5 ms·

I wonder if we're missing the point of Gladwell. Gladwell doesn't, as far as I know, pretend to be a world-class psychologist at the cutting edge of popular res

I wonder if we're missing the point of Gladwell. Gladwell doesn't, as far as I know, pretend to be a world-class psychologist at the cutting edge of popular research. I'm not sure many university departments would take him all that seriously. What he's an expert at doing is wrapping quite esoteric concepts up in a language that people can understand, relate to and discuss. For instance, he offers the Cliffnotes version of an answer to the question 'So how much work did I have to put in to become an expert at something' or 'How did containerization change world trade?.' He does this better than almost anyone, and his theories are tied to actual research (which sets him apart from the 'this sounds about right' of the likes of Seth Godin.) If he doesn't offer enough precision and clarity for you, consider that his audiences are themselves well below the 10,000 hours threshold in the subjects he tends to opine on.

smt88 10y ago
> pretend to be a world-class psychologist at the cutting edge of popular research He does pretend to be presenting facts, and he's still on the hook for being wrong a lot of the time.
dimino 10y ago
Yeah, Gladwell talks endlessly about this on basically every podcast that asks him on, and he tries very hard to clarify that his "10,000 rule" was illustrative, not to be taken literally, as in "9,999... 10,000! Okay I've mastered this!"
- lubujackson 10y ago
  Which means he is stating "practice a lot and you'll get good." Which would be obvious if it wasn't also false. You also need to be practicing the right things in the right way and evolve what you practice as you develop. If you put a person in a room with a piano and had them futz with it for 10,000 hours they will end up much worse than someone who has a dedicated coach, sheet music and proper exercises. Pretty much everything Gladwell posits is just some folksy wisdom pretending to be fresh insight wearing a shoddy Einstein wig.
  - dimino 10y ago
    Have you read "Outliers"? He talks endlessly about deliberate practice. He is not saying "practice a lot and you'll get good".
pizza 10y ago
Optimization journalism for the uber-productive airline passenger - neat mostly supported but typically impertinent factoids.
- kristianc 10y ago
  I quite like Rory Sutherland's quote on McDonalds (which he applies to other things) for this kind of effect: 'The great thing about McDonalds is that you have a cast iron guarantee that it's not going to be completely shit.' Sometimes the art is knowing how much is good enough.
wfo 10y ago
The problem is he fundamentally misrepresents most research and backs it up with "just so" stories that feel true but we have no reason to believe are representative. Feel-good snake oil sells a lot of books and is fun to read but it isn't doing science or public edification/knowledge any favors.
paulpauper 10y ago
but there is no actual proven science behind the 10,000 hour 'rule'. It barely even qualifies as science, even without Gladwell's treatment of it

smt88 10y ago

> pretend to be a world-class psychologist at the cutting edge of popular research He does pretend to be presenting facts, and he's still on the hook for being wrong a lot of the time.

dimino 10y ago

Yeah, Gladwell talks endlessly about this on basically every podcast that asks him on, and he tries very hard to clarify that his "10,000 rule" was illustrative, not to be taken literally, as in "9,999... 10,000! Okay I've mastered this!"

lubujackson 10y ago
Which means he is stating "practice a lot and you'll get good." Which would be obvious if it wasn't also false. You also need to be practicing the right things in the right way and evolve what you practice as you develop. If you put a person in a room with a piano and had them futz with it for 10,000 hours they will end up much worse than someone who has a dedicated coach, sheet music and proper exercises. Pretty much everything Gladwell posits is just some folksy wisdom pretending to be fresh insight wearing a shoddy Einstein wig.
- dimino 10y ago
  Have you read "Outliers"? He talks endlessly about deliberate practice. He is not saying "practice a lot and you'll get good".

pizza 10y ago

Optimization journalism for the uber-productive airline passenger - neat mostly supported but typically impertinent factoids.

kristianc 10y ago
I quite like Rory Sutherland's quote on McDonalds (which he applies to other things) for this kind of effect: 'The great thing about McDonalds is that you have a cast iron guarantee that it's not going to be completely shit.' Sometimes the art is knowing how much is good enough.

wfo 10y ago

The problem is he fundamentally misrepresents most research and backs it up with "just so" stories that feel true but we have no reason to believe are representative. Feel-good snake oil sells a lot of books and is fun to read but it isn't doing science or public edification/knowledge any favors.

paulpauper 10y ago

but there is no actual proven science behind the 10,000 hour 'rule'. It barely even qualifies as science, even without Gladwell's treatment of it