladwell

Published by Hachette Audio in October of 2013.
Read by the author, Malcolm Gladwell.
Duration: 7 hours
Unabridged

Malcolm Gladwell has made his reputation by writing insightful articles in which you thoroughly learn about one thing but also how it applies to a larger concept.  Usually, there's a little light science involved and, if nothing else, the reader (or in my case, the listener) feels like he or she learned a little bit and heard an interesting story.

In this case, the premise is that in the David vs. Goliath stories, the underdog is not always as much of an underdog as it seems. He starts with the original David vs. Goliath story - the one in the Old Testament of the Bible and explains that Goliath clearly had size and strength going for him but those weren't all-pervading advantages. Goliath was strong and large but his strength made him reliant on the sword and close-in fighting. If an enemy got close to him and if Goliath got hold of him, Goliath would win. But, David was quick, small and used a sling. One commentator he quotes compares a skilled sling-user to a person using a pistol. David stands back, takes his shot, knocks down Goliath and then Goliath's strengths are all weaknesses. His size and armor makes it hard for him to get up. David rushes in and finishes Goliath.

Malcolm Gladwell in 2014.
Photo by Kris Krug.

In David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, Gladwell takes the lessons of the original story ("There is an important lesson in that for battles with all kinds of giants. The powerful and the strong are not always what they seem.") and applies them to other situations. Some of them are natural fits (the entertaining and inspiring story of the girl's basketball team with not a lot of talent but a whole lot of grit and the willingness to play full court defense), some not so much (education, learning disabilities, family tragedies).

But, even if the theme is imperfect throughout the book, the book itself is interesting throughout. His commentary on education and class size was interesting to this public school teacher. The conventional wisdom is that smaller is better, and it is to the point of diminishing returns. But, there is a competing conventional wisdom that says "class size does not matter." In my school system one of our assistant superintendents was fond of quoting that "fact" as she advocated for ever larger class sizes as a way to save money. It turns out they are both right. Too small (maybe 10 or 12) and the class dynamic gets weird, something I already knew from experience. Too large and the class gets unwieldy and the class dynamic changes from interactivity to college large class lecture format (near 40). I have had classes that large as well. They are tiring and the grading gets overwhelming. Plus, no one gets any sort of attention except for the troublemakers.

There's a lot of ground covered in just 7 hours and I found the whole book very entertaining. He talks about everything from the London Blitz to serial killers to the Civil Rights struggles in Birmingham in the 1960s to Leukemia. It's all interesting and I felt as though I were listening to a knowledgeable friend ramble on about vaguely related but highly interesting topics. Gladwell does a great job at narration.

The commentary about the perceived legitimacy of police forces in comparison with the British in Northern Ireland and the NYPD in a troubled neighborhood makes that section a must-read when thinking about the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States right now. 

Highly recommended.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found here on Amazon.com here: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants,

WHAT the DOG SAW and OTHER ADVENTURES (audiobook) by Malcolm Gladwell

Published by Hachette Audio in 2009
Read by the author, Malcolm Gladwell
Duration: 12 hours, 49 minutes
Unabridged

This fascinating audiobook is actually a collection of articles that Malcolm Gladwell has written over the years. Each story in What the Dog Saw is about 30-45 minutes long and cover a great variety of subjects. Topics include ketchup, mammograms, FBI profilers, pit bulls, menstrual cycles, Ron Popeil (founder of Ronco), the dog whisperer, plagiarism, the Challenger Explosion/risk, home hair coloring products and the opportunities that those products offered for female executives, first impressions/job interviews, homelessness and how to solve it (really!), The Pill, Enron and the importance of having a great teacher in every classroom.

I am a teacher and I was of course interested in his discussion about teachers. What was best was his emphasis on the day-to-day interaction between students and teachers and how one can observe quality education in action. What was worst was the insistence that a standardized test can really identify good teaching. There are so many variables that go into a one time standardized test such as overall climate of the school, the day-to-day mood and health of the students and the teacher, the students' personal lives (at home and at school) that I would compare it to a giant stew rather - and it is hard to figure out what makes a great stew great. Is it the meat, the potatoes, the broth, the temperature it was cooked at, the way the ingredients were cut, and so on.

The article about one of the creators of The Pill was tedious at best. Unfortunately, it comes fairly early and I decided while I was listening to it that if there was another one like this one I was going to bail on the whole audiobook.

Malcolm Gladwell.
Photo by PEN American Center

Thank goodness I didn't. The rest of the book is really very interesting and provided some good discussion fodder between my daughter and I as we carpooled to school in the morning.

The Enron article was mind-blowing for me. It was a massive scandal when Enron collapsed but the fact that they were doing was literally posted on their website and the IRS had figured it out beforehand (they did nothing because it wasn't illegal, just really, really stupid) makes me wonder about the people who rate stocks and investments. 

The article on homelessness hit the listener in the gut in multiple ways. By not dealing with it, we are making it much, much, much more expensive and gumming up the works in other areas, like emergency rooms. But, by dealing with it do we break faith with people who are doing things "the right way" but not having much success.

The book was read by the author. He has a lot of experience being interviewed and participating in panel discussions on TV and radio so it wasn't like he was a complete rookie in front of the microphone. There are times when he has a peculiar way of saying a word but I think it really was an overwhelmingly positive experience having him read the book. His slightly quirky reading style matched his offbeat topics and writing style making the whole experience feel like Gladwell was riding in the backseat of the car telling you all about some topic that he thought was interesting and was sure that you would to. 

And, he was almost always right.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: What the Dog Saw.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

An enjoyable read but does it do what it claims to do?

Published in 2005.

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is an enjoyable read - I breezed right through it and found it to be a book that I would look forward to opening up. Gladwell does a masterful job of weaving together 3 or more points at the same time without losing the reader and frequently leaving me amazed at his organizational skills.

That being said, does Blink get the job done? Does he prove his thesis about "The power of thinking without thinking"? Yes and no. He starts out with a great example of a supposed piece of Greek art that may or may not be a real piece of ancient art. His thesis plays out well there, with his comments on why certain musicians make it and others don't and his comments on police and the need to think quickly are all strong.

His arguments about Paul Van Riper and the war game he won, however, were more about the power of de-centralized decision-making versus centralized planning, in my opinion. Nonetheless, it's a good read and well worth your time.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

Reviewed on December 6, 2008.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

One of the most interesting and profound books I've read this year.

Published in 2008.

Please pardon a little bit of blogging tossed in with a little bit of book reviewing - it's not my normal style.

I am a high school teacher and we are, as a school, busily studying the racial achievement gap that exists on all (if not all, it is almost, almost, almost all) standardized tests across the country. Currently, I am bucking my school system by insisting it is not a racial gap but rather a failure of the culture of the school to attune itself to the culture of our African-American and Hispanic students. A cultural gap, as it were.

To me this is no simple issue of semantics - if the gaps are cultural they can be overcome by re-tooling and learning new strategies. If the gaps in achievement truly are racial - based on inherited characteristics from our genetic code, well, what's the point of trying, really? To be honest, I truly think they are using the word "race" as a simplistic code word for culture, but this is dangerous game to play, in my opinion. It is too easy for someone who is not clued into this simplistic code word game to misunderstand and take it as real that the racial achievement gap is truly based on the child's DNA.

Malcolm Gladwell

Anyway, in Outliers Malcolm Gladwell backs up my arguments in chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 with interesting analyses that shed light on the importance of learned culture on success and behaviors. I recommended this book to a member of the leadership team that is leading these discussions and he was intrigued enough to pick up the book and start reading.

The other way that this book was meaningful was its emphasis on the role of practice in achieving success. 10,000 hours - the magic number when it takes to become a Mozart or The Beatles or Bill Gates or Michael Jordan. Note the emphasis on the individual here - you too can be a master of your chosen field with just enough practice! Sort of democratizing isn't it? This is blended together with cultural legacies in Chapter 9 to show how culture can encourage that sense of purpose in an individual.

Anyway, I have a student teacher who will be a very good teacher one day and I spoke with her about the value of practice and experience. She won't be a master teacher in her first year, but those hours in the classroom will add up and she will be one day. Well, it sounds less profound here, written down. Believe me, it was inspiring when I spoke about it (at least I hope it was!)

So, in short, this is a heckuva interesting book. I devoured it. It gave me a lot to ruminate about.

Highly recommended.

I rated this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Outliers: The Story of Success. 

Reviewed on March 19, 2010.