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| Malcom Gladwell at PopTech! is 2008 |
It has become clearer to me that things are not always what they seem after watching a few of Malcom Gladwells TED talks.There are so many things in everyday life that we view from only one perspective, when there are so many ways to look at and interpret the situation. Gladwell shows us this when he talks about how 'spagetti sauce is happiness'. He supports this claim by saying that everyone likes a different spaghetti sauce and food industry used to only have one type, obviously not everyone agrees on one type. Gladwell states that people do not know what they want and have to be given a variety of sauces. Gladwells talk is concluded with how the food industry has changed to cater to the individual, and how everyone is unique. The point of this TED talk was to promote human individuality and how it promotes happiness.
Each one of Malcom Gladwells TED talks begin with a with a very straight forward topic or story but he then looks at the subject with a new point of view. By doing this Gladwell shows the significance of that story or that there is a lesson to be learned. The part of Gladwells talks that stand out to me is how he can see an important message in something I wouldn't bother to look any closer at. For example, his talk about the Norton bombing site. Gladwell begins with the history behind it and concludes his talk by saying, "The issue isn't the accuracy of the bombs you have, its how you use the bombs you have and more importantly whether you ought to use bombs at all." This makes me think of how far we have come in technology regarding war, but also whether this advance was for better or worse.
Gladwells' TED talks and writings have made me more aware of my actions, especially Gladwells' piece called,
'The Warren Harding Error'. This chapter in one of his novels focuses on peoples implicit bias. In my life I think a phenomenon that deserves a closer look is the placebo effect. Many people have looked into this and scientists have run many experiments, showing that people will believe what they want. I think this is very relevant in my generation because i think a lot of kids will believe something in order to fit in. For example a lot of people go to parties and pretend they're drunk and are convinced they are because they want to be. Another example could be when someone doesn't want to go to school or work and ends up convincing themselves they're sick.
