Home > > Search results

Outliers; Malcolm Gladwell

Read a few weeks back. In short: an argument against blaming the victim presented as an argument against congratulating those who are successful, often backed by direct quotes from those successful individuals. Gladwell's books are always a lesson that life is more subtle and varied than those beliefs that many declare to be basic "common sense."

Continue reading "Outliers; Malcolm Gladwell"

Freak

Just listened to an interview with Steven D. Levitt on WNYC about his new book Freakonomics [Amazon]. He has some interesting ideas on par with Gladwell's The Tipping Point [Amazon]. A couple of his quirky observations: sumo wrestlers regularly throw matches, legalized abortion caused a drop in crime.

One of the (unpopular) comments on Amazon suggests that the abortion hypothesis has been debunked by Steve Sailor. Kottke has this interview with Levitt along with copius links to background info and an email argument between Levitt and Sailor.

Gladwell in Atlanta

From Mason: Malcolm Gladwell is in town on Tuesday for a book signing. Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Border's; 3637 Peachtree Rd N.E, Atlanta, Georgia; 7:00 PM Talk and Book Signing.

I always want to go to these things, and yet always miss them. This will be no exception because of the Atlanta bloggers get together at Prince of Wales. Make up for it by buying his books.

Continue reading "Gladwell in Atlanta"

New book by Jared Diamond

I had first heard about Jared Diamond in the seminal yet long defunct magazine Lingua Franca (Google Lingua Franca magazine for the full story). His book Guns, Germs, and Steel was revered and given a high place among its most influential books of academia.

He's recently released another book, similar in scope, called Collapse. Yet where GG&S focused on how Western society survived, Collapse examines those that failed and attempts to explain why.

Check out the Malcolm Gladwell review in the recent New Yorker and this excerpt I had forgotten about from Harper's June 2003 issue.

Continue reading "New book by Jared Diamond"

Gladwell on copying

I read Malcolm Gladwell's recent article in The New Yorker on copyright and ownership called "Something Borrowed." It echoes many of this discussions I've seen recently around the Internet but that I hadn't read. Open-source, DRM, file-sharing--I'm immersed in it, yet I don't have a complete opinion or complete grounding on the subject.

Continue reading "Gladwell on copying"

Blink

Malcolm Gladwell has a new book coming out in January of next year called Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking [Amazon]. Gladwell wrote my 30 September 2004 Currently Reading item, The Tipping Point. Tipping Point analyzed how popular trends become popular--labeling that transition as the tipping point. He classified the way that trends tip into three areas: the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. His ideas have that quality of obvious-yet-unstated. Why hadn't someone codified this before?

Blink should be equalling intriguing. IT Conversations has a streaming presentation by the author. A simple, obvious statement he makes at one point in the presentation, our feelings about something are extraordinarily unstable, hints at the conclusions arrived at by social construction [Wikipedia]. We're making choices every day, many of which we think are normal and absolute, yet we will change our choice--sometimes to the exact opposite--when context changes.

[ via BoingBoing -> IT Conversations ]

Continue reading "Blink"

Suicide in The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point examines how ideas are passed through society as epidemics. The author develops the simile using three rules: the law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. These three rules map to the carriers of the disease, the virulence of the disease, and the environment in which the disease spreads. Examined are such disparate ideas as the Hush Puppies clothing fad in the 1990s, the children's show Blue's Clues [IMDB], and New York City crime in the 1980s. All are presented with a different emphasis on his three rules. The book is fascinating and continues to be relevant.

Chapter 7 discusses sticky concepts (those that resonate and thrive throughout society) that are also detrimental or fatal. The section on suicide was interesting.

Continue reading "Suicide in The Tipping Point"

Coincidence of the day

For the first time--possibly ever in my life--today I used the word "surfeit." Then, just a few minutes ago, I read that unlikely word on page 231 of Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point.

Not all that interesting, but what are the odds (rhetorical)?

The Tipping Point; Gladwell, Malcolm

This was recommended long ago by a trusted co-worker (post co-working), so I bought it immediately with the unintended intention for it to become a dust catcher. It has since haunted me on one of our book shelves. I know Malcolm Gladwell's writing from his many articles in The New Yorker.

Continue reading "The Tipping Point; Gladwell, Malcolm"