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I don't think anyone's saying Gladwell is dumb for not knowing about eigenvalues. They're taking his error as a symbol/symptom of his dilletante approach, and t
by retsibsi 5y ago
I don't think anyone's saying Gladwell is dumb for not knowing about eigenvalues. They're taking his error as a symbol/symptom of his dilletante approach, and the fact that he's making bold claims and 'teaching' people about topics he has no real knowledge or understanding of. Steven Pinker put it this way when coining the phrase:
> 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.
- tptacek 5y agoHe's a writer. Nobody, ever, has confused him for an algebraist. I'm not sure that makes him a dilettante, unless all writers are that.
- retsibsi 5y agoHe writes big, popular books making grand, confident claims about the world, and purporting to back them up with scientific evidence. Experts in the fields he draws from regularly point out significant errors (or misleadingly selective presentation of facts) in his work. The Igon Value thing is a reminder that his work is more a storyteller's patchwork than a researcher's synthesis. (You'll say it's obvious that he's not a researcher; maybe, but some pop-non-fiction writers have more of a researcher's mindset than others. They might not be true experts but they read deeply in search of the truth.)
- tptacek 5y agoI mean, it's certainly true that he's not the most rigorous of the pop nonfiction writers! That's not so much the draw, I don't think, but I can't fault you for being annoyed that people behaves as if it was --- perhaps Gladwell himself included.