What the Dog Saw (Book Review)

Malcolm Gladwell, What the Dog Saw (2009) Gladwell’s talent as a reporter is to find the significant anecdote that illustrates the statistical generalisation. He also has the story-teller’s sense of timing. But his greatest skill is to present you with the Aha! moments that reveal the underlying pattern, or link apparently random bits and pieces to the larger world in which we live. His essays are like transformer toys: shift your point of view, rearrange a few items, and the car becomes a robot. When it’s well done, you have to look twice to recognise the original fender in the gauntlet protecting the weapon-arm. I won’t summarise any of his pieces: finding out for yourself will give you great pleasure. But I will tell you that I think several of his investigations imply policy changes that we should urge our governments to adopt. ***