I've only read Outliers and David and Goliath, but I really enjoyed them and fee...

Robin_Message · on March 28, 2021

It's years since I read and then binned any of his books, but to give a concrete criticism of Outliers:

Anders Ericsson, who conducted the study upon which "the 10,000-Hour Rule" was based has written that Gladwell had overgeneralized, misinterpreted, and oversimplified his findings. https://web.archive.org/web/20190320062202/https://radicalsc...

specialist · on March 28, 2021

My opinion flipped the other direction. Which totally surprised me.

I used to dismiss Gladwell's "insight porn" (h/t lordnacho). But now I feel like he's a pretty effective advocate, popularizer of views and policies that I agree with. Briefly, he's punching up.

Michael Lewis was the catalyst to reassessing Gladwell. I just frikkin love his Against The Rules podcast series. Briefly, he argues that we do better, both as society and individuals, with referees and coaching.

Then I listened to a handful of Gladwell interviews. A long form chat with Lewis. Book tour stops for Talking with Strangers. I thought: Huh, Gladwell doesn't sound too bad.

So I started listening to other Pushkin Industry podcasts.

I especially love historian Jill Lepore.

So I guess my TLDR is: I reevaluated Gladwell because he's now working with two people I really admire. Virtue by association.