No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.
Malcolm GladwellRead
If I was President of the United States, I'd rather be right than interesting. If I was CEO of a company, I'd rather be right than interesting. But I'm a journalist - what journalist would rather be right than interesting?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the distinction between the importance of truth and the allure of being intriguing in journalism and leadership.
Malcolm Gladwell's quote highlights the tension between the pursuit of truth and the desire to captivate an audience. While leaders, such as presidents and CEOs, have the responsibility to prioritize correctness and sound decisions over simply being interesting, journalists face a unique challenge where the quest for compelling stories may overshadow their commitment to accuracy. This reflects on the ethical demands of different roles, suggesting that the priority of being 'right' is vital, especially in journalism where truth should prevail over sensationalism.
Themes
TruthJournalismLeadershipResponsibilityAccuracy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about media ethics, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for journalists to prioritize accuracy over sensationalism.
More from Malcolm Gladwell
All quotes →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
We are not determined by our experiences, but are self-determined by the meaning we give to them; and when we take particular experiences as the basis for our future life, we are almost certain to be misguided to some degree. Meanings are not determined by situations. We determine ourselves by the meanings we ascribe to situations.
Alfred AdlerRead
I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I’m having this one.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
There are many, many nouns for the act of looking - a glance, a glimpse, a peep - but there's no noun for the act of listening. In general, we don't think primarily about sound. So I have a different perspective on the world; I can construct soundscapes that have an effect on people, but they don't know why. It's a sort of subterfuge.
Walter MurchRead
There are people who will say that this whole account is a lie, but a thing isn't necessarily a lie even if it didn't necessarily happen.
John SteinbeckRead
There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate - the genetic and neural fate - of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.
Oliver SacksRead
There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.
A. J. MusteRead