MUST READ: Malcolm Gladwell

Teacher Jennifer's comment: Although I don't agree with every word he writes, Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite essayists. My SAT CR/Wr prep and American Literature classes are currently studying Gladwell's article Examined LifeWhat Stanley H. Kaplan taught us about the SAT. Here are some more links for further reading.



TED: Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce

http://www.ted.com Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce -- and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

MUST READ: Examined LifeWhat Stanley H. Kaplan taught us about the SAT

• Note: Gladwell's article was published 2001. March 2005, CollegeBoard addressed some of the UC system's concerns by re-organizing the test, deleting the analogy section and incorporating the Essay section. But Gladwell's conclusion that dilligent study and parental participation makes the "difference' remains valid.

An exerpt from Chapter Two of The Tipping Point: Are you a connector?

• The central role that three personality types--that I call Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen-- play in social epidemics. In this excerpt, Gladwell describes a simple test that anyone can take to tell whether they fall into the first of those categories, the Connector.

An exerpt from the Intro of Blink: The Second Mind

• Description of the part of the brain that runs our rapid decision-making system.
• Malcolm Gladwell - Blink - full show
  

An excerpt from Chapter Eight of Outliers: Rice Paddies and Math Tests

• "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred and sixty days a year fails to make his family rich."