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I believe consensus is that there's a tremendous (like, wow, tremendous) cherry picking of data and spurious connections to create a catchy engrossing narrative
by NikolaNovak 4y ago
I believe consensus is that there's a tremendous (like, wow, tremendous) cherry picking of data and spurious connections to create a catchy engrossing narrative that makes us feel more enlightened and with profound new understanding of the world... But has no actual rigorous methodology or statistical significance. He is unashamedly a teller of stories, not a scientific researcher. They are fun but should not be taken as accurate. As tptacek says, pretty much all of us have gone through that cycle. He's a great read but should be taken as casual entertainment, more closely related to fiction.
Do not make policy decisions based on Gladwell :-)
Edit : a perhaps stretched analogy - his stories are to me akin to Taylor Swift sharing her story and saying "I practised hard and didn't give up and succeeded beyond my wildest dreams". It's true but not as meaningful or applicable as it may seem - it's insufficient causation and incomplete correlation.
Majority of people who practice hard won't be Taylor Swift.
Conversely,There are many additional reasons beyond practicing hard Taylor Swift succeeded.
It's a compelling narrative but horrible statistical model or understanding of world and causality.
- hermitcrab 4y agoHis "The Bomber Mafia" book seems to have gone down pretty badly with WWII historians. Possibly there is an element of professional jealousy, but mostly I think because of his cavalier attitude to the facts as generally understood by historians.
- no_wizard 4y agoBomber Mafia is where he lost me a bit. Some of those stories are super fascinating but I felt the arch was a little hard to connect the dots on.
- rchaud 4y ago> He is unashamedly a teller of stories, not a scientific researcher. They are fun but should not be taken as accurate. Real science is boring, wishy-washy and full of caveats, as they should be, researchers should disclose limitations of the studies. But because of that, it's not something the average person will find memorable or talk to a friend about. Gladwell's popularity comes from the fact that his narratives are told with conviction and in a way that feels exciting. People respond to that, similarly to how they respond to confidence in interpersonal interactions.
- WhitneyLand 4y agoHe is unashamedly a teller of stories, not a scientific researcher This implies he considers himself a storyteller but he does not. I recently heard him interviewed where he (rightly or wrongly) explicitly described his job as being a researcher.
- NikolaNovak 4y agoFascinating! I read couple of interviews with him, but many years ago, where he insisted he was a storyteller! Limited chance I'll dig them up but I'll try