Malcolm Gladwell
Encyclopedia
Malcolm Gladwell, CM
(born September 3, 1963) is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City
and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker
since 1996. He has written four books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
(2009), a collection of his journalism. All four books were New York Times Bestsellers.
Gladwell's books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make frequent and extended use of academic work, particularly in the areas of sociology
, psychology
, and social psychology
. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada
on June 30, 2011.
, Hampshire
, England to Joyce, Jamaican-born psychotherapist and Graham Gladwell, a British mathematics professor. Gladwell has said that his mother is his role model as a writer. His mother owes her success to his grandmother's effort to keep her in college. His grandmother negotiated financial help from a Chinese Jamaican businessman. It was quite often for Chinese Jamaican businessmen who helped out attractive ladies in Jamaica. When he was six his family moved to Elmira, Ontario
, Canada
.
Gladwell’s father noted that Malcolm was an unusually single-minded and ambitious boy. When Malcolm was 11, his father, who was a professor of mathematics and engineering at the University of Waterloo
, allowed him to wander around the offices at his university, which stoked the boy's interest in reading and libraries. During his high school years, Gladwell was an outstanding middle-distance runner and won the 1500 meter title at the 1978 Ontario High School championships in Kingston, Ontario
. In the spring of 1982, Gladwell interned with the National Journalism Center
in Washington, D.C. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto
's Trinity College
in 1984.
(as Gladwell puts it, “college was not an... intellectually fruitful time for me”), so he decided to go into advertising. After being rejected by every advertising agency he applied to, he accepted a journalism position at The American Spectator
and moved to Indiana
. He subsequently wrote for Insight on the News, a conservative magazine owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon
's Unification Church. In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for The Washington Post
, where he worked until 1996. In a personal elucidation of the 10,000 hour rule he popularized in Outliers, Gladwell notes, "I was a basket case at the beginning, and I felt like an expert at the end. It took 10 years — exactly that long."
When he started at The New Yorker in 1996 he wanted to "mine current academic research for insights, theories, direction, or inspiration." His first assignment was to write a piece about fashion. Instead of writing about high-class fashion, Gladwell opted to write a piece about a man who manufactured T-shirts, saying “it was much more interesting to write a piece about someone who made a T-shirt for $8 than it was to write about a dress that costs $100,000. I mean, you or I could make a dress for $100,000, but to make a T-shirt for $8 -- that’s much tougher.” Gladwell gained popularity with two New Yorker articles, both written in 1996: "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt" These two pieces would become the basis for Gladwell's first book, The Tipping Point, for which he received a $1 million advance. He continues to write for The New Yorker. He also serves as a contributing editor for Grantland, a sports journalism website founded by ESPN's Bill Simmons
.
, came from the sudden drop of crime in New York City
. He wanted the book to have a broader appeal than just crime, however, and sought to explain similar phenomena through the lens of epidemiology
. While Gladwell was a reporter for The Washington Post, he covered the AIDS
epidemic. He began to take note of "how strange epidemics were," saying that epidemiologists have a "strikingly different way of looking at the world." The word "tipping point" comes from the moment in an epidemic when the virus reaches critical mass
and begins to spread at a much higher rate.
After the success of The Tipping Point, Gladwell wrote Blink
in 2005. The book explains how the human subconscious
interprets events or cues and how past experiences can lead people to make informed decisions very rapidly, using examples like the Getty kouros
and psychologist John Gottman
's research on the likelihood of divorce in married couples. Gladwell’s hair was the inspiration for Blink. He stated that he started to get speeding tickets all the time, an oddity considering that he had never got one before, and that he started getting pulled out of airport security lines for special attention. In a particular incident, he was accosted by three police officers while walking in downtown Manhattan, because his curly hair matched the profile of a rapist, despite the fact that the suspect looked nothing like him otherwise.
Gladwell’s third book, Outliers
, published in 2008, examines how a person's environment, in conjunction with personal drive and motivation, affects his or her possibility and opportunity for success. Gladwell’s original question revolved around lawyers: "We take it for granted that there’s this guy in New York who’s the corporate lawyer, right? I just was curious: Why is it all the same guy?" In another example present in the book, Gladwell noticed that people ascribe Bill Gates’s success to being "really smart" or "really ambitious." He noted that he knew a lot of people who are really smart and really ambitious, but not worth 60 billion dollars. "It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude--and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations."
Gladwell's fourth book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
, was published on October 20, 2009. What the Dog Saw bundles together his favorite articles from The New Yorker
since he joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1996. The stories share a common theme, namely that Gladwell tries to show us the world through the eyes of others, even if that other happens to be a dog.
Gladwell's books—The Tipping Point
(2000) and Blink
(2005), were international bestsellers. The Tipping Point sold over two million copies in the United States. Blink sold equally well.
customers, The Onion A.V. Club, The Guardian
, and The Times
. It was also Barnes and Nobles’s 5th bestselling nonfiction book of the decade. Blink was named to Fast Company
’s list of the best business books of 2005. It was also #5 on Amazon users’ favorite books of 2005, named to Christian Science Monitor’s best nonfiction books of 2005, and in the top 50 of Amazon users’ favorite books of the decade. Outliers was a #1 New York Times Bestseller for 11 straight weeks, and was Time
’s #10 nonfiction book of 2008, as well as named to The San Francisco Chronicle’s list of the 50 best nonfiction books of 2008.
Critical appraisal of Gladwell's work has been mixed. Most praise his gift for compelling writing and clarity of expression while many disagree with his conclusions or question the validity of his methods.
Fortune described The Tipping Point as “a fascinating book that makes you see the world in a different way.” The Daily Telegraph called it “a wonderfully offbeat study of that little-understood phenomenon, the social epidemic.” Steven Pinker
writes that Gladwell is a writer of "many gifts... He avoids shopworn topics, easy moralization and conventional wisdom, encouraging his readers to think again and think different. His prose is transparent, with lucid explanations and a sense that we are chatting with the experts ourselves." Reviewing Blink, the Baltimore Sun dubbed Gladwell “the most original American [sic] journalist since the young Tom Wolfe.” Farhad Manjoo at Salon described the book as “a real pleasure. As in the best of Gladwell's work, Blink brims with surprising insights about our world and ourselves.” The Economist called Outliers “a compelling read with an important message.” David Leonhardt
wrote in The New York Times Book Review: “In the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell is as close to a singular talent as exists today” and that Outliers “leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward.” Ian Sample wrote in the Guardian: “Brought together, the pieces form a dazzling record of Gladwell's art. There is depth to his research and clarity in his arguments, but it is the breadth of subjects he applies himself to that is truly impressive.”
Criticism of Gladwell tends to focus on the fact that he is a journalist and not an academic, and as a result his work does not meet the standard of academic writing. Critics charge that he sometimes stretches his colorful stories to make them apply to business issues. The New Republic
called the final chapter of Outliers, "impervious to all forms of critical thinking". Gladwell has also received criticism for his emphasis on anecdotal evidence
over research to support his conclusions. Maureen Tkacik and Steven Pinker
have challenged the integrity of Gladwell's approach. Even while praising Gladwell's attractive writing style and content, Pinker sums up his take on Gladwell as, "a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates the hazards of statistical reasoning," while accusing Gladwell of "cherry-picked anecdotes
, post-hoc sophistry
and false dichotomies" in his book Outliers. Referencing a Gladwell reporting mistake, Pinker criticizes his lack of expertise: "I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer’s education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong." A writer in The Independent
accused Gladwell of posing "obvious" insights. The Register
has accused Gladwell of making arguments by weak analogy and commented that Gladwell has an "aversion for fact", adding that, "Gladwell has made a career out of handing simple, vacuous truths to people and dressing them up with flowery language and an impressionistic take on the scientific method." His approach is spoofed in "The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator".
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(born September 3, 1963) is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
since 1996. He has written four books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures is the fourth book released by author Malcolm Gladwell, on October 20, 2009. The book is a compilation of the journalist's articles published in The New Yorker.-Background:...
(2009), a collection of his journalism. All four books were New York Times Bestsellers.
Gladwell's books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make frequent and extended use of academic work, particularly in the areas of sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, and social psychology
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
on June 30, 2011.
Early life
Gladwell was born in FarehamFareham
The market town of Fareham lies in the south east of Hampshire, England, between the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, roughly in the centre of the South Hampshire conurbation.It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, England to Joyce, Jamaican-born psychotherapist and Graham Gladwell, a British mathematics professor. Gladwell has said that his mother is his role model as a writer. His mother owes her success to his grandmother's effort to keep her in college. His grandmother negotiated financial help from a Chinese Jamaican businessman. It was quite often for Chinese Jamaican businessmen who helped out attractive ladies in Jamaica. When he was six his family moved to Elmira, Ontario
Elmira, Ontario
The town of Elmira in Ontario, Canada is the largest community within the Township of Woolwich in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is located 15 km to the north of the city of Waterloo.-History:...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Gladwell’s father noted that Malcolm was an unusually single-minded and ambitious boy. When Malcolm was 11, his father, who was a professor of mathematics and engineering at the University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
, allowed him to wander around the offices at his university, which stoked the boy's interest in reading and libraries. During his high school years, Gladwell was an outstanding middle-distance runner and won the 1500 meter title at the 1978 Ontario High School championships in Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
. In the spring of 1982, Gladwell interned with the National Journalism Center
National Journalism Center
The National Journalism Center, established in 1977 by conservative journalist M. Stanton Evans, runs programs and internships for journalism students to help them to become professional journalists, and to educate them on topics which relate to conservative political issues and values.-...
in Washington, D.C. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
's Trinity College
University of Trinity College
The University of Trinity College, informally referred to as Trin, is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Trinity was intended by Strachan as a college of strong Anglican alignment, after the University of Toronto severed its ties with the Church of...
in 1984.
Career
Gladwell’s grades weren’t good enough for graduate schoolGraduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
(as Gladwell puts it, “college was not an... intellectually fruitful time for me”), so he decided to go into advertising. After being rejected by every advertising agency he applied to, he accepted a journalism position at The American Spectator
The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
and moved to Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. He subsequently wrote for Insight on the News, a conservative magazine owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon is the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. He is also the founder of many other organizations and projects...
's Unification Church. In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, where he worked until 1996. In a personal elucidation of the 10,000 hour rule he popularized in Outliers, Gladwell notes, "I was a basket case at the beginning, and I felt like an expert at the end. It took 10 years — exactly that long."
When he started at The New Yorker in 1996 he wanted to "mine current academic research for insights, theories, direction, or inspiration." His first assignment was to write a piece about fashion. Instead of writing about high-class fashion, Gladwell opted to write a piece about a man who manufactured T-shirts, saying “it was much more interesting to write a piece about someone who made a T-shirt for $8 than it was to write about a dress that costs $100,000. I mean, you or I could make a dress for $100,000, but to make a T-shirt for $8 -- that’s much tougher.” Gladwell gained popularity with two New Yorker articles, both written in 1996: "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt" These two pieces would become the basis for Gladwell's first book, The Tipping Point, for which he received a $1 million advance. He continues to write for The New Yorker. He also serves as a contributing editor for Grantland, a sports journalism website founded by ESPN's Bill Simmons
Bill Simmons
William J. "Bill" Simmons III is a sports columnist, author, and podcaster. He currently writes columns and hosts podcasts for Grantland.com, which is affiliated with ESPN.com. He is a former writer for ESPN The Magazine and Jimmy Kimmel Live!...
.
Works
Gladwell has written four books. When asked for the process behind his writing, he said "I have two parallel things I'm interested in. One is, I'm interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is I'm interested in collecting interesting research. What I'm looking for is cases where they overlap." The initial inspiration for his first book, The Tipping PointThe Tipping Point
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is a book by Malcolm Gladwell, first published by Little Brown in 2000....
, came from the sudden drop of crime in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He wanted the book to have a broader appeal than just crime, however, and sought to explain similar phenomena through the lens of epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
. While Gladwell was a reporter for The Washington Post, he covered the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
epidemic. He began to take note of "how strange epidemics were," saying that epidemiologists have a "strikingly different way of looking at the world." The word "tipping point" comes from the moment in an epidemic when the virus reaches critical mass
Critical mass
A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The...
and begins to spread at a much higher rate.
After the success of The Tipping Point, Gladwell wrote Blink
Blink (book)
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a 2005 book by Malcolm Gladwell. It presents in popular science format research from psychology and behavioral economics on the adaptive unconscious; mental processes that work rapidly and automatically from relatively little information...
in 2005. The book explains how the human subconscious
Subconscious
The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
interprets events or cues and how past experiences can lead people to make informed decisions very rapidly, using examples like the Getty kouros
Getty kouros
The Getty kouros is an over-life-sized statue in the form of a late archaic Greek kouros. The dolomitic marble sculpture was bought by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California, in 1985 for $7 million and first exhibited there in October 1986....
and psychologist John Gottman
John Gottman
John Mordecai Gottman is a Ph.D. psychologist known for his work on marital stability and relationship analysis through scientific direct observations published in peer-reviewed literature...
's research on the likelihood of divorce in married couples. Gladwell’s hair was the inspiration for Blink. He stated that he started to get speeding tickets all the time, an oddity considering that he had never got one before, and that he started getting pulled out of airport security lines for special attention. In a particular incident, he was accosted by three police officers while walking in downtown Manhattan, because his curly hair matched the profile of a rapist, despite the fact that the suspect looked nothing like him otherwise.
Gladwell’s third book, Outliers
Outliers (book)
Outliers: The Story of Success is a non-fiction book written by Malcolm Gladwell and published by Little, Brown and Company on November 18, 2008. In Outliers, Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success...
, published in 2008, examines how a person's environment, in conjunction with personal drive and motivation, affects his or her possibility and opportunity for success. Gladwell’s original question revolved around lawyers: "We take it for granted that there’s this guy in New York who’s the corporate lawyer, right? I just was curious: Why is it all the same guy?" In another example present in the book, Gladwell noticed that people ascribe Bill Gates’s success to being "really smart" or "really ambitious." He noted that he knew a lot of people who are really smart and really ambitious, but not worth 60 billion dollars. "It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude--and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations."
Gladwell's fourth book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures is the fourth book released by author Malcolm Gladwell, on October 20, 2009. The book is a compilation of the journalist's articles published in The New Yorker.-Background:...
, was published on October 20, 2009. What the Dog Saw bundles together his favorite articles from The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
since he joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1996. The stories share a common theme, namely that Gladwell tries to show us the world through the eyes of others, even if that other happens to be a dog.
Gladwell's books—The Tipping Point
The Tipping Point
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is a book by Malcolm Gladwell, first published by Little Brown in 2000....
(2000) and Blink
Blink (book)
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a 2005 book by Malcolm Gladwell. It presents in popular science format research from psychology and behavioral economics on the adaptive unconscious; mental processes that work rapidly and automatically from relatively little information...
(2005), were international bestsellers. The Tipping Point sold over two million copies in the United States. Blink sold equally well.
Reception
The Tipping Point was named as one of the best books of the decade by Amazon.comAmazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
customers, The Onion A.V. Club, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. It was also Barnes and Nobles’s 5th bestselling nonfiction book of the decade. Blink was named to Fast Company
Fast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
’s list of the best business books of 2005. It was also #5 on Amazon users’ favorite books of 2005, named to Christian Science Monitor’s best nonfiction books of 2005, and in the top 50 of Amazon users’ favorite books of the decade. Outliers was a #1 New York Times Bestseller for 11 straight weeks, and was Time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
’s #10 nonfiction book of 2008, as well as named to The San Francisco Chronicle’s list of the 50 best nonfiction books of 2008.
Critical appraisal of Gladwell's work has been mixed. Most praise his gift for compelling writing and clarity of expression while many disagree with his conclusions or question the validity of his methods.
Fortune described The Tipping Point as “a fascinating book that makes you see the world in a different way.” The Daily Telegraph called it “a wonderfully offbeat study of that little-understood phenomenon, the social epidemic.” Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
writes that Gladwell is a writer of "many gifts... He avoids shopworn topics, easy moralization and conventional wisdom, encouraging his readers to think again and think different. His prose is transparent, with lucid explanations and a sense that we are chatting with the experts ourselves." Reviewing Blink, the Baltimore Sun dubbed Gladwell “the most original American [sic] journalist since the young Tom Wolfe.” Farhad Manjoo at Salon described the book as “a real pleasure. As in the best of Gladwell's work, Blink brims with surprising insights about our world and ourselves.” The Economist called Outliers “a compelling read with an important message.” David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt is the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times. He joined The Times in 1999 and wrote the "Economics Scene" column, and for the Times Sunday Magazine. Before coming to The Times, he wrote for Business Week and The Washington Post...
wrote in The New York Times Book Review: “In the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell is as close to a singular talent as exists today” and that Outliers “leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward.” Ian Sample wrote in the Guardian: “Brought together, the pieces form a dazzling record of Gladwell's art. There is depth to his research and clarity in his arguments, but it is the breadth of subjects he applies himself to that is truly impressive.”
Criticism of Gladwell tends to focus on the fact that he is a journalist and not an academic, and as a result his work does not meet the standard of academic writing. Critics charge that he sometimes stretches his colorful stories to make them apply to business issues. The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
called the final chapter of Outliers, "impervious to all forms of critical thinking". Gladwell has also received criticism for his emphasis on anecdotal evidence
Anecdotal evidence
The expression anecdotal evidence refers to evidence from anecdotes. Because of the small sample, there is a larger chance that it may be true but unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise unrepresentative of typical cases....
over research to support his conclusions. Maureen Tkacik and Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
have challenged the integrity of Gladwell's approach. Even while praising Gladwell's attractive writing style and content, Pinker sums up his take on Gladwell as, "a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates the hazards of statistical reasoning," while accusing Gladwell of "cherry-picked anecdotes
Anecdotal evidence
The expression anecdotal evidence refers to evidence from anecdotes. Because of the small sample, there is a larger chance that it may be true but unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise unrepresentative of typical cases....
, post-hoc sophistry
Post-hoc analysis
Post-hoc analysis , in the context of design and analysis of experiments, refers to looking at the data—after the experiment has concluded—for patterns that were not specified a priori. It is sometimes called by critics data dredging to evoke the sense that the more one looks the more likely...
and false dichotomies" in his book Outliers. Referencing a Gladwell reporting mistake, Pinker criticizes his lack of expertise: "I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer’s education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong." A writer in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
accused Gladwell of posing "obvious" insights. The Register
The Register
The Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...
has accused Gladwell of making arguments by weak analogy and commented that Gladwell has an "aversion for fact", adding that, "Gladwell has made a career out of handing simple, vacuous truths to people and dressing them up with flowery language and an impressionistic take on the scientific method." His approach is spoofed in "The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator".
Awards and honors
- 2005 TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
named Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people. - 2007 American Sociological AssociationAmerican Sociological AssociationThe American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
's first Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues. - 2007 honorary degree from University of WaterlooUniversity of WaterlooThe University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
. - 2011 honorary degree from University of TorontoUniversity of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
See also
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Stephen J. DubnerStephen J. DubnerStephen J. Dubner is an American journalist who has written four books and numerous articles. Dubner is best known as co-author of the pop-economics book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything and its 2009 sequel, SuperFreakonomics.-Background:His parents were...
- Chris Anderson
External links
- Gladwell's personal website
- Video of Honorary Degree Recipient Malcolm Gladwell addresses University of Toronto Convocation June 14 2011.
- Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator
- Biography and list of articles at The New Yorker
- Book Review in the New York Times
- Book Review in The Nation
- Malcolm Gladwell Interview New Statesman May 2010
- Malcolm Gladwell interview in AAMC October 2010