For those who don’t know who the hell this Gladwell guy is, he’s the author of seminal books like The Tipping Point and Blink. He used to write for the Washington Post and is currently writing for the New Yorker. I did a review of blink some time ago. Suffice to say, he’s considered a thought leader, specially by business and marketing people.
For those who do know, think they know, or are familiar with Malcolm Gladwell, I feel the need to remind them that he is not a scientist, nor a sociologist. He’s just a journalist that thinks about things that not many people think about, does the research, and writes about them in a way that lowbrow citizens like myself can understand.
Not surprisingly, I ordered Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers: The Story of Sucess, last Monday. So I’m waiting. I’ve been reading the promo interviews. I particularly liked and recommend the New York Magazine interview. I have to admit that he didn’t look too good in the Colbert Report interview.
But I’m going to stop reading anything about the man until I read Outliers, specially the negative reviews. I almost read completely the NyTimes Book review, but I’m saving it for later.
Which brings me to what’s bugging me about the recent reactions. See here and here. He always had critics, but all of sudden, it seems, everyone is smarter than Gladwell. Everyone now can handle “true” science, and read books written by real anthropologist and sociologists. It’s a little silly. Kind of like hipsters complaining that the bands music is too commercial and their first one was better.
I’m not sure your analogy works.
I certainly wasn’t saying Gladwell’s first two volumes were better than _Outliers_. I haven’t read the latest book, so I can’t make a comparison.
Nor am I upset by how popular Gladwell has become, and how I’m not longer unique for having read him. His first book, Tipping Point, was a New York Times best-seller.
I also wasn’t saying that I’m out there reading real anthropologist or sociologists. The book I mention in my post is a marketing book, written by a journalist, just as qualified or unqualified to write about social trends as Gladwell.
What I did say was that, based on the evidence of his last two books, he does not have a stellar track record for creating real insights into human behavior. Both Tipping Point and Blink have had their central hypotheses widely debunked.
I was in no way implying I’m “smarter” than Gladwell. I’m not sure why that would matter.
What I was implying was that Gladwell, and the style of “insight” he has advanced with his writing, has been proven as being largely a giant crock of shit.
Our relative scores on an IQ test won’t change that fact.
I linked to your post as an example. My intention wasn’t meant to be a specific rebuttal of your post. I would at least quoted some part of it. My intention is to show that Gladwell has his critics, but there are also people that are just being contrarians.
Well, fair enough.
Let me know what you think of Outliers.
Will do that. Thanks for dropping by and giving your thoughts about it. I’m actually a big fan of your blog.