QuoteProject
When people from organizations like the World Bank descended on Third World countries, they always tried to remove obstacles to development, to reduce economic anxiety and uncertainty.
Malcolm Gladwell
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the role of organizations in facilitating development in underprivileged nations by addressing key challenges.

Malcolm Gladwell highlights the efforts of organizations such as the World Bank in alleviating the barriers that hinder development in Third World countries. By focusing on minimizing economic anxiety and uncertainty, these organizations aim to create a more stable environment conducive to growth and prosperity. The quote reflects the belief that external support and strategic interventions can play a critical role in fostering economic development in less developed regions.

Themes

DevelopmentEconomyWorld BankThird WorldObstaclesUncertainty

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about international aid, one might cite this quote to emphasize the importance of effective intervention.

More from Malcolm Gladwell

No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.
Malcolm GladwellRead
People are in one of two states in a relationship,” Gottman went on. “The first is what I call positive sentiment override, where positive emotion overrides irritability. It’s like a buffer. Their spouse will do something bad, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s just in a crummy mood.’ Or they can be in negative sentiment override, so that even a relatively neutral thing that a partner says gets perceived as negative.
Malcolm GladwellRead
The people at the top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.
Malcolm GladwellRead
Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.
Malcolm GladwellRead
When I go to my health club, and it's in the basement, you have to take the elevator down. And this drives me crazy. Why can't there be a stairway? At least make it as easy to exercise as it is to not exercise. It's in society's interest for me to take the stairs.
Malcolm GladwellRead
Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.
Malcolm GladwellRead

Similar quotes

In America, people with lots of money can easily avoid the consequences of bad bets and big losses by cashing out at the first sign of trouble.
Robert ReichRead
Without calculation, economic activity is impossible. Since under Socialism economic calculation is impossible, under Socialism there can be no economic activity in our sense of the word All economic change, therefore, would involve operations the value of which could neither be predicted beforehand nor ascertained after they had taken place. Everything would be a leap in the dark. Socialism is the renunciation of rational economy.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
I am in favor of high wages and agree that the higher the wages, the stronger the evidence of prosperity, provided (and that is the important point) they are so naturally, by the effectiveness of industry, and not in consequence of an inflated currency or any artificial regulation.
John C. CalhounRead
The widely accepted assertion that, only if you let markets be will everyone be paid correctly and thus fairly, according to his worth, is a myth. Only when we part with this myth and grasp the political nature of the market and the collective nature of individual productivity will we be able to build a more just society in which historical legacies and collective actions, and not just individual talents and efforts, are properly taken into account in deciding how to reward people.
Ha-Joon ChangRead
A banker who is allowed to borrow money at X and loan it out at X plus Y will just go crazy and do too much of it if the civilization doesn't have rules that prevent it.
Charlie MungerRead
A clear lesson of history is that a 'sine qua non' for sustained economic recovery following a financial crisis is a thoroughgoing repair of the financial system.
Janet YellenRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.