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Malcom "igon value" Gladwell is probably not the person one wants to cite on an empirical or technical matter. http://monkeysuncle.stanford.edu/?p=541 http://m
by temphn 15y ago
Malcom "igon value" Gladwell is probably not the person one wants to cite on an empirical or technical matter.
http://monkeysuncle.stanford.edu/?p=541 http://monkeysuncle.stanford.edu/?p=541
Pinker’s term: “The Igon Value Problem” is a clever play
on the Eigenvalue Problem in mathematics. You see,
Gladwell apparently quotes someone referring to an “igon
value.” This is clearly a concept he never dealt with
himself even though it is a ubiquitous tool in the
statistics and decision science about which Gladwell is
frequently so critical. According to Pinker, the Igon
Value Problem occurs “when a writer’s education on a
topic consists in interviewing an expert,” leading him or
her to offering “generalizations that are banal, obtuse
or flat wrong.” In other words, the Igon Value Problem
is one of dilettantism.
As for the Horatio Alger "myth", the modern incarnation is the internet startup. Look at YC. There is just no dispute that smart people working hard can put a few million in the bank after several years of all out toil in the Valley.
- danssig 15y ago>There is just no dispute that smart people working hard can put a few million in the bank after several years of all out toil in the Valley. This statement is either utterly nonsensical and backed up by nothing or it's circular in nature (i.e. "How do you know they're hard working and smart? Because they put a few million in the bank", "Why were they able to put a few million in the bank? Because they're hard working and smart").
- rsheridan6 15y agoNot that I'm a fan of Gladwell in any respect, but his gaffe shows that he never took linear algebra, which is true of almost everybody who didn't go into hard science or engineering.
- bonaldi 15y ago"in the valley" suggests that geography matters as much as the smarts and the hard work. What other assumptions have you missed?
- vidarh 15y agoHe's ridiculing the people who holds the blind belief in the valley startup as a sure way to wealth, not promoting it.
- yzhengyu 15y agoI am well aware of his flaws. I actually placed a higher weight on the accessibility of Gladwell's work. He might not be an economist/sociologist who studied the problem, but the fact that he is able to introduce difficult concepts to a larger audience with his writing is a plus to him and not a minus.