Pacific Jewish Center | Rabbi » Gladwell

Manny Being Manny | Some 'Gladwellian' Insight

rabbifink — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:35:49 +0000

This is Manny. Manny Ramirez.

Believe it or not, Manny is one of the greatest right handed hitters in Baseball history. He is also a 2 time World Series Champion and 1 time World Series MVP. Manny was also recently suspended from baseball for 50 games for violating the league’s Substance Abuse Policy when he tested positive for a substance used to hide performance enhancing drug use.

In other words, he cheated. And yet, he is adored and loved, cheered and ballyhooed. Why?

You don’t need to be a baseball fan to continue reading.

The public’s reaction is more confusing when juxtaposed with the public reaction to other substance abusers.

Barry Bonds (nothing has ever been proved), Roger Clemens, Mark McGuire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa are other big names in baseball who are hated and booed wherever they go for their cheating. What gives?

Why are we so nice to Manny and so mean to everyone else who cheated?

One of my favorite authors is Malcolm Gladwell. Previously, I have had quite a few Gladwell posts (check those out) on this blog. This is another.

In “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” (which I highly recommend and you can purchase here) Gladwell compares Doctors who get sued for malpractice and Doctors who do not get sued for malpractice for the same exact types of misdiagnosis or poor treatment. Gladwell found that doctors who do not get sued have one common thread.

They are liked.

Gladwell found that patients who could sue for malpractice would not sue if they liked the doctor. They would say “He is such a nice man, I could never sue him”. In fact my wife’s grandmother has a cause of action against a doctor of hers and she says (insert Holocaust survivor European accent) “Oh, I could never sue him, he a wonderful doctor”. I asked her if he is so wonderful how did he screw up so bad? She says “oh, it was a mistake, he tried his best”. You could still sue you know… “Oh, I could never…”.

And so it is in life. People who are liked sometimes get a pass. People who are disliked are criticized at every turn. Barry Bonds is ornery and cantankerous, Roger Clemens is conceited and condescending, Sammy Sosa is disingenuous and a fraud and Manny Ramirez is a self deprecating, fun loving, caricature of himself.

When Manny makes a mistake, we can forgive him because he is such a great guy. Manny jokes about himself. Manny apologizes. Manny is lovable and that’s why we can forgive him.

Gladwell hits another home run.

The message for us is simple and easy to see. Being nice and friendly to others can go a long way. When people act positively toward one another their flaws are hidden. We don’t notice or care about the other person’s deficiencies as much when they are nice.

We all want to be liked. We all want to be appreciated. A smile, a hello, a friendly guesture or act of kindness goes a very long way to helping others see the best in us.

There is something we can learn from Manny. (No, it is not okay to cheat). We can learn that a good disposition can make a big difference in how people look at us. Let’s try and make the world a friendlier place. Let’s try and help others see the best in us.

In this respect – let’s be a little more like Manny.

Another Gladwell Gem | How David Beats Goliath

rabbifink — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:09:18 +0000

I cannot get enough Malcolm Gladwell.

Every time I read his work I walk away impressed, enriched and thirsting for more.

Previously I blogged about his book Outliers, which was super. Today I am writing about a recent Gladwell column in the New Yorker. I don’t subscribe to the New Yorker but periodically I check it our online. This week I had the pleasure of enjoying yet another Gladwell gem.

This time Gladwell is talking about sports and for me it is a lesson about life.

When a basketball team has inferior talent to their opponent, Gladwell has discovered that there is a great equalizer. It is called the “Full Court Press”. For a full treatment on the matter read this. (Sport Fans: Bill Simmons agrees with this and you can check out his mock debate with Gladwell here). The basic principal is for the weaker team to play defense for the entire length of the court. Normally, the defense begins attacking when the ball is 60%-70% down the court.

Gladwell has “proved” that by playing defense for 100% of the the court the more conditioned team physically will prevail over the more talented squad.

This is comparable to the biblical narrative of David thwarting Goliath. The underdog, without real world experience turning the rules of the game on their heels to gain an advantage. David used a slingshot. When an underdog recognizes their weakness and thinks unconventionally, they have a chance.

This is really useful information for war strategists and basketball coaches. What about us?

Last Shabbos we celebrated a Bar Mitzva at the Pacific Jewish Center. Yona Kosman entered the ranks of adulthood. What is the essence of the Bar Mitzva celebration?

Jewish tradition teaches that as a child we instinctively think selfishly, for the moment without understanding the consequences of our actions. As we enter adulthood, and beginning with our Bar Mitzva we begin to understand the ramifications of our actions. Slowly, we develop the skills to outmaneuver our natural instinct for instant gratification and we can begin to make good choices.

But our instinct has more than a decade head start. We begin the game at Bar Mitzva as tremendous underdogs. Certainly, many do not even participate in the battle. Many leave the fray and do not work on themselves to make conscious moral choices.

Those who do wish to wage this war and gain control of their sensual instincts and make choices instead of just reacting have a severe disadvantage.

We are the underdogs to our animal instinct.

The principals Gladwell has pointed out are really the same principals Ramchal teaches us in Messilas Yesharim.

Ramchal and Gladwell give us the trick we need to prevail. A preemptive attack. We can’t sit and wait for the moment of choice to happen upon us and then begin to attempt to win that battle. Our advantage will only come with preparation and a “full court press” against our inclinations.

The point is that all the work to win our moral battles takes place before the opportunity presents itself. We are supposed to be constantly honing our skills as “choosers” and then when we need those skills we can emerge victorious.

Ramchal advises us to engage in Torah study and to examine our daily choices each day. This two pronged approach will enable us to be ready when the choice between “what is good and what is easy” (Albus Dumbledore, Goblet of Fire) presents itself.

Genius: The Modern View and the Torah View

rabbifink — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:35:13 +0000

The most emailed column on NYTimes.com today is this column on genius. In this Op-Ed column, from David Brooks the old question of nature vs. nurture is raised.

Are there people born with elevated talents and skill or are some people the lucky ones who were in the right place at the right time and were nurtured into their high level abilities?

I am not sure what compelled Mr. Brooks to write this column, it seems random and disconnected from today’s news.

It did remind me of a couple of posts I had written in the very early stages of this blog.

I started this blog in December 2008 and I had just read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. Judd Magilnick sent me a column written by David Brooks with his opinion of the book. Brooks held that Gladwell was oversimplifying things and Gladwell was ignoring much of our innate abilities.

It seems like Brooks has had a change of heart. Today he writes that genius is not inborn, rather is a byproduct of effort.

(Please make up your mind.)

I am not here to nitpick at Brooks. I was just thinking about all this and it made me want to articulate the Torah approach to this issue.

“We hold these self-truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”. – United States of America Declaration of Independence.

I do not agree. Not all people are created equal. Everyone deserves equal respect, everyone deserves equal opportunities for happiness, but not everyone is equal in every way.

Some people are born rich, some poor. Some people are born intelligent and some are born dumb. Some people are tall, short, handsome, beautiful, fat, skinny, light, dark, left handed, right handed, American, Somali, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, funny, bland, fast, slow, common sensical, socially awkward, the list does not end…

Our starting place in life is predetermined by our family and our genes. What we do from that moment on is the result of the choices that we make.

The only thing in which we are all equal is in our opportunity to make choices.

We can make ourselves into anything if we make the right choices to get there.

The thing that we cannot control is where we begin. Our job in life is to take our talents, preferences, abilities, intellect, insight, physical gifts and make the right choices.

So, genius is not pure nature, but nature helps.

The Torah approach is that we make ourselves into what we are but our circumstances that we cannot control weigh heavily. We cannot choose where or when or to whom we are born, all we can do is make the right choices with our slice of the universe.

Mozarts, Einsteins, Michael Jordans are born different. They are born with talents that not everyone has. But so are many other people who never amounted to anything. They may have been born to situations that prevented them from working on those talents or maybe they never even knew that they had those talents.

Finally, Brooks is right on the money in terms of repetition and practice being the most important skill one can possess. Gladwell talks about this in terms of the 10,000 hour rule. “Practice makes better”, and the more one can practice the greater one can hone their talents.

In Yeshiva, Talmudic skills of analysis are worked on for years. Hours of studying with the same logical method for months and years makes an impact. Most adults who went through the Yeshiva system are able to study Talmud like second nature. In fact many have the custom of studying 1 folio per day. This is called the Daf Yomi and it is only possible because for nearly all adult observant Jews, the study of Talmud became second nature. We all have different levels of intellect, but the hours that we have put into developing our skills trumps our intelligence or lack thereof. Talmud study is a skill that is almost expected in observant Jews repertoires – it is only possible because of the time and effort made practicing the skill.

I have witnessed this in Law School as well. Lawyering is a skill that must be developed. To see and understand issues and how to apply the law to facts are skills one must acquire in the first year of law school. My entire section is bright; everyone is smart, the key is to develop the skills for good lawyering.

The only way to develop those skills is with practice. Reading and discussing cases is part of the development, exam writing and memo writing are other ways of honing these skills. We need to spend time, effort and work hard to develop those skills.

First one to 10,000 hours wins…

Outliers: Section 1 (and my grandfather)

rabbifink — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:10:55 +0000

So I began reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell this weekend. I finished the first section and have an opinion about it. The book’s basic premise is that success is a conglomeration of a lot of factors. Some factors are innate, some factors and communal and some factors are just plain luck.

I think a lot of what he says is compelling, in fact I made such an observation a few years ago. In the wake of my grandfather’s death (whose name was Sidney Greenwald) a few years ago much was said about his impact on the world. He touched so many people in so many different ways. He was a builder for so many Jewish institutions and causes. He accomplished so much and anyone who knew him would tell you this.

I always felt that his success was due to his great skill and ability but had a lot to do with the time and place in which he found himself. At that time, mid-20th century, Orthodox Judaism was beginning its renaissance and resurgence in America. It was a time that was perfect for someone with his abilities to shine. He certainly took advantage of his opportunities and made the most of them. But those opportunities do not present themselves to anyone and everyone.

I think people are able to accomplish a great deal with their talents and abilities. The opportunities need to present themselves to make it happen. Sometimes we can create the opportunities and other times we can look opportunities. But many times we just have to wait for the opportunities and be ready to pounce those opportunities when they present themselves.

So I guess I must agree with Gladwell on that point. Timing does make a big difference. The part that I had a harder time digesting was the suggestion that we are all victims of early tracking with no hope to escape the reputation we build for ourselves. Education in this country is suffering but the opportunities for a student who wants to succeed are endless. We suffer more from lack of caring and effort than the tracking in our education system. There are some victims of the tracking but most are victims of their own lack of interest in learning and bad teaching than anything else. The danger of Gladwell’s idea is that it gives excuses to people who are not productive. People don’t need more excuses to do nothing…

I am looking forward to finishing the book soon.

Genius: The Modern View and the Torah View

Malcolm Gladwell and "Perfection"

rabbifink — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:11:04 +0000

I was sent this link by PJC member Judd Magilnick.

Malcolm Gladwell is a great writer and has had a great influence on my thinking. Perhaps the greatest secular influence on me of all! I have not yet had a chance to read his new book “Outliers” however I have read this NY Times OP-ED piece.

I am not necessarily agreeing with the writer’s assessment of Gladwell’s position rather I am commenting on the writer’s position in relationship to “Perfection”.

The astute will notice that this is exactly the point we made in our “Perfections” discussion. Success in not predetermined, it is our hands and our task to be vigilantly improving ourselves. Of course there are elements that are outside of our control such as location of birth, IQ, default personality traits etc. but none of those can stand in the face of our will to succeed!

I guess Malcolm Gladwell (in the writer’s view) and Rabbi Akiva will have to just agree to disagree…