Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist and author of five bestsellers, and lately, journalists have been raving about his book Talking to Strangers.
After hearing positive reviews of Gladwell’s new release, I thought that it’d be a “tip book” for journalists and give insight into how to be a better interviewer.
Well, I was wrong, but I was still able to take away a few great tips from the book that I can not only implement into my career, but also into my daily life.
- Stop making assumptions about the people you meet.
This is definitely Gladwell’s main point he’s trying to get across. Throughout his book, Gladwell brings up multiple scenarios where people have assumed things about the people they’ve met, which immediately led to a wrongdoing or negative outcome.
- Miscommunication is the start of our greatest failures.
Gladwell gives multiple instances of when miscommunication can cause a negative outcome. One of those scenarios includes the Sandra Bland case.
Gladwell says the case of Sandra Bland could have been easily avoided if the officer knew how to effectively communicate, and if our emotions didn’t get in the way of what we’re saying.
- You can’t trust everyone.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler on multiple occasions and was enthralled by Hitler’s charisma and politeness, which led him to believe that Hitler wanted to negotiate peace.
He was obviously wrong.
Chamberlain is a clear indication as to why we shouldn’t be so quick to trust everyone we meet.
- Should we pay close attention to body language and facial expressions?
As journalists, we’ve been taught to pay attention to our interviewee’s body language and facial cues, but Gladwell analyzes what different facial expressions mean in different cultures.
An American man might see a smile, while a Trobriander might see a grimace.
Keep your eye out for those key giveaways, but some things can be misleading.
- Stop believing that everyone is telling you the truth.
One thing that Gladwell explores repeatedly is Fidel Castro’s successful infiltration of numerous spies in the U.S.’s intelligence agencies. One of those spies was Ana Montes, a senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
DIA counterintelligence officer Scott Carmichael had sufficient evidence against her, but would still doubt himself. He would make excuses for her weird behavior because she was someone he deemed trustworthy (as anyone else would).
Just like with making assumptions, we have to go into every conversation open to the possibility that people might not be who we think they are, and that includes them being trustworthy.
- Sometimes, you’re going to get things wrong.
Much like will Scott Carmichael, we’re sometimes going to get things wrong. Being an expert doesn’t mean we’ll always be 100% right, and the majority of us won’t make it to expert status. Learn and grow from your mistakes!
Gladwell covered so many topics in his book, and I believe we can take something away from his tips, no matter our profession.
an introverted journalist 
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