Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce
Malcolm Gladwell parle de la sauce pour spaghetti
Detective of fads and emerging subcultures, chronicler of jobs-you-never-knew-existed, Malcolm Gladwell's work is toppling the popular understanding of bias, crime, food, marketing, race, consumers and intelligence. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to talk about my new book,
et des premières impressions.
and first impressions.
and I hope you all buy it in triplicate.
my new book makes me happy,
I would talk about someone
to make Americans happy
personal hero of mine:
for reinventing spaghetti sauce.
la sauce spaghetti.
and he has big huge glasses
et de vitalité magnifiques,
exuberance and vitality,
and he loves the opera,
of medieval history.
what psychophysics is,
ce qu’est la psychophysique,
her doctorate in psychophysics.
about that relationship.
is about measuring things.
à mesurer des choses.
in measuring things.
with his doctorate from Harvard,
à White Plains, New York.
in White Plains, New York.
back in the early 70s.
thing called aspartame,
in each can of Diet Pepsi
pour avoir la boisson parfaite ».
straightforward question to answer,
incroyablement simple,
de 8 à 12%.
between eight and 12 percent.
ce n’est pas assez sucré,
sweetness is not sweet enough;
sweetness is too sweet.
spot between 8 and 12?"
you would all say, it's very simple.
vous diriez tous, c’est très simple.
de mélanges expérimentaux de Pepsi,
a big experimental batch of Pepsi,
eight percent, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3,
8 %, 8,1, 8,2, 8,3,
with thousands of people,
concentration, right?
Très simple.
and he gets the data back,
les place sur une courbe,
une jolie courbe en cloche.
it's not a nice bell curve.
Il y a des données partout.
in the world of testing food and such,
des essais sur les aliments
when the data comes back a mess.
n’ont pas de sens.
about cola's not that easy."
somewhere along the way."
make an educated guess,"
and they go for 10 percent,
of intellectual standards.
« Qu’est-ce qui n’a pas marché? »
and say, "What was wrong?
of this experiment with Diet Pepsi?"
à White Plains,
in a diner in White Plains,
some work for Nescafé.
pour Nescafé.
the answer came to him.
sur le Pepsi diète,
the Diet Pepsi data,
looking for the perfect Pepsis.
Croyez-moi.
breakthroughs in all of food science.
toute la science des aliments.
around the country,
Vous avez tort.
for the perfect Pepsi.
for the perfect Pepsis."
blankly and say,
« Dégagez! Au suivant! »
nobody would hire him --
il était obsédé, cependant,
and talked about it.
le monde est du raifort. »
the world is horseradish."
sont venus le voir,
we want to make the perfect pickle."
Docteur Moskowitz,
Il a répondu :
seulement des cornichons marinés parfaits. »
there are only perfect pickles."
to improve your regular;
cornichons épicés.
Campbell's Soup.
et c’était les Soupes Campbell.
s’est fait une réputation.
is where Howard made his reputation.
des années 80, voulait rivaliser avec Ragu,
was struggling next to Ragù,
spaghetti sauce of the 70s and 80s.
dans les années 70 et 80.
know whether you care about this,
-- this is an aside --
le mélange d’épice est de loin supérieur ;
is much better;
En fait,
in a much more pleasing way.
the famous bowl test
avec Ragu et Prego
and you would pour it on, right?
on versait la sauce dessus.
et Prego restait sur le dessus.
and the Prego would sit on top.
that they were far superior in adherence,
pour ce qui est de l’adhérence,
and they said, fix us.
et ils lui ont demandé, arrangez-nous ça.
at their product line, and he said,
et il a dit,
with the Campbell's soup kitchen,
Et il les a diversifiées
of spaghetti sauce.
to every conceivable way
une sauce tomate :
la concentration de la tomate,
by tartness, by sourness,
le secteur des sauces pour spaghetti. (RIres)
in the spaghetti sauce business.
you can vary spaghetti sauce,
et il s’est mis en route
of 45 spaghetti sauces,
il est allé à Jacksonville ;
camions entiers. Dans de grandes salles.
by the truckload into big halls.
et il leur a donné
he gave them ten bowls.
pour spaghetti à chaque fois.
sauce on each one.
évaluer de 0 à 100,
they had to rate, from 0 to 100,
the spaghetti sauce was.
pendant des mois et des mois,
after doing it for months and months,
la sauce pour spaghetti.
feel about spaghetti sauce.
variety of spaghetti sauce?
la plus populaire de sauce pour spaghetti? Non!
that there is such a thing.
at the data, and he said,
toutes ces différentes données.
different data points into clusters.
around certain ideas.
autour de certaines idées. »
ces données sur la sauce pour spaghetti,
on spaghetti sauce,
fall into one of three groups.
entrent dans l’une de ces trois catégories.
sauce pour spaghetti nature;
who like their spaghetti sauce plain;
who like their spaghetti sauce spicy;
who like it extra chunky.
the third one was the most significant,
est le plus significatif,
extra épaisse.
extra-chunky spaghetti sauce.
that one third of Americans
their spaghetti sauce,
that immediately and completely
business in this country.
600 millions de dollars
they made 600 million dollars
at Howard had done, and they said,
Howard avait fait, et ils ont dit,
thinking all wrong!"
seven different kinds of vinegar,
différentes sortes de vinaigre,
and 71 different kinds of olive oil.
even Ragù hired Howard,
for Ragù that he did for Prego.
qu’il avait faite pour Prego.
un supermarché vraiment bien,
to a really good supermarket,
Jardin extra-consistante. (Rires)
au peuple américain.
to the American people.
Je vais vous expliquer pourquoi.
changed the way the food industry thinks
la façon de penser de l’industrie alimentaire
in the food industry used to be
what people want to eat,
is to ask them.
les gens et disaient,
and they would say,
in a spaghetti sauce."
extra épaisse.
deep in their hearts, actually did.
de leurs cœurs, le voulaient, en fait.
« L’esprit ne sait pas ce que la langue veut. »
what the tongue wants."
our own desires and tastes
ne pouvons pas toujours expliquer ce que nous voulons
au fond de nous.
explain what we want, deep down.
dans cette salle, ce que vous recherchez dans un café,
in this room, what you want in a coffee,
« Je veux un café grillé à cœur, riche et bien noir. »
"I want a dark, rich, hearty roast."
when you ask them.
riche et bien noir!
"Dark, rich, hearty roast!"
un café grillé à cœur, riche et bien noir?
like a dark, rich, hearty roast?
between 25 and 27 percent of you.
to someone who asks you what you want
qui vous demande ce que vous voulez
that Howard did.
is he made us realize --
"horizontal segmentation."
thought before Howard.
avant Howard.
Ils étaient obsédés par la moutarde.
in the early 80s?
with the story of Grey Poupon.
Grey Poupon.
French's and Gulden's.
Qu’y a-t-il dans la moutarde jaune?
C’était ça la moutarde.
turmeric, and paprika.
du vin blanc, un parfum qui pique le nez,
some white wine, a nose hit,
avec une merveilleuse étiquette de papier glacé,
with a wonderful enameled label on it,
à Oxnard, Californie.
in Oxnard, California.
pour un pot de 225 grammes,
for the eight-ounce bottle,
ils ont décidé de le faire payer 4 dollars.
Avec le type en Rolls Royce,
eating the Grey Poupon.
s’arrête à sa hauteur,
"Do you have any Grey Poupon?"
Grey Poupon takes off!
that is more expensive,
quelque chose de désirable.
pensent aimer maintenant,
on what they think they like now,
higher up the mustard hierarchy.
la hiérarchie de la moutarde.
A more expensive mustard!
de culture et de sens.
and culture and meaning.
and said, "That's wrong!"
sur un plan horizontal.
on a horizontal plane.
or imperfect mustard.
qui conviennent à différentes sortes de gens.
that suit different kinds of people.
la façon de penser au goût.
the way we think about taste.
reconnaissants à Howard.
Howard Moskowitz a huge vote of thanks.
et peut-être la plus importante,
and perhaps the most important,
of the Platonic dish.
du plat platonicien (rires).
une façon parfaite de préparer un plat.
sashimi queue rouge,
with roasted pumpkin seeds
sorte de sauce réduite.
pas vrai?
on the reduction.
the extra-chunky reduction, or ...?"
de gros morceaux, ou voulez-vous le... non!
la chef de Chez Panisse
about red-tail sashimi.
time and time again,
in this restaurant."
the commercial food industry as well.
de ce qu’était la sauce tomate.
of what tomato sauce was.
It came from Italy.
Elle est mixée, elle est liquide.
tomato sauce" in the 1970s,
dans les années 1970,
On parlait des toutes premières sauces Ragu
of the pasta.
Et pourquoi étions-nous attachés à ça?
plaire aux gens
that what it took to make people happy
du point de vue culturel. point A
culturally authentic tomato sauce, A.
the culturally authentic tomato sauce,
sauce tomate authentique du point de vue culturel,
the maximum number of people.
en d 'autres termes,
valeurs culinaires universelles.
were looking for cooking universals.
to treat all of us.
to be obsessed
avec l’idée d’universalité,
et la plus grande partie du 20e,
and much of the 20th,
les économistes tentaient tous de trouver
economists
in finding out the rules
nous nous comportons tous.
in science of the last 10, 15 years?
dans les 10, 15 dernières années?
à la compréhension de la variabilité.
from the search for universals
savoir forcément comment
we don't want to know, necessarily,
votre cancer diffère du mien.
is different from my cancer.
from your cancer.
to the study of human variability.
la variabilité humaine.
was doing was saying,
que cette même révolution
in the world of tomato sauce."
a great vote of thanks.
extrême reconnaissance.
et c’est, oh, désolé.
illustration of variability,
but he took it a second step,
principes universels pour ce qui est de la nourriture,
universal principles in food,
en fait, nous nous portons un énorme préjudice.
a massive disservice.
avec Nescafé.
a lot of work with, with Nescafé.
and come up with a brand of coffee --
d’inventer une marque de café,
that made all of you happy,
d’environ 60 sur une échelle de 0 à 100.
would be about 60 on a scale of 0 to 100.
to break you into coffee clusters,
répartir en groupes de cafés,
pour chacun de ces groupes,
for each of those individual clusters,
at 60 and coffee at 78
that makes you wince,
deliriously happy.
most beautiful lesson,
Howard Moskowitz :
of human beings,
to true happiness.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Malcolm Gladwell - WriterDetective of fads and emerging subcultures, chronicler of jobs-you-never-knew-existed, Malcolm Gladwell's work is toppling the popular understanding of bias, crime, food, marketing, race, consumers and intelligence.
Why you should listen
Malcolm Gladwell searches for the counterintuitive in what we all take to be the mundane: cookies, sneakers, pasta sauce. A New Yorker staff writer since 1996, he visits obscure laboratories and infomercial set kitchens as often as the hangouts of freelance cool-hunters -- a sort of pop-R&D gumshoe -- and for that has become a star lecturer and bestselling author.
Sparkling with curiosity, undaunted by difficult research (yet an eloquent, accessible writer), his work uncovers truths hidden in strange data. His always-delightful blog tackles topics from serial killers to steroids in sports, while provocative recent work in the New Yorker sheds new light on the Flynn effect -- the decades-spanning rise in I.Q. scores.
Gladwell has written four books. The Tipping Point, which began as a New Yorker piece, applies the principles of epidemiology to crime (and sneaker sales), while Blink examines the unconscious processes that allow the mind to "thin slice" reality -- and make decisions in the blink of an eye. His third book, Outliers, questions the inevitabilities of success and identifies the relation of success to nature versus nurture. The newest work, What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures, is an anthology of his New Yorker contributions.
He says: "There is more going on beneath the surface than we think, and more going on in little, finite moments of time than we would guess."
Malcolm Gladwell | Speaker | TED.com