I really dislike Gladwell.
“every Gladwell book falls into this pattern: A weak thesis with obvious flaws treated like the sole way to view the world. But wouldn't he be right at least sometimes? His track record for constant error is a real mystery”
Society should withhold all esteem and attention to a nonfiction author whose entire oeuvre spitballs explanatory social theory under the bad faith idea that he holds his ideas “loosely” and readers s...
Yup. Which reminds me, I'll always be grateful to an editor for not cutting the following passage in one of my books. (In retrospect, he probably felt the same about MG.)
Not a fan either and I always thought I was the only one…
The blurb to Revenge of the Tipping Point sounds like an A.I. "hallucination" and WTF is an alternate history 💀 www.hachette.co.nz/book/?id=rev...
Overstories, Superspreaders and the Rise of Social Engineering
We were watching an otherwise pleasant documentary the other day, and they inexplicably brought Gladwell to be a sympathetic interviewee (it was about Hollywood, nothing to do with any recent Gladwell themes). It set off my and my partner's bullshit meter right away, pretty unfortunate.
I really dislike him, but he's a great source for Michael Hobbes snark, so let him keep publishing.
Gladwell is the Hariri of Diamonds
Near as I can tell, he's a guru for the "my job is business" crowd, whose books are a fancy version of "Where's My Cheese", and his primary value is the courtier's skill of selling people's own ideas back to them in fancier (but not too fancy) words.
Some authors make you want to read less.