5 ms·
Dear Malcolm: Why so threatened?
- evgen 17y agoI think Gladwell is concerned that another writer is intruding on his niche of content-free pablum predicated upon the mistaken assumption that the plural of anecdote is data. The only thing more amusing than watching two writers who seem to operate within their own reality-distortion fields argue past each other is seeing members of the blogosphere who share a similar unfamiliarity with the concept of debate grounded in facts and data weigh in on either side.
- ojbyrne 17y agoI suspect that the airport book market is quite large and thoroughly dominated by "content-free pablum."
- michaelneale 17y agoThank you for saying what the inner cynic in me also thought. It is ironic that this "cynical" attitude is actually non cynical: a belief in objective data, and an attempt to find meaning based on facts and logic. Yet by many this sort of thing would be viewed as "cynical".
- jackchristopher 17y agoI agree that cynics sometimes bring us to earth. But you have to question their motives too. Here's a good post on that: http://lesswrong.com/lw/ym/cynical_about_cynicism/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/ym/cynical_about_cynicism/ I'm especially on guard against cynicism because it seems to be a standard corruption of rationality in particular. If many people are optimists, then true rationalists will occasionally have to say things that sound pessimistic by contrast. EDIT: I don't mean to imply anyone here is a cynic or that I know their motives whether they are or not. But I wanted to make the general point.
- papa 17y ago"...that the plural of anecdote is data..." Thank you for this most excellent quote. I got a good laugh out of that quip.
- jamesbritt 17y agoInteresting back-story on that line: http://bearcastle.com/blog/?m=20050808 http://bearcastle.com/blog/?m=20050808
- sanj 17y agoTalk to me after Ken has made enough to quit his day job.
- mahmud 17y agoWhat does that have to do with anything? since when was commercial success a measure of quality? (specially in writing?)
- nir 17y agoBut the discussion isn't whether you can create quality writing while giving it away for free (obviously that's going on, long before the Internet - eg the Bible..) but whether "free" is a sustainable business model. Anderson's own example is a guy who actually makes a living working as a civil engineer, ie selling his time for money. What he does in his spare time, for free, is known outside the Wired hype bubble as "a hobby".
- sutro 17y agoDear Chris: Why so inane?