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Malcolm Gladwell
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the blinking point
Please Welcome the Malcolm Gladwell Backlash
Malcolm Gladwell, blogger, New Yorker contributor, and poofy haired airport bookstore genius-in-residence, is finishing up his latest book just in time for the nascent backlash against him to reach full force. Gladwell's book The Tipping Point introduced his now-famous style: gleefully retold anecdotes arranged and analyzed to support some slightly unlikely sounding thesis. Blink took this style even further, presenting even more disparate stories manipulated to 'prove' some pseudo-scientific CEO self-help method for improving your decision-making skills. But both books sold zillions of copies and even embittered east coast writerly types still seemed to like him. Now, on the eve of his next book's publication, the cracks are starting to show. More »
Malcolm Gladwell Is Even Cuter In Comic Strips
In the current story on the magical webcomic Scary Go Round, heroine Shelly Winters is in love with Malcolm Gladwell, who is taking her to the New Yorker Christmas party. The results are a delight. [Scary Go Round 1 and 2 (with special guest Eustace Tilly)]
the blinking point
Gladwell's New Book Will Make You Feel Inferior
Here are the details on the upcoming book by zeitgeist-seizer Malcolm Gladwell, America's Favorite Wacky-Haired Pop Scientician: it will be called Outliers and it's about people who are better than you. Why they're better than you, how they're better than you, and what circumstances led them to being so extraordinary. "Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band." There will be visits to eccentric geniuses doing eccentric things and lots of anecdotes about the peculiarities of the famously successful. It will end up on the desk of every goddamn corporate exec in the nation. We won't read it but we'll complain about it relentlessly. [Kottke] UPDATE: Gladwell's thesis, revealed below! More »
gurus
'Wall Street Journal' Ranks the First Five Against the Wall
The Wall Street Journal's "Careers" column today measures the influence of business gurus. Using a complicated metric involving "googling people" and also "looking people up in Nexis," they have determined and ranked the most influential business thinkers in the universe. Number one is some dude named Gary Hamel who writes terrible books your boss probably reads, if you work for an asshole. BUT: the second-most-influential business thinker in the world is Thomas fucking Friedman, which is probably why we're in a recession. He has a new book out this summer! It's called Hot, Flat and Crowded, which is clearly something a made-up cab driver said to him about India. [WSJ]
Journalistic Perversity Continues
Canadian celebrity journalist Malcolm Gladwell got in a bit of trouble recently for telling an embellished story about sneaking a funny phrase into the Washington Post. Canadian less-famous journalist Clive Thompson recently received a minuscule amount of press for admitting that he's jealous of Gladwell. This, Clive, is not the healthiest way to work through those feelings: "These tools raise a fascinating, and queasy, new ethical question." [SilverJacket]
Canadian celebrity journalist Malcolm Gladwell got in a bit of trouble recently for telling an embellished story about sneaking a funny phrase into the Washington Post. Canadian less-famous journalist Clive Thompson recently received a minuscule amount of press for admitting that he's jealous of Gladwell. This, Clive, is not the healthiest way to work through those feelings: "These tools raise a fascinating, and queasy, new ethical question." [SilverJacket]
fond memories
Malcolm Gladwelling at The Post
Super-famous New Yorker writer and liar Malcolm Gladwell isn't the only reporter who tried to sneak funny bits of prose into his articles for a respected newspaper. (Except didn't he not do that? I'm confused.) Anyhoo, it's a fun old game to play, and we used to play it Page Six. My fellow former Sixer Chris Wilson and I used to daydream about getting the term "Bukkake Bandit" onto the page, which, in 2003/2004, was no easy trick. In fact, it never even got past Richard Johnson. Another crusade was to get the Google definition of Senator Rick Santorum's name into the Post back when that was still new and fun. More »
corrections
When Is Malcolm Gladwell To Be Believed?
Jeff Bercovici's deleted blog post on Portfolio.com—on the tussles between fellow Conde Nast writer, Malcolm Gladwell, and the fact-checkers—has reappeared again. Apparently, it wasn't so much censored as benched, pending additional reporting. So, what has Bercovici's additional reporting uncovered? Gladwell, author of anecdotally rich best-sellers such as The Tipping Point, now denies ignoring a fact-checker's warnings at the New Yorker, where he is a contributor. That would be the end of it, except Gladwell's credibility is shot. The pop science writer boasts that he inserts nonsense into articles for his own amusement, but Gladwell is inaccurate even in regard to his inaccuracies. His denial might be a denial; or it could just be another elaborate prank within a prank.
life expectancy
Live Fast, Die Old
In January, Carl Karcher, the founder of the fast food chain Carl's Jr., died at the age of 90. In February, Lovie Yancey, the founder of Fatburger, died at the age of 96. And just yesterday, Al Copeland, the founder of Popeyes Fried Chicken, died at the age of 64. Which is not bad for a man with a lifetime diet of fried chicken! Does this mean that 2008 is a deadly year for our beloved fast food entrepreneurs? No, it means that fast food will keep you alive well past the expected time of your demise. Honor their memories with greasy meat. [Tabloid Baby]
polls
In Defense Of Malcolm Gladwell?
If the internet has any effect on Malcolm Gladwell's psyche, the dude has had a rough week. His tall tale about Jayson Blair reporting, which was first deemed offensive for being true, was later deemed even more offensive for not being true. Added to that, The New Republic recently called him an idiot . New Yorker fact checkers are claiming that Gladwell tends to exaggerate for rhetorical effect. But some people, including me, think Gladwell is quite smart. Other people, not including me, think these charges of false story telling are ludicrous. What do you think? Does the public have a right to be outraged about this? Or has James Frey turned us into bitter, bitter hags? Poll after the jump.More »
relax
Jack Shafer Exposes Malcolm Gladwell's Lies About Lying
Remember when I freaked out that Malcolm Gladwell, the most successful pop-non-fiction writer of our time, was bragging about pulling pranks at the Washington Post? And remember how I was further irked that Gladwell was lying about lying? And remember how Pareene was like seriously, Rebecca, this is tired? Actually, you might not remember that, because it was a private conversation we had. But Slate media critic Jack Shafer thinks it's interesting. More »
losing battles
Malcolm Gladwell 1, Me 0
When I was at Jossip, I wrote about an anecdote Malcolm Gladwell told at the Moth Gala last November, which was later rebroadcasted on This American Life. In the story, Gladwell boasts about getting absurd phrases like "raises new and troubling questions" and "perverse and often baffling" into the Washington Post. At the time, being self-serious and high-minded &mdash I do after all listen to This American Life &mdash I wondered whether there wasn't something "perverse and often baffling" about one of the most successful journalists of our time making lite deception sound so endearing . Some people agreed with me, or at least wondered how a Canuck like Gladwell ended up on This American Life. Gladwell is back, not to defend himself for the charges of being Canadian, but to explain the story on his own blog: More »
journalismism
Malcolm Gladwell's Newspaper Daze
Malcom Gladwell was on precious radio program This American Life recently, telling some stories of his earliest days of "real" journalism at the Washington Post. He apparently had a bet with a colleague to determine which of them could be the first to insert a couple amusing phrases into the venerable paper. First was "new and troubling questions," which is surely already a journalistic cliche. Following that was the more amusing "perverse and often baffling"—a harder fit, but Gladwell managed it. Of course, Gladwell, easily one of the most charming one-trick ponies in media, has been dining out on this story for a dozen years. Despite that, it upset Jossip very very much, as it raises new and troubling questions about the state of respectable journalism. Audio clip attached.
sesame street
Why Kids Are So Dumb Today
In the Tipping Point, middle-brow about town Malcolm Gladwell cites rather convincing evidence that Blues Clues, that maddeningly simple television show featuring an azure canine, taught kids more about life than Sesame Street. Sesame Street he claims, en bref, was too complicated for the psyche's of tiny tots. He's wrong and here's why. More »
party people
Malcolm Gladwell v. Adam Gopnik
Last night at Capitale, The Moth celebrated ten years of storytelling. Media polymath Kurt Andersen, Jewy comedian Andy Borowitz, Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, potter Jonathan Adler and Lili Taylor all sat at one table in the front. Harper's figurehead Lewis Lapham didn't show. The main event: The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik would engage in heated storytelling duel with co-worker Malcolm Gladwell. Real estate mini-mogul Adam Gordon sat at the same table as Garrison Keillor, who was there to receive the first-ever Moth Award Honoring the Art of the Raconteur. Keillor looks like Dwight Schrute from "The Office" and is much funnier in person than on his overly precious show. Also he spat chevre on my hands and I haven't washed them since. Nikola Tamindzic was there, drawn like a shutterbug to an event.More »
Crazy-haired New Yorker thinkbot Malcolm Gladwell, after an absence of 305 days, has returned to his blog, if only to post the second-worst thing a blogger ever can: OMG LOL sorry no updatez!!11! (At least there were no cat pictures. Oh my God, does Malcolm Gladwell even have a cat???) His failure to multitask is duly noted, and also he is done with his book. Hmm. Well, yeah. What the hell did any of you do over the last 305 days anyway? Didn't write any bestsellers, did ya. [Gladwell]
Spotted at the Savoy, at Prince and Crosby, at a corner table: New Yorker scribe and pop sociologist Malcolm Gladwell. Hair no longer in trademark frizz, but cut down rather short—a few curls still evident, though. Wearing shorts and... navy blue Crocs. Now that's one shoe that's 100 percent beyond the tipping point. Also! It has now been 222 days since his last blog post.
