"If you said no, you didn’t get hired. I know that sounds terribly arbitrary. But here’s my reasoning. It is not necessary to know how to drive a stick in the 21st century—particularly if you’re 22 years old. So the only people who do are those who are willing to take the time to master a marginally useful skill. Now why would a 22-year-old do that? One reason is that they like knowing how to do things that most people do not. Another is that they realize that the most fun cars in the world to drive are sports cars, and the most fun sports cars to drive are the ones with manual transmission, and they like the idea of being able to turn a rote activity (driving) into an enjoyable activity. I want to work with the kind of person who thinks both those things.... I think, in no small part, human happiness is a numbers game. The more small things in your life that you can turn from negative to neutral, or neutral to positive, the happier you are. The people who bother to learn how to drive a manual understand this. Like I said, these are the people I like to have working with me."
Writes Malcolm Gladwell in "Do You Know How to Drive a Manual Transmission? My reasoning behind the seemingly arbitrary interview question I used for years..."
Every car I've bought, up through the 2005 Audi TT that is still my main car, has had a manual transmission. I keep getting a manual transmission because it's more fun, and I like maintaining my skills. But I must say that I did not originally learn to drive a manual transmission for the fun of it. We needed to buy a car, and it was 1976, and a manual transmission was not only cheaper to buy in the first place, it got better gas mileage in those days, and we were in the midst of the damned energy crisis. Gas zoomed up to $1.20 at one point. It felt crazy and out of control. That was not fun at all.
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Your average 22 year old doesn’t have access to a car with a manual transmission. Has Malcolm Gladwell thought about that? He used to be a pretty bright guy, but more and more his public statements make it look like he’s not the careful thinker he used to be.
Found it no fun at all. Still, the number of "things" which one can accomplish is positively correlated with confidence.
A manual teransmission is harmless. May as well.
Had a 65 VW four speed and made some serious distance in it. Drove on overloaded Econoline lots of fun getting that thing going. Not
But why not ask about a chain saw. Serious first aid. Self defense. Firearms. Some electrical one step past changing a light bulb. Do you know how not to start a fire with a nine-volt battery?
Malcolm Gladwell, the Cruella de Ville of job interviewers.
Always knew there was something off about the little prick.
I think I've said this before. I taught all my kids so far to drive a stick, even the one with vision impairment who cannot qualify for a driver's license. Even taught the blogger spouse to drive a stick. My daughter's VW GTI with a 2.0 L turbo is very fun to drive, and my son loved his cavalier with stick until we sold it. Unfortunately now, only my f150 is a stick, though my SUV at least has paddle shifters. but those really don't work like a stick, so I don't get the same satisfaction from them. I do wish it came with a stick instead.
I taught Mrs. DtM how to drive a stick back when we were dating.
Recently, she went to the UK and drove a rental car with a manual transmission, shifting with her left hand, and driving on the left, too!
Good carjacking defense. Unless, of course, the carjacker gets frustrated and shoots you.
Learn how to drive a manual transmission without using the clutch. A skill needed to get a car to the repair shop, three times in my career (Jeep, VW bus and VW bug). Also it's fun in just regular driving.
A manual transmission is also MUCH safer to drive in snow or other slippery conditions, because you can shift up and lug it a big, reducing torque to the drive wheel(s) and improving traction accordingly. Similarly, rear-wheel drive is safer than front wheel, especially on slippery downhills, where a front-end skid is very difficult to control. With a rear-drive manual you can engine-brake and pull out of the skid rather quickly.
I'll be one of I'm sure many to point out that a manual transmission is the most effective anti-theft device available.
Question for our hostess-
Do you have any problems or concerns with valet parking?
Ann, if I might suggest- take your Audi out and drive US 14 from Madison to LaCrosse. A beautiful drive, especially with a stick. Manual vehicles are becoming harder and harder to find- Volvo, for example no longer makes a car with a stick. I've driven sticks most of my life- I hope I'll still be able to buy one when my 6 speed 2014 Ford Fusion needs replacing!
It's a nice theory. Doubt it bears relationship to reality.
Interview questions are overrated.
Gladwell must not have considered many Europeans: the ones I know all started manual.
Ever heard of disparate impact? Would not be admitting to something like this if it were me.
I'm 39 and grew up with a manual. All my vehicles up until the most recent one were manuals. The most recent is a 2005 Tacoma that the dealer only had in automatic. I'll admit that even after almost ten years I still have to sometimes fight the urge to press down on the clutch.
Whenever I get stuck in the snow, I miss a manual transmission.
the most fun sports cars to drive are the ones with manual transmission
I hope the next person Gladwell hires lies about being able to drive a stick-shift, borrows one of his million-dollar sports cars, and wrecks it.
I learned to drive a manual transmission on a small Ford tractor when I was 13.
The dumptruck I drove that summer was a manual. I didn't know how to drive it at first, but learned quick.
The thrill of gear-shifting and clutch-popping etc. in sports cars has always escaped me; maybe it would be different if I wasn't always the passenger, eager to get out.
I guess Gladwell would hire me, since he didn't specify a vehicle type in the question.
I didn't own a car with a manual transmission until I decided to buy a Honda Prelude. No car has been as much fun to drive ever since. And I saved a ton of money on brake pads, although it probably went to clutch replacements.
More fun with a manual trannie and also helpful as a theft deterrent. I learned to drive with a 3-on-the-tree and taught my then girlfriend/now wife how to drive a 4speed manual on my Fiat.
That said, the best of the new “auto” trannies, e.g., DCTs or a “ZF” are superb.
people who bother to learn how to drive a manual understand this. Like I said, these are the people I like to have working with me
Nonsense. Gladwell already gave himself away. He doesn't want to work with people who drive a stick, he wants to work with 22-year-olds. There are TONS of people 40-plus who drive a stick, but they are not who he singled out.
That's the stupidest reasoning I've ever heard. For most people, a car is essentially a tool. You use it to do useful work. Regular people don't have access to the kinds of open roads ("professional driver on a closed track") that make sports cars look so sexy and fun to drive in the ads. And commuting back and forth to work every day with a stick shift cold sucks.
I like driving stick. I absolutely love those rare Sunday mornings in the mountains when I can put my sportster through its paces without having to worry about traffic or speed traps. But those days are too rare to justify the expense. Too rare to justify sitting in stop and go traffic for three hours every day, shifting into first, shifting into neutral, shifting into first, shifting into neutral...
What a jackass.
All of my kids learned to drive on a Kubota tractor.
8 speeds forward, 8 speeds reverse.
Clutch on the left, accelerator on the right.
They didn't get to even attempt driving a car until they had mastered the tractor.
96% of new cars sold in America today are automatic. In Europe, meanwhile, less than 20% of cars have automatic transmission. That has a lot more to do with economics and history, rather than the drivers being "more fun," "knowing more" and making better assistants.
I accuse Malcom of asking an arbitrary interview questions; and having a hidden preference for Europeans!
I always had a manual, then the D.C. constant stop-and-go rush hour disabused me of that.
My mother in Michigan always had a manual and wanted to still have one, but when she reached her 70s I convinced her to go automatic.
Luddite
I taught both kids on a turbocharged T-Bird in the mid/late-80s. Made it fun once they got the hang of it. Out of 7 grandkids only 2 have the skill...or even interest!
Ooh, fun. When I was young VWs were always stick. I bought a '67 VW bus and had to relearn manual after using it only in drivers ed.
God I loved that rig. It had a big long stick coming up from the floor and a flattened out steering wheel like a real bus. And you sat up high.
With manual you could roll-start a dead battery. Ho boy did I use that feature a lot.
(Trying to get rid of white space is not easy on phone. Just saying.)
I learned how to drive a manual transmission car in the mid-1970’s when I was 16. All of the vehicles that I have owned in the past 42 years, starting with the first car I ever bought, have been a stick shift other than a minivan that Mrs. Scott and I bought when we started a family as well as our newest car - outside of sports cars and compact cars, trying to find a new car with a stick is very rare. I have loved driving “stick” as well as the control I feel that I have in bad winter weather that I don’t have with an automatic. We still have one car with a stick and with the new car I can at least put the automatic into a pseudo manual mode to shift up and down the gears using paddles on the steering wheel, albeit without pushing in a clutch to shift gears. Driving a stick is definitely becoming a lost art. No wonder there are internet memes calling a stick shift a Millennial / Gen Z Anti-theft Device!
" First, is this a silent form of discrimination against women, since women are—according to stereotype—underrepresented in the gear-head category? No!"
But it is discrimination against younger people.
For at one time buying a car with an auto. trans. meant not only lower mpg but also lower performance. Thus, someone who learned to drive when this was true would be learning something that had obvious practical value to most drivers: you could pay less for your next car and get a better car than if you'd had to pay more to get the auto.
Further, for awhile car manufacturers would offer a base model at a very low price, and then pay a lot for ads that said, "For only this much you could have this car!" But if you went to the dealer to buy it you'd discover that the lowest trim level was available only with a stick. Which might make it a good value if you could drive it, but if you couldn't you'd get "upgraded" to a far costlier trim level.
Whereas today you might get a bit more performance with a stick but you'll get less mpg and, in any case, the only cars still available with a manual trans. are costly, high-performance cars. Which you might not be interested in (or able to afford).
So, overall the practical benefit of this skill has been deprecated, and, therefore it's hardly surprising that fewer choose to acquire it.
I agree with Gladwell on both. A manual transmission now has the added benefit of being less likely to be stolen.
The downside is that there aren't many cars offered with that option in the US.
"and they like the idea of being able to turn a rote activity (driving) into an enjoyable activity."
That's why I've always driven sticks. My first was purchased in 1979 because it looked like fun, even though I didn't know how to drive one at the time. I soon learned, of course, and still find it fun over 40 years later.
When I was 17 I persuaded my parents to buy a 4-speed manual transmission 4-cylinder Volvo 545 because it got very good gas mileage. Didn't tell them that it was competitive racing MGs at the Lime Rock race track.
Looked like a chopped and channeled 1948 2-door Ford Delux and was a lot of fun to drive.
Didn't hold up well suspension-wise over rough roads though, and after I was tail-ended by a distracted driver when stopped for a school bus, only drove manual Volvo 122s, first the sedan, then the more useful station wagon.
Still have a refurbished late-model 544 that I bought on eBay sitting in a garage in Staten Island...took a plane to Mississippi and drove it back to NYC.
It's really crazy that I've kept it for so long only for nostalgia reasons because the garage rent keeps going up.
FWIW, it's a lot cheaper to rent a car in Ireland with a manual transmission.
I, on the other hand, learned to drive about 1957, when manuals were more common. I still prefer them, whether in city or turnpike, because they require more attention and make me feel more in control, even at a steady 60-70 mph for hours at a stretch.
I, on the other hand, learned to drive about 1957, when manuals were more common. I still prefer them, whether in city or turnpike, because they require more attention and make me feel more in control, even at a steady 60-70 mph for hours at a stretch.
Gladwell's theory is interesting, as usual. But if you want to implement his theory, you would be better served using a test skill that was more current, like programing in Java, or explaining how the dark web works.
I had manual trans from 1967 until 1984, when the brutal stops and starts of LA traffic persuaded me and my left knee that automatic was the way to go. Two other features of manual made the transition to automatic inevitable. The first was the problem associated with bumper to bumper traffic on very steep roadways. The feeling of involuntarily retreating toward someone else's front bumper while patiently waiting for the clutch plates to catch was one I never enjoyed. (I know, you could use the emergency brake, but that was cheating) The second was the non-standardness of the placement of reverse. If you had to work parking cars and trucks in the 1960's, it was sometimes an adventure to locate reverse. And when a car was snowbound, the rocking between reverse and forward could sometimes require dexterity granted to only the fortunate few.
Until recently I drove a Toyota w/a manual transmission. As AA noted, they are a little more fun but they are a lot more work when driving in stop-n-go situations. Because stick shifts are so rare today people have little patience on the occasional stall. In years past, >40 of them, if you stalled out at a traffic light with a uphill, people would wait because they too experienced the stall or at least were aware that stalling on a hill did happen.
Today, if you don't move the instant the light changes to green they're right on the horn at you. So I chose my battles. I'd try to time the lights so that I wouldn't get stuck on the hill or even go another way.
My car was theft-proof however. No one, generally speaking, knows what that second brake pedal is for. lol,
For Boomers, it depends on what the definition of “drive” is.
I think a better question is, "Can a man get pregnant?"
I used to really like Gladwell. The first two seasons of his podcast were great. But when it comes down to it, he's just a writer. He doesn't really do anything, he just listens to people who do something and tells the rest of us, "Hey, this person does things, and here's how."
And he's a follower, too. He fronts off about being open-minded and really listening to all sides and being familiar with ambiguity, but when Donald Trump burst onto the scene, he was ready with all the intellectuals' chanting points and disparagements. He was too smart to do any hard thinking about Trump's allure, you see.
He left that for Salena Zito, who I now have much more respect for.
My father always drove a manual transmission, so I learned to drive one, but I don't know how often a young person would have access to a manual transmission now.
I enjoyed driving several cars with a stick, but the AWD transmissions with 6 or 7 gears are really a game changer......especially in the snow!!
When my boys learned to drive I wanted them to lear manual.
I had to special-order a cheap import with stick.
They both hated that it wasn't automatic.
Now, 15 years later they love driving manual and dad's not such a huge jerk.
Another perk to manual...you can jump-start your car in a pinch.
When I was poor and couldn't afford a new battery, I made sure to part on inclines.
My car was light enough that I could push it myself and start it if needed : )
i've rode automatics.. they always seemed kinda stupid
What Else is your left hand going to do besides clutch? Same with left foot and shifting?
Not sure about the whole "anti-theft" idea.. Manual transmissions are pretty universal
Back in 1987, I bought a brand new manual transmission Toyota Tercel at the local Toyota dealer. I figured, how hard can it be? and it wasn't hard at all. Since then, I've had a 1991 manual Miata, a 1975 manual Porsche 914, a manual Porsche 924 and a 1986 manual Nissan hardbody truck.
All those other cars are gone, but I still have the Nissan D21 Hardbody truck. It's actually my daily driver.
" . . . the most fun sports cars to drive are the ones with manual transmission." Ferrari stopped offering manual transmissions about 13 years ago with the F430, similar with McLaren, Lambo, Maserati. Porsche still offers manuals on a few models, but their PDK siblings absolutely crush them in performance. Learning to drive a 7 or 8 speed dual clutch tranmission with paddle shifters is actually a new learned skill, even more engaging than driving a 6 speed manual.
I Learned because a girl i liked had a car with manual transmission.
On snow, a rear wheel drive car goes through the fence backwards and a front wheel drive car goes through the fence forwards.
@StephenFearby "When I was 17 I persuaded my parents to buy a 4-speed manual transmission 4-cylinder Volvo 545 because it got very good gas mileage. Didn't tell them that it was competitive racing MGs at the Lime Rock race track."
What great, unexpected memories. I spent many summers as a kid at Lake Hayward and always enjoyed the roar coming across the ridge from Lime Rock [southeastern Connecticut]. Only thing to beat it? Those big rotaries on the WWII warbirds which were still common in the '50s and '60s.
Also, I took the Nissan Hardbody to the local oil change place a couple of years ago. (I had to do it to maintain the warranty on the rebuilt engine.) None of the young "techs" there knew how to drive a stick, so they asked me to drive it out of the service bay when they were done changing the oil.
There’s probably a very long list of asshole interview questions with similar rationales.
Do you know how to develop film in a darkroom?
Can you dance the tango?
Do you know how to rollerblade?
I drove nothing but manuals until I inherited my father's Tacoma. I haven't driven a manual now in almost 4 years. It will be some time, hopefully, before I have to buy another vehicle, but when I do, I will again try to get a manual transmission.
I learned to drive on a 72 Toyota Celica, and for the last 40 years drove a series of V8 Mustangs, the last of which is an 06 with nearly 200K on the clock.
First off, he's in the UK and manual transmissions are, even now, more common in the UK and EU.
I miss manual transmissions, but I married a woman who can't drive that sort of car. Next time I propose to somebody, there will be a questionnaire first.
At least he doesn't ask if they like movies about Turkish prisons.
Is it legal to make hiring decisions based on skills not directly related to the job duties?
I learned to drive a manual transmission when I bought a 1978 Plymouth Arrow. The manual transmission got better millage than the automatic transmission. I bought the 4-cylynder car because I could see gas prices approaching $1/gal! If only gas was back at $1/gal today!
I kept the car about ten years. I was rear-ended twice in six months, the second time caved in the rear and the hatch would not close. We bought a Jeep Cherokee about a month after the second rear-end. Never buy a Jeep! That car was nothing but a money pit.
We've driven only Toyotas since 2004. Good, reliable cars and SUVs.
I like this guy. He's doing the hiring so he can do whatever he wants to weed out the applicant pool.
My first and second cars ('51 Ford 4-door and '56 Mercury 4-door) had three on the tree. Then a succession of automatics followed by a '91 Toyota pickup with a four speed manual. Still have it with 375,000 and still has the factory clutch. Actually learned on a farm truck that you had to double clutch to shift.
Starting a manual on a hill? In driver's ed in high school, the teacher taught us how to slip the clutch to hold the vehicle in place, then gradually accelerate while simultaneously releasing the clutch. Never roll back, never stall.
Doesn’t Gladwell know that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to learn how to drive a manual transmission! That’s a lot to ask for.
Know a young lady who bought a car with a stick shift because her brother told her they were not for girls.
I was a valet parker in my youth, decades ago. The hardest thing was that every clutch is different and every gearbox is different. So finding first gear is not always easy. So I basically developed such a sensitive left foot that to this day I can start any car in 3rd gear without stalling it out.
Next car is a manual.
Let us look at Gladwell's process a little differently ... When he has an opening, he probably gets a lot of applicants who, on the surface, appear qualified. So ... the first thing he needs to do is reduce the number of applicants without losing any good ones. A first cut.
Gladwell believes that the question, "Can you drive a stick?" reduces the size of the field without eliminating any good prospects. Makes sense to me.
A 22 yr/old would judge Malcolm for the video games he hasn't played.
Has Malcolm driven a motorcycle?
Once you endure a significant leg or foot injury, you realize the benefit of auto-Trans.
I bought my daughter a manual in 2003 for college. She was annoyed but when she came home for Christmas she was happy. When her friends asked to borrow it she said sure, but it’s a stick. No one else could drive one. So, she got to be a good and generous friend but didn’t actually have to give out her car.
Now try flying a taildragger
I an drive a stick. I've owned half a dozen manual cars. I once had a driver's license for up to 5 tons and every Monday would back a big box truck onto an LCP.
I seldom used the clutch when shifting to save wear and tear on my leg in any of the manual cars I've owned. I don't know how to do it from stopped, though. Routinely stomped my Bultaco into 1st Sans clutch. Once did it multiple times on a sportster getting home with a broken clutch cable.
So been there,done that, got the tee shirt.
On the other hand, why would I want to? Just makes getting from here to there more work and more tedious.
I if I want to row my way through the gears like a manual my Hyundai Elantra let's me. If I want to use low gear going down a hill or lug the engine I can.
If I am skilled and paying attention, I might be able to get an extra mpg or 2 on a manual. But for most people it will probably be less than a modern automatic in the same model.
I suspect that people who brag about driving clutch cars drink a lot of Starbucks.
John LGKTQ Henry
And for bragging rights, I can drive a non-synchro mesh without too much gear grinding and can drive a Model T with planetary transmission and pedals.
Or I could many years ago. Probably still can if you do insist on pretty.
John LGKTQ Henry
My former employer's go to question is "What's 5% of 100?" It seemed to cull about 3/4 of the applicants.
As mentioned by others, Gladwell's reasoning is dumb. Its nearly impossible to find a stick shift sold in the U.S. that's not on the high end of the sports car spectrum. Probably your best bet is a Mazda 3 since Mazdas try to maintain the "zoom-zoom" appearance. But if you're going to by a reliable, sensible car like a Camry or Accord you're stuck with auto. And unless you grew up on a farm or know someone that will randomly let you practice with their stick, you will never have the opportunity to learn.
Most of my early cars were stick shifts--and I loved my 84 16 valve Turbo Saab. Iactually learned to drive in my uncle's cow pasture in Southern Arizona--in a stick shift late 40's Studebaker pickup truck--as did my brother and my cousins. It's a good thing my uncle also ran a local service station so he could brazing metal to take out the dents (sometimes the trail through pasture would zig--and the kid at the wheel would zag)
That said Gladwell's question--or something like it--is a good one. Paraphrased it's "what else can you do that is not directly tired to your fancy graduate degree". Did you ever work with your hands? Do you have an interesting hobby or activity not related to your "fancy graduate degree".
I have an engineer friend who was hired by NASA at the Pacific Missile Range at Vandenberg. He had just graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and was "in the middle of his graduating class". Well he was #3 out of 6 who graduated from an entering class of 300 would be engineers. And most of those 6 classmates had also interviwed at NASA. My friend asked "Why did you hire me--I was only in the middle of my class". The person who hired him said, "Because yoy worked with your hands and built things". I've forgotten whether Dick was a high school hot rod mechanic or a model airplane builder--but he had some practical experience, and that tipped the hiring decision in his favor.
I don't like driving, it's a chore that I avoid whenever possible. I learned to drive a manual transmission vehicle (Jeep M151A2) in the army. It is a skill that I have a happily let atrophy. I also learned to drive M60 and M1 series tanks, they had automatic transmissions and were much more fun to drive than any sports car or the F*ing jeep.
I was driving home as a teenager with my younger brother and cousin in our family's 1977 Silverado, which had automatic transmission. My brother declared that when he grew up he'd own nothing but manuals. I asked why and he said because you can only "peel out" with a manual. I told him you could squeal the tires in an automatic, and he instantly said "Prove it!" I had just started rolling into the intersection after a stoplight turned green, and mashed the throttle. That Chevy 454 continued burning rubber even after I let up on the gas.
I think my brother's opinion of me rose a couple notches.
Also I think me driving alone with younger kids in the car would now be illegal.
My grandfather taught me to drive on a manual VW bug in the mid 60's. I had manuals until the mid 90's when it got to be too much in Chicago traffic. If I had lived in a less trafficked city like Madison, I would have stuck with manuals. They are more fun to drive and have far less engine problems over time.
My favorite/best value car was a 95 Toyota Celica - the pocket rocket. Now I drive a boring 4Runner, but I am old and boring is good.
Taught my son how to drive in a G35 with a stick. Harder on the car than I would have liked, but all th cars he bought afterwards had sticks until he had to buy a new car for his pregnant wife.
Now try flying a taildragger
It's learned by anyone in a couple of hours. Typical student pilot still soloed in 8 hours in those days. It was just something to learn in the same moment that nose-wheel types aren't learning anything.
My dad gave me my first manual driving lesson. He bailed from the car half way down the driveway. I continued on and was able to make my way back in one piece, slowly, but surely.
We’ve always had at least one manual car because they are more fun to drive and make you appreciate the mechanics of the car so much more.
We’ve had manual transmission accords, bugs, mustangs, gtis and jeeps. I so loved buzzing around in my ‘84 accord hatchback. Her name was Edith.
My daughter let me take her Honda Civic Si out for a drive last night since I told her I had not driven a manual since a business trip in Europe in 2008. It has a really smooth-shifting 6-speed transmission. What fun. I learned to drive on a manual transmission car in the mid-1960's and had one for myself or for one of my children to drive for a number of years. All my children learned to drive a manual. The last manual car in the family was retired in 2002 until my older daughter (she's 44) went back to a manual when she got the Civic last year.
Malcolm is too easily impressed. If you want my respect, show me you can double-clutch.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
— Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love[1][2]
Paraphrased it's "what else can you do that is not directly tired to your fancy graduate degree". Did you ever work with your hands? Do you have an interesting hobby or activity not related to your "fancy graduate degree".
No, it’s not. Gladwell’s question specifically refers to manual transmissions.
Also, I like people with interesting hobbies who work with their hands as much as the next guy, but what hobbies I do or don’t have are none of my prospective employer’s business if they don’t relate to my qualifications for the position.
Let us look at Gladwell's process a little differently ... When he has an opening, he probably gets a lot of applicants who, on the surface, appear qualified. So ... the first thing he needs to do is reduce the number of applicants without losing any good ones. A first cut.
This. Coming from an organization where we struggle to hire qualified people, it irks me to see someone pass themselves off as clever for using an arbitrary screening mechanism like this. Sure, you can get away with it when you have options but it’s the same category as ivies who admit a tiny fraction of applicants and women on online dating apps.
My brother and his wife have had nothing but manuals, even when they lived in NoVa. When we were visiting them in rural CT and my niece was turning 16, I offered my automatic for her to learn on, but she wasn't interested enough to get a learner's permit. She finally got a license at 20 last year.
First, is this a silent form of discrimination against women, since women are—according to stereotype—underrepresented in the gear-head category? No!
My recollection from the 80s is that women often bought cars with manual transmissions because they were cheaper (the cars, not the women, or maybe both:)). That was based on casual observation, so not sure if it was really true.
I learned to drive a stick because I took a trip to Israel in the 90s, and practically all the rental cars were manual. I drove all over Israel and it got to be second nature. Even after a lapse of many years till the next time I drove one it was easy. But it's probably been 15 years or more since the last time. Still, Gladwell seems like a pretentious twit.
More re : Harsh Pencil
When I was teaching the kids, I knew they had developed a feel for the clutch when they could get the car moving in 1st gear without touching the gas pedal -- level ground of course.
I feel like this would have been a more useful question a few decades ago when there were more manual transmission cars around. I wonder if the question is more likely to weed out a disproportionate number of female applicants. Not that girls can't drive a stick, it's what I learned on, I just don't know if the interest is there as much for girls as for boys. Maybe I'm stereotyping.
Why not just ask if they have a skill that their friends do not? He could list a few examples, like driving a manual transmission, cooking a souffle, juggling, or riding a unicycle. That way, he could really find out if they took the time to learn something that they didn't need to learn.
"I know that sounds terribly arbitrary." Uh, yeah. It might be a point in the applicant's favor. Making it a deal-breaker is ridiculous.
How about only hiring people who speak Italian? Sounds similar to me.
It's pretty flat around here, but I had to nurse that old truck up some pretty steep, if short, grades. There was a light at the dump exit that if I missed I would have to put the 2x4 against the back of the seat to hold the brake, while coaxing the gas and clutch to behave with both feet and trawling for any forward gear when the light turned green. It wasn't safe to roll back, even if there was nobody behind me.
There were only about a dozen traffic lights between site and dump, and I did my best to drive tactically, but sometimes things just don't cooperate. Never had a wreck, but I wasn't sorry to quit that job.
I've been a passenger in stickshifts in hilly cities, and I'll take an automatic any day.
In '78 in Belgium I paid beaucoup francs to rent an automatic transmission for a day in and about Waterloo. I wasn't about to experiment with a rented stick, not in Brussels.
Those people are merciless drivers.
what about parts availability [clutch etc.]?
I love a manual transmission car. We rented one in Italy when we were doing a couple weeks of vacation there. Driving the Amalfi Coast was great fun. I taught my son on the back roads of Tuscany how to drive a manual car! He loved it! A great memory.
My daughter, 20, traded in her automatic sedan for a manual hatch (plus cash), which she then installed a shirt throw shifter in. I am proud!
When I used to take my dog for walks I was on stick shift because I had to throw sticks for him. I threw them manually with my hand. But I would not accept a job with Malcolm Gladwell because I can't type. All my life I've been afraid that I'd have to be a typist because I was female but I've avoided it so far. With average life expectancy I have only two more years to fight off what I always regarded as a fate worse than death and I think I'll make it. You may think that not being able to ten-finger type at 78 would be decisive. But I say "Look at Biden." He got his dream; I may yet get my nightmare.
My father wouldn't let me get my driver's license at 16 until I could show him I could drive a stick shift Volkswagen Bus up and down the hills of San Francisco.
My friends 22-year-old son bought a stick shift Hyundai. Besides being sporty he thought that car thieves wouldn't be able to steal it. It got stolen anyway.
I can’t drive a manual (although I once tried to learn on vacation in Ireland when we rented a car, and manual was the only option. But adding that on top of the opposite side of the road and car seat driving made it even more challenging, and it wasn’t very successful), but I can make cheese and I know how to can fruits and jams. I also can knit and crochet and make bread from scratch. So why are my “marginally useful” skills less valuable?
Also, aside from that car rental in Ireland, I’d never had access to a manual car before. None of my friends or family drive one, and I wasn’t required to take driver’s ed (is learning manual a requirement in that class?) Does this guy want us inexperienced folks to just buy one on a lark and hope we figure it out?
“I A manual transmission is also MUCH safer to drive in snow or other slippery conditions, because you can shift up and lug it a big, reducing torque to the drive wheel(s) and improving traction accordingly. Similarly, rear-wheel drive is safer than front wheel, especially on slippery downhills, where a front-end skid is very difficult to control. With a rear-drive manual you can engine-brake and pull out of the skid rather quickly.”
My last stick was an Audi 90 or A6 (can’t remember). Blew the clutch on the incline on I70 from Silverthorne up to Eisenhower Tunnel. Normally, it takes 15-20 minutes to do the climb. But sometimes, esp on Sunday evenings, after skiing, it can take 3-4 hours. Traffic is inching up at maybe 5 mph (versus the 90 or so the Audi could do on a clear day with no traffic). With a stick, I essentially rode the clutch all the way up to the tunnel. Last clutched car I ever owned. With an automatic, you just push the gas a little bit when the traffic moves, and not when it doesn’t.
My partner, who grew up in sunny Las Vegas, learned to drive a stick on snow, when she bought a farm in KY, that came with a cement plant, that had several 4wd 4Runners. She had to get out to buy food for her young kids, and her 2wd Mercedes was horrible on the snow. So, she learned with the 4Runners, in the snow. She went on to own several shifty cars, most notably a Corvette, with an impossibly stiff clutch. She has a led foot, and loved the Vette - except the clutch.
A few months ago I sold my stick shift Miata to a guy who never drove a manual transmission. He brought along a friend to test drive it and drive it home for him. He was Asian, 20 something, and determined to be a car guy. I admired him for the leap
"Learn how to drive a manual transmission without using the clutch. A skill needed to get a car to the repair shop"
Driving there without brakes is an even trickier endeavor. DAMHIKT.
My first car was a hand-me-down station wagon my mother drove until she bought another station wagon. Needless to say, it was a considerable embarrassment to drive. (16-year-old boys, particularly Young Quaestor, can be such ungrateful snots. Occasional beatings are warranted.) However, with high school graduation came THE CAR - a new ride that I actually liked. We when to the "foreign car strip", a stretch of suburban highway with one import dealership after another. What I wanted was a Triumph GT-6, but the test drive convinced me of its impracticality. My mother wanted me to choose a Volvo sedan, but it was real work to steer that thing. It had unassisted cam-and-roller steer and low-speed driving was like driving an ox. I settled for an Audi 100 with a 5-speed manual. Pretty nice. I liked it.
My next purchase was a V-8 Monte Carlo that I special ordered with a 4-speed shift and a towing package. That was pretty cool, and I could haul a horse trailer with it. Unfortunately, the transmission broke late one night while driving home from a dressage event, leaving me and my GF on the road with a horse. The AAA service guy helped me contact someone who could board the horse for a few days while the car got towed to the dealership. The problem was easily fixed. The clutch linkage involved this stupid ball-and-socket joint that popped loose. The repair was a few replacement fasteners and a nylon bearing. But I lost all confidence in the car. The dealership managers were intrigued by the 4-speed and started hinting about a trade. I traded one for two, a used Pinnifarina Turbo Spyder (a 5-speed stick and exactly the same door handles as used by the Ferrari 365 GT), and a used GMC High Sierra Classic pickup -- my first automatic since Mom's ex-station wagon. I loved my Turbo Spyder. After that, there was another Audi, a 5-speed Turbo Quattro, and a used Toyota Land Cruiser with a manual as well. Many others since then.
All told I've owned four automatics. The GMC was as tough as they come, but my current Ram pickup is a POS, frankly. I still own the Land Cruiser, but it needs some work to be completely useful, but it still runs. Parts are horribly expensive, though.
"Now try flying a taildragger."
Flying one is easy. Landing and taxiing are what's hard.
I learned to handle an ex-US Army L-21 on a grass strip that was almost as wide as it was long. Anyone can get the hang of that taildragger if there are few trees and no parked aircraft to hit while you're dicking around with the brakes and the throttle.
What's really interesting is taxiing a Grumman Tiger with the free-castering nose gear.
This thread reminds me of a recent incident in Florida -- Jupiter, I think.
Some guy with no manual shift experience bought a Ford GT, which is a slightly enlarged version of the GT-40 that handed Ferrari its fat Italian ass at Le Mans. ($350,000.00)
He smashed it into a tree the first time he drove it.
Well, I can honestly say I know HOW to drive a manual. What I can’t say is that I know how to drive a manual well.
I'm not a car guy. In fact I'm probably the furthest thing from a car guy in the USA. A vehicle gets me where I want to go; my ego or self-image has never been tied to what I'm driving.
My first car was a 68 VW Squareback manual. I bought it to drive to Junior College - remember those? It took me a few days to get the hang of it and a lot of lurching in the college parking lot, much to people's amusement. I replaced it 5 years later with a automatic 72 Chevy Caprice, the best car I ever owned. After some drunk crashed into it, I replaced it with a manual VW Bug, the second worst car I ever owned.
While working to pay my way through university and law school, I drove manual dump trucks, garbage trucks, endloaders, back hoes, name it.
When I moved to Miami I brought along my 86 Chevy Sprint manual, an inexpensive piece of shit car, typical of GM in those days. I drove it in commuter rush hour traffic until I could afford to buy another car, with an auto transmission. Rush hour stop and go is no fun and a pain in the ass driving a stick.
Now I'm retired and love my Honda Civic. I've driven Accords and Civics since I got rid of the Sprint 30 years ago.
Happy Memorial Day to everyone.
wildswan wins it, when she said...
When I used to take my dog for walks I was on stick shift because I had to throw sticks for him. I threw them manually with my hand.
I only hire people who know how to use an eighteen speed transmission. Shifting without using the clutch is a plus but if you can't it's not a deal killer.
My 2nd through 5th daily drivers were manuals, which includes the first new car I bought.
When that car was sold, I gave them up because my wife wasn't comfortable enough for those times when I would be taking her SUV for golf trips with my brother and friends.
But in 2010, I bought a 5-speed '78 280z. After I drive it, the next time I'm in an automatic, my left foot wants to press down on the clutch pedal.
Teaching my son to drive it became a topic for an instructional paper for his college English composition class.
Electric / hybrid cars are almost exclusively automatic. There is no need for gears. Ergo MG hates the environment.
I learned to drive in 1975 in the family's 1965 VW Minibus, the kind with the yard long manual shift lever protruding from the floor. My mother opined that since we could drive her blue & white deathtrap, we could drive anything. It was years later that I read the intro to The Complete Idiot's Guide to the VW Minibus, which instructured the readers to think of themselves, when driving a VW Minibus, as an Aztec human sacrifice strapped to the front bumper. Because basically, that was what we were in that car.
And because I learned that stick shift, as a postdoc in 1989 I was able and was allowed to drive my boss's SCCA race-configured '68 Alfa Romeo Julietta, an experience I cherish to this day. I offered to let him drive my (non-stick) '76 Impala in return, but he declined on the basis that old yachts belonged on water, not land.
I learned to drive in 1975 on the family's 1965 VW Minibus, the kind with the yard long manual shift lever protruding from the floor. My mother opined that since we could drive her blue & white deathtrap, we could drive anything. It was years later that I read the intro to The Complete Idiot's Guide to the VW Minibus, which I structural the readers to think of themselves, when driving a VW Minibus, as an Aztec human sacrifice strapped to the front bumper. Because basically, that was what we were in that car.
And because I learned that stick shift, as a postdoc in 1989 I was able and was allowed to drive my boss's SCCA race-configured '68 Alfa Romeo Julietta, an experience I cherish to this day. I offered to let him drive my (non-stick) '76 Impala in return, but he declined on the basis that old yachts belonged on water, not land.
I taught my eldest daughter how to drive a stick in a rented 5-speed Duster in the parking lot of a cemetery in Iceland.
Other questions Malcolm asks prospective assistants, "How do you feel about my hair?" and "Are you creeped out by me?"
My wife and I bought a car in '84. I wanted a manual and she, an automatic. We compromised by getting the automatic and agreeing the next car would be manual.
A few years later, we were buying a new Nissan Maxima. It was a great car and five on the floor. I loved it. As we drove to the dealer the next day to pick the car up, it became clear that, if I held her to the deal, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
I learned two things:
I was done with manual transmissions.
Agreeing to what she wants now in exchange for what I want later is a sucker bet.
Howard said...
A human being should be able to change a diaper,
=======
but first any human should be able to get pregnant and have a baby ...
"This reminds me of a question I used for years in interviewing potential assistants: Do you know how to drive a manual transmission? If you said no, you didn’t get hired."
Another important skill: recognizing when someone is speaking in the past tense.
because they were cheaper (the cars, not the women, or maybe both:)).
==========
cheaper >>> apply to objects
frugal >>> applies to people
Questar said,
"What's really interesting is taxiing a Grumman Tiger with the free-castering nose gear."
A friend landed his in a tree on his approach to Palwaukee Airport. The fire department hade to get him and the plane out of the tree. He lived. And so did the plane.
Blogger Ernest said...
"I learned to drive a manual transmission on a small Ford tractor when I was 13."
LOL. International H series about the same age as you.
Up until 2019 I had a manual transmission and loved it! I made it a requirement for my children to learn how to drive my car before I allowed them to get their driver's licenses because should some emergency happen and that was the only car around and they needed to get out in a hurry they'd better know how to drive it.
My daughter who fought me really hard about this stipulation is glad she stuck it out and learned how to drive it. She has that car now so I can still drive it and keep up my skillset.
They do make driving more fun...just not in commute traffic.
I got my Doctorate in Manuals after demonstrating that I could parallel park a VW bug in SF on steep hills on a rainy day.
I currently drive a 2014 Fiesta ST, manual transmission.
I've always enjoyed manuals, but they're rare now a days. I might be forced to go with an automatic for my next purchase.
Yeah, I can drive a stick shift. I'm old. My wife can too. She had a five speed T-Bird turbo when I met her. Two of our kids can too. But the last two have never had the chance based on the vehicles we've had.
Fly a tail dragger? Don't know. I could, and did some 40 years ago.
Now do motorcycles. One down, five up.
Pettifogger said,
"A few years later, we were buying a new Nissan Maxima. It was a great car and five on the floor. I loved it. As we drove to the dealer the next day to pick the car up, it became clear that, if I held her to the deal, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
I learned two things:
I was done with manual transmissions.
Agreeing to what she wants now in exchange for what I want later is a sucker bet."
Maybe so, but it is what makes a marriage. Both work for the other's wellbeing and not one's own.
This is the problem with Gladwell, he makes simple claims concerning complex events.
When you select for ability to drive a stick, you are also selecting for people who grew up operating farm equipment or who own sports cars. Also motorcycles, almost all motorcycles have manual transmissions (L hand clutch, L foot gear selector).
Jokah Macpherson said...
Is it legal to make hiring decisions based on skills not directly related to the job duties?
5/29/22, 6:54 PM
We are at the point where if it’s not been made specifically illegal, it is, de facto, legal. Very sad, I think. This allows people to get away with things that, in a civilized society, would not be tolerated.
Quaestor,
We ( My father and i) used to have a Cessna 195. Jacobs R755 engine, single leaf main gear struts, and castering mains.
On windy days we'd get puzzled calls from the tower asking if we needed help.
Why would we? Just because we're taxiing sorta sideways, why would they think that?
Damn. I just looked it up, and some prat in Texas crashed it in 2015. Departure overrotation, prop strike on runway, slid off into weeds. Probably fixable. Sigh. N2125C.
Farm kids rule.
I currently drive a 2012 (bought new in that year) Fiat 500 Abarth, 5 speed manual, which is my daily driver in my retirement years. I forgot to mention that our 40 and 37 year old sons and our 35 year old daughter all learned to drive on cars with manuals, as I’ve never owned a daily that wasn’t equipped with a manual transmission. And all the cars I bought for them as their “first car” were manuals… so there was no escape.
In February of 2021 I switched from a 4wd auto truck getting 16 mpg to a AWD Manual Subaru that gets 35 mpg. I now garner an extra 21 mpg.
I love the question, but it would be better if he had several like this. Are there others that would serve this same purpose? I admit to not doing so much reading, so perhaps this has been covered. Forgive me. I am wearing pants. That counts for something.
Had an old MGB. Taught the kids how to drive a stick - just so they'd know.
While interviewing legal assistants, I got a wild hair and asked: "What do Tiggers do?" When Ann Marie beamed: "Bounce", I knew we had a keeper. One of the best!
Learned on turd brown '61 Falcon station wagon; 3 on tree, like my first car: '62 Falcon, '64 El Camino; then 4 or 5 on the floor: '67 Kharmann Ghia, '70 240 Z, '72 Audi Super 90, '79 Rabbit, '85 Accord, and a series of Acuras and Outbacks. Gave up, when wife burned out 3rd clutch.
etbass said: "Maybe so, but it is what makes a marriage. Both work for the other's wellbeing and not one's own."
True. We're within a few days of our 52nd anniversary. But it pays not to have unrealistic expectations.
Can we stop with the unfair and abusive interview questions being presented as somehow being twee and insightful? A couple of weeks ago Tyler Cowen was bragging about asking people what browser tabs they had open. Same deal. A petty flex by someone who can get away with it in the face of someone who's got to put up with it.
I learned to drive a stick because a particular car I wanted to drive had a manual transmission.
Necessity is the mother of privilege.
All this says to me is that The Idiot Gladwell only interviews Americans.
My answer to the question would be "Of course. I'm British." Automatics are rare here, and not being able to drive a manual is seen as kind of a disability.
she then installed a shirt throw shifter in. I am proud!
Does her car have a stripper pole, too?
Gladwell---what a pompous dick! It is very hard to find a vehicle in the past 30+ years that has a stick shift, so how can Gladwell conclude anything about a person who doesn't know how to drive a stick other than that they probably have had no opportunity to learn?
I know how to drive a stick because my first car was an old VW Beetle; it has nothing to do with my personality or moral character.
I love to drive manual transmissions. I would pay extra for a manual transmission. That being said, my next car won't have any transmission.
You’re still driving that ‘05 Audi?!? That’s the car you had when I started reading this blog when I started law school. Silvio, right?
I used to think this was a good discriminator, but, it is very hard to find a car in general circulation with a manual transmission, anymore. Heck, modern kids don't even want to drive! A broader question about challenging oneself would be better.
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