if we can control the environment in which rapid cognition takes place, then we can control rapid cognition - Malcolm Gladwell

We think we can transform the stranger, without cost or sacrifice, into the familiar and the known, and we can’t.

Good writing does not fail or succeed on the strength of its ability to persuade. Not the kind of writing that you'll find in this book, anyway. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head — even if in the end you conclude someone else's head is not a place you'd really like to be.

from intro to What The Dog Saw

"Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action."(p.115)