Talking to strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

The world is full of people whose assumptions, perspectives and backgrounds are different. We struggle to understand each other. In this book, Gladwell has done analysis of human behaviour by studying history and various criminal cases as to understand why we fail to understand people. People from the FBI , a court jury , a spy, a police officer all are gullible and have been tricked to deceit by strangers. So imagine the plight of a common man.

We all assume that the stranger is easy. He explains the illusion of asymmetric insight.

The illusion of assymetric insight: it's the conviction that we know others better than they know us. He says if there is one thing he wants to convince us it's that strangers aren't easy. When it comes to ourselves, we are nuanced ,enigmatic , complex but the stranger is easy.

Like how many times have you encountered a stranger and expected his/her demeanour to match a stereotype?. Even after you have spent a considerable amount of time with another person, and you believe you have understood them, there comes an aberration that puts you off, isn't it?.

The best part of the book is that it isn't preachy in any way, the discussions are analytical that leaves the listeners in contemplation.The book is divided into several parts and the title of each of them is the reason. The chapters in each parts are case studies that evaluates the happenings and dives deep into the understanding of human psyche. And sometimes, the solution isn't simple. There are paradoxes.

For me, everything spoken about was new, its like a breath of fresh air in the genre of self help books that I have come across. Definitely one of those reads that adds value and helps you understand human behaviour better. It helps you not to boil over and spill out.

Having said that, reading about it and the practicality are two very different things. But it helps you evaluate your thought based action with everyone and not just with strangers.