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Writer's pictureElaine Wangùi

Talking to Strangers....


Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

I get anxiety attacks everytime I have to go to town. You see, I have to think of how to dress, what to carry in my bag, how long will I take to run my errands in town..All because the streets of (Kanairo)- Nairobi are extremely rough...Everyone is a suspect!


Reading this book felt like I was in a New York Police Department college... Forensic Investigation class 😅...


Talking to strangers is about the competency people have when they judge each other... for example they say one of the biggest red flags with people who are dishonest/lying is that they can't make eye contact for long. In a normal conversation, eye contact usually lasts about 3 secs.. but liars usually take advantage of this in some sort and they will maintain a straight face and even tend to make the eye contact longer.


There are people that despite being reliable have behaviors that we believe would indicate they are untrustworthy/capricious and vice versa..

In this book, Malcolm talks about Ana Montes who was a senior analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency... she had mad reviews from the Department of Justice through her special career opportunities...only for them to realize that she was Cuba's master spy(https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/ana-montes-cuba-spy )


Sometimes, we tend to think we are good at judging other peoples character and behavior but in-fact this is a Krueger effect


Malcolm challenges the way our(my) understanding of how the world works using 3 focus points....Trust, Truth and Hope...


Highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get an understanding of the human behavior...


check out the book here https://www.bookstop.co.ke/


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1 Comment


Eva Wambugu
Eva Wambugu
Dec 09, 2021

Thankyou for the lesson 'In a normal conversation, eye contact usually lasts about 3 secs.. but liars usually take advantage of this in some sort and they will maintain a straight face and even tend to make the eye contact longer.' I did not know this I am now more knowledgable,.

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