What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures

Gladwell's writing is captivating and insightful as always; however, What the Dog Saw lacks a unifying theme, in contrast to Gladwell's early books. Since one of Gladwell's strengths is the connection of different entities on the basis of shared phenomena, this lack prevents What The Dog Saw from being a true masterpiece. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read.

Collection of pieces written for the New Yorker - a broad range of interesting essays that provide an unusual angle on their subjects, which range from ketchup to criminology to contraception. At times Gladwell's style can be a bit long-winded (more evident in his earlier peices), but there are plenty of fascinating insights for those that persevere.

You know Malcolm Gladwell. He's The Tipping Point author. He looks at events and tries to help us figure out why and when and how-to-do-it-again-better. What the Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell's articles. I wanted to hit the save button several times as I read this book. One article I had to reread was “Most Likely to Succeed.” It compares finding good teachers to finding a good NFL quarterback. Apparently good teachers are the most important thing in enhancing student performance: “...many reformers have come to the conclusion that nothing matters more than finding people with the potential to be good teachers.” It is also hard. It's hard to find those good teachers. What does it take? How does one become a good teacher? A few qualities this article examines are regard for student perspective, the teacher's ability to allow students flexibility in becoming engaged in the lesson; personalizing the material, making the material live for each student; and, most important, feedback, “direct, personal response by a teacher to a specific statement by a student.”

Just one of twenty or so little articles Gladwell wrote about issues you thought you knew about, you thought you understood...but that science tells you to reexamine.