Tag: malcolm gladwell

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Bomber Mafia

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell. His famous 2004 TED Talk about pasta sauce placed Malcolm onto the world’s new internet stage.

the bomber mafia

I also enjoy his podcast series Revisionist History. As a matter of fact The Bomber Mafia is an outcome of podcast Season 5, Episode 4. So Malcolm has delivered a rather unique book.

This is not a feel good story. Malcolm reveals the horror of war and the understanding that precision bombing dealt a harsh blow to Germany, while firebombing Japanese cities caused the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians.

The story begins with a short history of aerial bombing in World War I. Then Malcolm introduces Major General Haywood S. Hansell.

So Hansell and the mafia of Air Force leaders developed America’s high-altitude precision bombing strategy in World War II. His strategy was to limit civilian casualties as the pacific campaign was beginning to ramp up.

However, Hansell was replaced by Major General Curtis LeMay. Instead, LeMay altered the US Air Force tactic to a low altitude, fire bombing campaigns across Japan.

Did LeMay sell his soul?

Malcolm certainly structures this powerful storyline around Luke 4:2, the temptation of Christ by the devil:

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.
Luke 4:2

LeMay led a devastating bombing campaign, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. In fact, after a single firebombing of Tokyo, between 100,00 to 130,000 civilians burned to death. Yet all the firebombing did not impact Japan’s industrial capacity to wage war.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: David and Goliath

David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell is all about the underdog succeeding. Stories of the little guy overcoming adversity to overcome a larger, highly favored adversary. While you may never tire of stories like this, Gladwell is exceptional at detailed storytelling.

David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

The story of David cutting off Goliath’s head reminded me that I have largely forgotten the fable’s details since childhood. And it his opening chapter, it was in childhood that I can fully understand the story of a junior girls basketball team in silicon valley that used a full court press throughout the game to defeat their bigger opponents.

In chapter four, you learn David Boies (David) had dyslexia. He could still defeat Goliath (law school). I found this chapter very inspiring. From time to time as a child, dyslexia forced me to question what level I was confronting in grade school reading. The ability for David Boies to utilize other learning skills to succeed, looking back…sure wish I knew this story back then.

Ever work at a Children’s Hospital? I found from time to time my trips to the hospital required a stiff upper lip walking the hallways. At Children’s Wisconsin, administrative units are two miles from the main campus in an old renovated factory. Nikola Tesla worked in this factory 1919-1922. But that is different story.

Gladwell’s fifth chapter was also surprisingly personal. His David moment focused on tragic events that led to success over great odds. This includes the bombing of London during World War II. The story transitions to this ‘David’ moment of perseverance….the early treatment of childhood leukemia. As parent of young children I remain deeply moved passing kids in the hallway undergoing treatment at the hospital.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Talking to Strangers

Talking to Strangers, a new book by Malcolm Gladwell results in another enjoyable and thought provoking read. There are many lessons that I have enjoyed from his works The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw. Now reading David and Goliath that somehow I put down and never picked back up to finish. Over the last year I have been listening to his Revisionist History podcast. Again a very enjoyable experience.

talking to strangers by malcolm gladwell

Gladwell announced Talking to Strangers via his Podcast. Intrigued to see where he would next provide excellent writing and storytelling.

This book is no exception and yet there are painful, probably necessary in today’s world, lessons that clearly show how a lack of communication skills across all walks of live set alongside business objectives create sad stories across our country.

As Gladwell states many of his stories reflect the inability to understand the forest and the trees metaphor. Five parts to this book: Puzzles, Default to Truth, Transparency, Lessons, and Coupling.

His insights often show a revisionist approach to interpretations of communication. Talking to Strangers is no different. As Hernan Cortes found Montezuma II results in 20 million Aztecs murdered during Spain’s colonial expansion introduced a pattern of social interaction. Was this genocide all based upon a lack of translation? The chapters seem to push the reader to just that conclusion.

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Education Milwaukee Reading

Malcolm Gladwell evening in Milwaukee

Friday was a wonderful evening with Malcolm Gladwell. I was able to get a personalized copy of his book David and Goliath. As usual he was sharing a remarkable series of intertwined events. Tonight it was about the IRA collapse in Belfast, Alva Vanderbilt and the women’s suffrage movement in America. Malcolm is truly a great storyteller.
Malcolm Gladwell in Milwaukee

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Latest read: What the Dog Saw

I have been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s writing.  Joining The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and Outliers: The Story of Success comes his latest work What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures which is a collection of his writings with the New Yorker.  I have enjoyed all of his books and this new release is no exception.

And to prove life again is all about timing the NYTimes has it’s book review hitting tomorrow’s Sunday paper.  The book’s title is from his writing about Cesar Millan, the noted animal trainer with the hit cable show The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan.

Gladwell breaks the book into three parts: Minor Geniuses, Theories – or ways of organizing experience and Predictions we make about people.  From these points Gladwell shares those articles that have stuck with him long after the New Yorker articles were published.

I was pretty amused in reading What the Dog Saw right after finishing SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

To say the data and stories by Gladwell and Dubner & Levitt may overlap, it was nevertheless a lesson in looking beyond the regular story to take the opportunity to learn hidden lessons.

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