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Notes from Malcolm Gladwell's Writing Masterclass
- paulcole 8y agoIf you haven’t heard this before, listen to Gladwell’s unhinged thoughts on which race/nationality/region (he seems to use the 3 interchangeably) is best at basketball: https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/draymond-vs-kd-embiid-for-mvp-and-the-rise-of-podcasts-with-malcolm-gladwell-and-chris-ryan-the-bill-simmons-podcast-ep-442 https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/draymond-vs-... Absolutely wild and the host is just along for the uncomfortable ride. I still have no clue what he was thinking. There are hits, there are misses, and then there are whatever that was.
- peterwwillis 8y agoHe likes to construct scenarios with specific dimensions and then make wild claims about them. He also likes to assertively make proclamations about things he admits he knows nothing about, and at times seems to enjoy being patronizing or insulting. He's an ass, and also a pretty good writer and speaker.
- gnicholas 8y agoFor those who prefer skimmable text, it's summed up here: https://deadspin.com/malcolm-gladwell-goes-on-bill-simmonss-podcast-deliver-1830449233 https://deadspin.com/malcolm-gladwell-goes-on-bill-simmonss-...
- oh_sigh 8y agoWell that was ludicrous, but this is an off-topic post. You can have the kookiest ideas in the world, but still be a master of writing.
- lvs 8y agoStep 1: take a bunch of research out of context and spin a nice bedtime tale that the data doesn't really support.
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- zimpenfish 8y agoAs a wise man[2] once said, "the plural of anecdote is Gladwell"[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12861468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12861468 [2] Ok, me
- Casseres 8y agoI thought [1] was going to be a link to itself (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19224648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19224648).
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- wenc 8y agoThere’s a review[1] on Amazon that speaks to the kind of books Gladwell writes, and it's both funny and perhaps contains a shred of truth. It goes: ”There's a school of thought that runs something like this: the average US citizen isn't very bright, has a limited attention span, and has an appetite only for the superficial. So if you want to write a book about something you feel to be important, you have to sugar the pill - with lots and lots of sugar and make sure it's a very small pill indeed. Hence the style "American-Folksy." In this genre the author leads the reader gently along by means of first-person narrative, tons of anecdote, and just the gentlest hint of new information here and there. The lexicon is undemanding and the pace is calculated to be just brisk enough to prevent the onset of catatonia while being leisurely enough not to require any strenuous intellectual activity on the part of the reader. It's basically DisneyWords. This is a well-tried genre used across a wide variety of subjects. In Search of Excellence and The Omnivore's Dilemma both use the same style despite their contexts being very different. And Weiner uses American-Folksy here for precisely the same reasons and to precisely the same effect. The purpose of American-Folksy is to take something that could have made a somewhat interesting 6-page monograph and stretch it out into a book-length peregrination.” [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3KMN29SZX9ZKS/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=145169167X https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3KMN29SZX9ZKS/re...
- thaumasiotes 8y agoYes, Gladwell's books are total nonsense that sounds good. But... that means he has exactly the skill set you'd hope for in a writing instructor. He's not teaching you how to think or how to do research. He's teaching you how to sound good.
- starpilot 8y agoIsn't this all pop science bestsellers? Freakonomics etc.? I mean it's not for everyone, but if (big if) it's reasonably accurate what is the harm?
- nordsieck 8y ago> Isn't this all pop science bestsellers? ... if (big if) it's reasonably accurate what is the harm? IMO, a bag of truth and lies is more dangerous than anything else: there's enough truth that the lies sound more plausible making it pretty difficult to separate them. It's much better to just steer clear of unethical authors.
- cm2012 8y agoWhatever you think about the content, you have to admit Gladwell is a remarkably engaging writer.
- duado 8y agoThe best way to read Gladwell is his articles in the New Yorker. His books are just a magazine article’s worth of ideas in book length.
- jjeaff 8y agoI feel like many if not most books are that. They turn into the same idea stretched thin so they can fill a book.
- duado 8y agoI can’t believe marketing culture has gotten to the point where someone is pre-announcing Part 2 of his notes and offers to notify you if you subscribe.
- FPGAhacker 8y agoWhat’s the problem?
- B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago"I could tell you, but then I would have to [...]" - subscribe you to my newsletter.
- stronglikedan 8y agoMore like "I am telling you, and I could not offer to remind you, but then you would have to rely on your own means of remembering." No problem there.
- refrigerator 8y agohey, didn't mean for it to be subscribe-bait — I'd originally planned to do it all in one, but it took me a fair bit of time just to go through the first chunk of the course and write up coherent notes. Breaking it up into parts made it a lot manageable!
- stronglikedan 8y agoDon't listen to OP. You did good. Thanks for allowing me to get a notification when it's ready, instead of just making me rely on my memory.
- hownottowrite 8y agoIt’s 100% ok to do this.
- inetsee 8y agoYou can always unsubscribe at any time. It's probably just a click away. I like the idea of being reminded about continuing parts of an article I'm interested in. Getting a reminder is easier than making a note, remembering to check the note, checking the website to see if the next part has been posted, etc.
- Grustaf 8y agoWhat’s the ketchup conundrum? Is he saying that there is only one tomato based condiment? Or one maker of ketchup? Neither is true.
- bambax 8y agoHeinz ketchup has 80% market share in Europe and 60% in the US. Anybody can make ketchup, it's one of the simplest condiments, like mayonnaise or maybe even salt. Yet it seems only Heinz can sell ketchup; the question is why.
- B1FF_PSUVM 8y agoI once read some marketing advice that said a brand should fasten onto a word and make it theirs, e.g. in cars "safety" used to be owned by Volvo. That seems to have occurred with "ketchup" ...
- klmr 8y agoThe thing is, different ketchups taste vastly different. There are actually several other best-selling brands of tomato ketchup in Germany but they all taste very different from Heinz, and, in one case, objectively worse (bland). I used to think that Heinz’ taste is simply due to the ridiculous amount of sugar they pack into it but it turns out that the low-sugar Heinz variety is almost indistinguishable, taste-wise. So I’m not convinced that it’s as simple as all that. I’m not saying marketing doesn’t play a role but it’s definitely not the only thing.
- johnnycab 8y ago>I’m not saying marketing doesn’t play a role but it’s definitely not the only thing. The 'bliss point' might play a major role, amongst various other factors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_point_(food) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_point_(food)
- gjm11 8y agoThis is literally just responding to someone saying "people buy more Heinz ketchup because it's tastier" by saying "perhaps it's because they made it as tasty as they could".
- Fragoel2 8y agoDespite owning some of his books, I can't say that I am a fan of Gladwell's writing style. But his Revisionist History podcast (revisionisthistory.com) is, by far, one of my favourite things to listen to and I highly recommend to give it a shot.
- heymijo 8y agoI came to Revisionist History with a healthy skepticism of Gladwell. I echo your sentiments about its worth. The semi-connected episodes 4,5,6 from season 1 about education hooked me. I also enjoyed Saigon 1965 (S01E02) and the one about McDonald's french fries but more importantly the beginning of the war on fat in America (S02E09). He unearths some good perspectives in the podcast and it doesn't have the pop-sci feel that his books do that get my BS detector going.
- tapland 8y agoI had a really hard time with the podcast (season 1), but I'll queue up one of the newer episodes. I felt like I could have had 10 podcasts worth of observation combined into a one hour slot.
- fergie 8y agoI feel that his podcast, like his books, promise more than they deliver. That said I had to actually buy/read/listen to them to arrive at that conclusion, so I am sure that Gladwell will be happy enough.
- chasingthewind 8y agoI find Gladwell very entertaining and enjoy his podcasts, even his most recent one about the music industry (Broken Record) despite not even really caring all that much about the topic (He makes even boring stuff interesting!) However I have to agree that he doesn't strike me as a writer that deserves to have a masterclass named for him. I also have some serious skepticism about the quality of his insights and his journalism. I'm under the impression that he is "often wrong but never in doubt" as they say.
- andyjohnson0 8y agoSlightly off topic, but I was thinking of doing Neil Gaiman's storytelling course [1] on masterclass.com. Wondering if anyone here has done it and found it useful (or otherwise)? [1] https://www.masterclass.com/classes/neil-gaiman-teaches-the-art-of-storytelling https://www.masterclass.com/classes/neil-gaiman-teaches-the-...
- lallysingh 8y agoIt was lovely! I really enjoyed it. But I'm mostly interested in writing technical docs, so some of the advice is hard to implement for me.
- wildmindwriting 8y agoI'm only on the fourth video so far in his class but already I'm finding it useful, if for nothing other than having validation that it's okay to write the kind of stories you want to write. It's also quite interesting to hear the backstory to some of his books. If the first four videos are any indication, I suspect the rest of the course will be well worth it.
- petulla 8y agoThis might have been interesting, but, as a source of truths, it did not age well. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-m...
- dmschulman 8y agoFor those leveling the criticism that Gladwell's style is too simplistic and unacademic, is this stylistic form simply a product of the author or a product of a publishing industry that knows their audience will choose digestible prose over dense manuscripts (and sponsors authors and their books accordingly)?
- kirkules 8y agoThose two possibilities are not mutually exclusive, nor is either exclusive with other notions like reader expectations and capabilities being guided to some extent by the most popular and/or readily available material.
- zinxq 8y agoIn the few times I've read (or started to read) one of Gladwell's books I always think "This book would make a great article".