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What the Reader Saw (Pt. 2)

Upon finishing What the Dog Saw, I found that I had enjoyed it far more than expected. Stories of stock market investment strategies, hair coloring, plagiarism, and ketchup aren't usually the first to catch my eye when I enter Barnes & Noble, yet Malcolm Gladwell has the strange ability to make his reader feel like they were there, watching Ron Popeil pitch his rotisserie chicken oven to America for the first time with him, or watching Cesar Milan calm the fiercest  of dogs right before their own eyes. Gladwell's unexpected power of immersion can leave a reader feeling stunned, enlightened, and burdened with new perspective all in one novel with a series of random stories that fit together seamlessly. Not what I expected from a school reading, but I continue to be pleasantly surprised. I'm looking forward to new perspectives, and am thankful for the ones I have gained. Overall, highly recommended.

Man's Best Friend

As a dog lover, the chapter on Cesar Milan and his "dog whispering" techniques was one that I looked forward to. One of the things that both Gladwell and Milan emphasized throughout the section of the book was that Milan's hard work with the psychology of both the dogs and their owners over years of trial and error is what made his skills look like magic. The lesson; work trumps illusion every time. As a kid, Milan had trouble connecting with people, so he connected with dogs instead. His success with the animals lead him to make training his career, but he soon realized that in order to be successful with the dogs, he needed to be successful with their owners as well. I find Milan's story inspiring, and the way it is told by Gladwell makes it a page turner, just like any New York Times bestseller would be. Again, Gladwell achieves in making his subject feel like the author, and his readers completely immersed in his story.

Companies I Would Definitely Apply For:

McKinsey and Company is one of the better soldiers in the "War for Talent." Their philosophy: hire very smart people and over compensate them for their jobs. Rewarding the stars of the company and constantly pushing them through to bigger and better levels of management seems like the perfect system to boost any employee's confidence, but is it the most effective to run an entire cooperation with? Gladwell isn't afraid to ask the tough questions in this chapter, which is something I haven't seen him do since his argument on plagiarism. He points out that studies show that there is virtually no link between IQ and workplace success, because in school your compatibility with others and common sense skills have little to no influence on your grade based success. Despite these arguments, McKinsey and Co. is still a highly successful company, so I guess there are two arguments to every story, and in this case, they both may be right.

Not So Dangerous Minds

As an avid watcher and fan of Criminal Minds, I was particularly excited for this chapter. Yet I feel like I may have actually watched too many Criminal Minds marathons because, everything Gladwell had to say about the different types of criminals and their characteristics and traits all seemed strangely familiar. The contrasts between precise and unplanned killers were none the less very interesting, and has left no doubt in my mind that criminal profiling is and always will be a vital part of catching killers. Thank you Gladwell, you have proven that my crime show obsession is not as irrational as I thought it to be.
Side note: I am still impressed with the way Gladwell is able to write about such as large variety of topics and still be able to condense them into one book that seemingly flows, even though there is no way that it should.

A Picnic Table Burglary

As a student constantly being reminded of the dangers of plagiarism, the chapter was actually quite refreshing to hear. Gladwell introduces his readers to a law professor name Lawrence Lessig who makes a very valid point; if one day you go and steal your neighbor's picnic table, then that is clearly stealing. But if you simply get the idea to go and make your own picnic table, should that be considered stealing also? Should using your neighbor's idea be an action that can essentially ruin your academic life? I understand that yes, plagiarism is often more serious than building your own picnic table, but if your neighbor is the only one who can ever build a table for the purpose of a picnic, how can he expect his idea to modernize and grow and be built upon if he is the only one who legally has access to the concept? As a person who wants to do cardiovascular research after med school, I fully understood Gladwell's point. The sharing of ideas is not considered plagiarism, yet the using of them is, but can we effectively define and enforce the difference between sharing and using? If we can, I would like to know how.

Because reading This Chapter Is Worth It

Going into chapter 4 of the novel, and having read of stock markets, condiments, and rotisserie ovens I wasn't really sure what to expect when I read the sub-header claiming hair dye had revolutionized post war America. Yet after just a few pages I was introduced to two women: Shirley Polykoff and Ilon Specht. Polykoff worked for a beauty company called Clariol, and dedicated her mareting strategy to the idea of "does she, or doesn't she?" She believed in the power of discretion, which was, in my opinion, a major statement at the time because of the traditional household roles of men and women. To push the boundaries even further, Specht wrote the slogan for the famous hair color company L'Oréal, "Because I'm Worth It," (which later changed to "Because You're Worth It" in 2002). With emphasis on the "I'm" in the slogan, L'Oréal soon convinced women across the country to buy the most expensive hair coloring product on the market simply because they were doing it for themselves, not their friends or husbands or boyfriends. A major step for the beauty industry has been made. Never dd I thnk I would find myself inspired by hair coloring products. Thank you Malcolm.

A Single Black Swan

Gladwell focuses on one person's unique investment strategy in this chapter. While it is easy to be overwhelmed by all of the stock market terms and seemingly meaningless numbers that are spouted off in the next 25 pages, if you pay close enough attention, Gladwell brings light to an investment strategy that is perfectly illogical, but at the same time the most reliable. Nassim Taleb bases the finances of his company off of the inevitability of disaster. As stated in the book, if the market followed a smooth bell curve, then statistically, a disaster would happen around every 7,000 years. Sadly, we all know this to be false as a major downfall in the market happens every 3-4 years. Taleb relies on this downfall every 3-4 years because, while other investors lose a considerable amount of money (as expected) in a financial crisis, Taleb makes it rich. “No amount of observations of white swans can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion," says Taleb. Gladwell possesses the ability to portray a man of seemingly insane decisions, as one who has the genius to make millions. This type of writing is a talent in itself.

My Thoughts on Gladwell's Thoughts on Ketchup

Going into What the Dog Saw, I had heard of the infamous rant on ketchup. Fellow students questioned sanity, as well as family members that had also read the book before me. The beginning of the chapter starts with a tangent about mustard, and it is then that I realized that Gladwell does actually have a very valid point. There are wide varieties of mustard, including Grey Poupon, a brand in which its advertising associated it with luxury and "the finer things in life." After a string of advertisements full of Rolls Royce cars and lavishly dressed business men aired for Grey Poupon, its sales broke records across the country. Howard Moskowitz, taking notice of the mustard brand's success started to question the monopoly of Heinz ketchup. Moskowitz owned a large food testing and market research business. After a series of testing, unlike mustard, Moskowitz found that no brand of "fancy ketchup" would appeal to a large enough audience for it to gain a significant piece of the ketchup monopoly. Moskowitz realizes that instead of looking for a product that will satisfy all consumers everywhere, companies should be focused on providing a variation of different products to more effectively car for consumers' needs. Gladwell calls this his "theory of variation;" it is unrealistic to expect one product to satisfy nearly every consumer, therefore variation is required. Moskowitz shared his findings to help shape the market for spaghetti sauce with companies like Ragu. This chapter was particularly interesting because theories of variation are most often applied to investments, not ketchup. Definitely a new perspective on how I dress my hotdog.

Chicken Cooking and Product Pitching

The first of many "stories," as Gladwell calls them, introduces readers to a man named Ron Popeil and his "conquest of the American kitchen." Ron Popeil is the son of S.J. Popeil, who served as an intern and nephew to the late Nathan Morris, a pitchman with his own small company. S.J., inspired by his uncle, went on to form the Popeil Brothers company who brought mid 60's America a wide array of kitchen gadgets including the Chop-O-Matic and the Veg-O-Matic. Gladwell goes on to tell the story of Ron and his less than ideal childhood that lead up to his ground breaking career as a pitchman for his father's company. Gladwell's unique way of making the character of the story (in this case Ron) seem like the author himself provided a means of emphasis on one of Ron's most important breakthroughs in his pitching career: TV allowed you to to do more effectively than the best pitchman did in live demonstrations; it allowed the pitchman to make the product the star. Gladwell's portrayal of a long standing friendship with Popeil  makes the reader feel even more emotionally involved when Ron, while pitching his very own rotisserie chicken in-home oven, hit over 1 million dollars in sales in just the first hour of his infomercial. Never did I think going into this book would I be inspired by a 1 AM infomercial as well as an in-home rotisserie chicken oven invented by a man named Ron. That alone shows Gladwell's talent for taking the ordinary and transforming it into a symbol of revolutionary thinking.

What the Reader Saw

When I first entered the world of What the Dog Saw written by staff writer of The New Yorker Malcolm Gladwell, I expected nothing more than observations. Famous observations on the ketchup industry and Ceaser Milan's famous "dog whisperer" reputation, but simply observations none the less. Instead, within 15 pages of the novel, I was bombarded with names like Ron Popeil and his revolutionary yet simple household rotisserie chicken oven, and Nassim Taleb, a man who took disaster and made the inevitable an investment strategy that took his company to the moon, and back again. Gladwell's unique perspective paired with his seemingly personal relationship with all the characters involved throughout the book provided an experience for the reader as if they to, could now start a rotisserie chicken business, or dye their hair a shade blonder in support of the feminist movement. This book, a reading I now recommend to anyone particularly interested in things of the ordinary made extraordinary, is one that never failed to leave me wondering 'have I been choosing the wrong type of spaghetti sauce my entire 16 years on this earth?' High expectations so far.