Introduction

A Hollywood celebrity once spent an afternoon chatting about gardening with an ordinary man in a hotel lobby. This ordinary man was our author, Malcolm Gladwell's father, completely unaware he was talking to someone famous. Interactions with strangers are weird like that. You can have a memorable conversation with someone and still don’t know much about them. And this is the stuff Gladwell wants us to ponder!

Talking to strangers is unavoidable in daily life - but it’s not always rosy. Through some of the most controversial cases in recent American history - police violence, sexual assault on college campuses, political scandals, Gladwell wants us to understand how we interact with strangers. Because many such social problems stem from our inability to understand and communicate with people who are different from us.

Throughout the book, Gladwell promises to break down different aspects of this "the stranger problem." He'll look at everything from how we judge people's honesty to why we sometimes fail to spot liars. And he does all this with a mix of fascinating stories and cutting-edge research. 

So, be prepared for a wild ride. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll probably get angry at times. But most importantly, you'll start to see and navigate your interactions with strangers in a whole new light! Shall we begin?

Summary

In the end, talking to strangers isn't necessary at all, is it? But if you do it, do it properly! It's how we build a better world. And to do it right, we need to lead with our humanity, not our fear. The way we interact with strangers shapes our society. It's high time we started examining the assumptions that we carry with us, and make way for a better world!

Strangers Are NOT Easy to know

We've all been there. Met someone new and instantly felt we had them figured out. It's human nature to think we can size up strangers in a snap. But as you’ll soon learn, this confidence is almost always misplaced! That's right - strangers are not the open books we think they are.Take the Cold War spy story of Florentino Aspillaga, a Cuban intelligence officer who defected to the US in 1987 and dropped this boombshell: Nearly every CIA spy in...