Topic: What the Dog Saw Article Summaries

“Million Dollar Murray” Summary & Response

Summary (They Say): In this chapter “The Million Dollar Murray” in Malcom Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw, Gladwell argues about the issue of homelessness which cannot be solved quickly and simply. When homelessness got up to the rise as a national issue in the 1980s, Dennis Culhane ,a graduate student made up a database to find out who was entering and leaving out of the shelter system. This particular discovery of his overpoweringly modified the way homelessness is comprehended. Homelessness is not distributed normally instead it is distributed in a power law perspective. About a good 80% of the homeless population entered and left out swiftly. The biggest issue was the minor assembly of people who were constantly homeless, estimating a figure of millions of dollars to the state annually.

The city of Denver commenced a program through which they issued apartments to the people with the most integral and huge problems that were continually homeless, thinking if they were kept out of the shelters the city will save some money. This actually worked inexpensively, but was not fair ethically to the thousands of people who had a job but still required someone to assist them.

Gladwell brought about an analogy amidst giving shelter and offering smog checks. The more the car is used and is there with you since years, the more likely it is to get out of order. Why is it necessary that people go to shops and spend few dollars for a test they actually do not require it as they can easily set up mobile devices that could calculate smog levels of cars on the expressway. Police can just get hold of those who actually needed some help to work out the smog level. Murray Barr was one extremely homeless drunk that police officers found out every time. They cost of all of his hospital stays, drug treatment costs, and doctor's fees, was over 1 million dollars which was hilarious.

Response (I Say): I think the most important idea in this chapter talks about the issue of homelessness which cannot be solved quickly and simply. There is not too much money that could be spent around to help everyone. It is much better to help few people at a time. Our regular ethical intuitions help us very minutely when we have to face any difficult cases. Gladwell in this chapter of his book explains that we can be either factual to our own principles or we can either solve an issue but we cannot do both at the same time.

Open Secrets” Summary & Response

Summary (They Say): In this chapter “Open Secrets” in Malcom Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw, Gladwell argues that Enron was not keeping secrets. It was too much in detail and scope. Actually too much and difficult for any individual, team or company to mould up their minds on it entirely. It was too complex for an average investment manager to understand, no ...