785 Quotes by Malcolm Gladwell

The entire principle of a blind taste test was ridiculous. They shouldn't have cared so much that they were losing blind taste tests with old Coke, and we shouldn't at all be surprised that Pepsi's dominance in blind taste tests never translated to much in the real world. Why not? Because in the real world, no one ever drinks Coca-Cola blind.

Living a long life, the conventional wisdom at the time said, depended to a great extent on who we were—that is, our genes. It depended on the decisions we made—on what we chose to eat, and how much we chose to exercise, and how effectively we were treated by the medical system. No one was used to thinking about health in terms of community.

The power of knowing, in that first two seconds, is not a gift given magically to a fortunate few. It is an ability that we can all cultivate for ourselves.

Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can change our first impressions . . . by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions.

If you are going to do something truly innovative, you have to be someone who does not value social approval. You can’t need social approval to go forward.

Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.

Self consciousness is the enemy of interestingness

The beginning is hard," [Levin] went on. "By the end of the day they're restless. Part of it is endurance, part of it is motivation. Part of it is incentives and rewards and fun stuff. Part of it is good old-fashion discipline. You throw all of that into the stew. We talk a lot here about grit and self-control. The kids know what those words mean.

Those 3 things—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward—are, most people agree, the 3 qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. It is nor how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five, It's whether our work fulfills us.