Malcolm Gladwell's Blink

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains how seemingly unrelated details of a successful person’s life and surroundings are actually crucial causes of their success. This theory does not only apply to the rich and famous, but to regular people as well. My personal accomplishments are not wholly due to my own actions; instead, it is my parents’ hard work that contributed to my achievements. Compared to the rest of our family, and considering where they live, I am grateful and lucky to live in a place where opportunities are much more abundant. In other words, “my” greatest life achievement would be being born and raised in America.

This is not likely to be the same for every individual with the disease. Asperger’s could have caused Adam Lanza to become angry and react in harsh ways, resulting in the shooting of Sandy Hook

In “Blind to Failure”, Erik Weihenmayer has many good character traits. Particularly he is extraordinary, brave, and very committed. To begin, Erik proves himself to be extraordinary when he decides to take on a great challenge, disregarding his disability, and his reasoning was “I knew that if I went and failed, that would feel better if I didn’t go at all. ”(277) I consider this to be extraordinary because not only does he climb Everest, but he is also blind.

The essay “Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell gives a brief explanation of a 1960’s boycott sit-in organized by a small group of African Americans who weren’t allowed to sit at the snack bar that was reserved for Caucasians. Gladwell used this example to further elaborate about how high-risk activism requires a strong hierarchical structure in order to thrive. “Tweet like an Egyptian” is about the Arabs that are located throughout Africa and the Middle East gaining access to social networking. Attaining the internet allowed Arabs to acquire a virtual life of freedom of speech and expression. The internet empowered these people with information to challenge their authorities in real life.

Blink written by Malcom is an argumentative based research book about how our adaptive subconscious plays a huge part in every day life. It also tells of the pros and cons of our adaptive subconscious. In Gladwell’s Blink he used different forms of rhetoric to persuade us, the readers, of his point successfully. Gladwell uses multiple counts ethos and logos in his writing to get his point across along with pathos, analogies, rhetorical questions, and irony. He also uses his tone and diction to assist his writing.

It’s a learning disorder where is makes it more difficult to read and write. I know how difficult it is to live and deal with because my sister was diagnosed with it last year. That’s why I thought that you already knew about it, since it is very common.” The gears in my head were turning non-stop.

Also, the instructor reiterated that the anxiety levels of the individuals taking part in the seminar were high. He informed the professionals that the tightness or tension they felt as a result of experiencing the questions he asked parallels that of a student with learning disabilities. Noting, this is how a student with a learning disability feels on a regular bases. Teachers should be mindful of the characteristics of children with learning disabilities; they need to take this into account when providing instruction and asking questions with regard to the lesson. Another great point that was addressed, is the idea that if a person is being yelled at to provide information repeatedly their first response is to look away.

In Jon Krakauer’s masterpiece, Into Thin Air, he provides an in-depth explanation of what happened one disastrous day on Mount Everest. While the book is essentially a memoir, it incorporates the excitement of an adventure novel, the suspense of a mystery, and the factual detailing of a school textbook. Jon Krakauer doesn’t leave out any experience to the reader; he very carefully explains every detail so anyone can read his book, even those who have never heard of what happened in Spring of 1996 on Mount Everest. The story essentially explores Jon Krakauer’s months of preparation for and climbing of Mount Everest.

Broken in WWII The Holocaust and WWII was a time when many people were blinded from what was actually happening in the world around them. Sadly this was not true for millions of jewish people, and non german citizens. When Elie Wiesel an Auschwitz survivor wrote his memoir Night he was pulling from parts of his life where he was very vulnerable and broken.

“While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning” (Bradbury, Ray 3). Montag is a fireman that does not put out fires, he starts them. Montag lives in a dystopian society where books are illegal to have and read. Books make people think and question things which can give them opposite sides to choose from which can make people become unhappy and worried.

“One part of me was screaming, another part of me looked at father and grasped my gun in my aching hands” (Fast 100). Adam is so shocked that his dad got shot that he doesn’t know what to do. The situation of his father getting shot filled him with confusion and he doesn’t know what to do. “I ran. I was filled with fear, saturated with it, sick with it” (Fast 101).

Malcolm Gladwell’s “What the Dog Saw” People’s reliance on the straw man theory is prevalent in today’s world, and is an adequate yet shallow way of expressing one’s opinions and denouncing the counterarguments. The straw man theory occurs when someone ignores a person's position and instead exaggerates, misrepresents, or creates a distorted version of that position. Malcolm Gladwell, like many other authors of opinion-based pieces of literature, uses this theory as a method of persuasion. Gladwell’s “What the Dog Saw” uses this theory as a method of persuasion.

Everything was blurry and I couldn’t focus on one subject. I just needed to make the pain stop. I closed my eyes slowly. Blackness. “Life’s hard being a soldier, ain’t ?”

Expertise is important in the sense that it allows individuals to establish themselves in the society. Not only does expertise help people make a living, but also allow people to make achievement and earn respect. In the articles, the three authors share their insights on the path to gain expertise and the pitfalls to avoid. One point that all three authors agree upon is that expertise is the specialized knowledge or skill acquired through lots of training and practices.

Surprisingly, he seems undisturbed. Here, the poet uses, "now in my dial,"to point out the idea that the shooter is in fact a sniper, and this soldier seems to be recounting his actions. He may have been unshaken at the time of the shooting, but now he