Editors Reads Verdict
Gladwell at his most freewheeling, collecting nineteen pieces that showcase his gift for finding profound questions inside mundane subjects. Uneven as any essay collection, but the best pieces rank among his finest work.
What We Loved
- Incredible range — hair dye, ketchup, the Challenger, and more
- The dog-whispering essay is one of his most memorable profiles
- Essay format lets each piece stand alone without requiring a unifying thesis
- Gladwell's curiosity is genuinely contagious
Minor Drawbacks
- Unevenness of any essay collection — some pieces feel slight
- Originally published in the New Yorker, so devoted readers may know many
- No overarching argument to hold the collection together
Key Takeaways
- → The most interesting stories are often hiding inside the mundane
- → Expertise is often tacit knowledge that cannot be easily articulated
- → Prediction is harder than we think — hiring, criminal profiling, and forecasting all fail more than we admit
- → Failure has patterns that can be learned from if we look carefully
- → The people who seem ordinary often have extraordinary inner lives
| Author | Malcolm Gladwell |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
| Pages | 410 |
| Published | October 20, 2009 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Psychology, Non-Fiction |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Gladwell fans; readers who enjoy intellectual journalism and the essay form. |
The Art of the New Yorker Profile
Before Gladwell became famous for ideas, he was famous for profiles — long, carefully reported essays in The New Yorker that found philosophical questions inside unlikely subjects. “What the Dog Saw” collects nineteen of these, spanning nearly a decade of Gladwell at his most exploratory. The title comes from a profile of Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, in which Gladwell asks what dominance and submission look like from the animal’s perspective.
Three Modes of Gladwell
The collection divides naturally into three types of piece. First are the profiles of obsessives and experts — Millan, the inventor of Popeil’s Pocket Fisherman, the woman who pioneered modern hair-dye marketing. These are Gladwell at his most empathetic, revealing genius in unexpected places. Second are the problem-solving essays — what ketchup tells us about the nature of preference, why we fail to predict who will be a good teacher. Third are the longer, more ambitious pieces on disaster and failure, including a compelling analysis of why the Challenger explosion was foreseeable.
The Question Beneath the Surface
Gladwell’s most consistent gift is his ability to find a genuinely interesting question inside an apparently exhausted subject. The Enron essay, for instance, reframes the scandal not as a story of hidden information but of information that was visible but not understood — a distinction with major implications for how we think about corporate governance. The ketchup essay — why does Heinz dominate while mustard has diversified into forty varieties — becomes a meditation on whether there is always one best version of a thing or always a spectrum of preference.
Recommended Highlights
For first-time readers, start with “The Talent Myth,” “Most Likely to Succeed,” and “Connecting the Dots.” For Gladwell veterans, “Open Secrets” and “The Picture Problem” are the collection’s most intellectually ambitious pieces.
Our rating: 4.0/5 — An uneven but often brilliant collection that shows Gladwell at his most curious and adventurous.
Ready to Read What the Dog Saw?
Check the current price on Amazon.
Check Price on Amazon (paid link)Prices and availability are subject to change. See Amazon for current price.
Review last updated: