Book Review: 4/5 Impact On Me (Book By Malcolm Gladwell)
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Malcolm Gladwell never disappoints in using data, anecdotes, and his mastery of storytelling to explain complex concepts. For example, he describes how a tipping point gets created, where one behavior becomes more dominant than others, such as crossing the 30% threshold in race representation. He explains the Pareto Principle by discussing super-spreaders and how their vocal cords and saliva droplets influence the spread of airborne infections like COVID-19. Gladwell also dives into how a few doctors in America contributed to the opioid crisis by prescribing ten or even a hundred times more medication than their peers.
I rated the book's impact on me a 4 out of 5. It was valuable for me because I could directly apply a principle when deciding on a school for my child. One concept, the critical mass of immigrants in a class, helped me understand how this could affect my child’s acceptance among peers. I now have a much clearer understanding of affirmative action although it does not apply to me now. I didn’t give the book a 5 out of 5 because I was already familiar with the Pareto Principle, which lessened its novelty for me. The book spoke about small area variation and super-spreaders a lot, and that is more about Extremistan (nasim taleb) and Pareto.