How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book

Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by Yhippa on Sunday August 05, 2012 @12:54PM (#4341903)

This was pretty funny. The concept of his books are pretty cheesy but I think what makes him successful is that he actually writes the books vs. sitting around and poking holes in it.

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Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by dkarl on Sunday August 05, 2012 @02:57PM (#4342255)

As do many other people, but the difference between Malcolm Gladwell and the many, many successful authors who have written much more (and much better) is that Gladwell lets his readers buy the vicarious enjoyment of success. It's just like watching an action-hero movie and feeling the thrill of being that brave, that strong, that resourceful, that much tougher than the bad guys. Except that Gladwell has managed to combine the best parts of reading a book about Vietnam and watching Rambo: First Blood Part II. You get the virtuous smart-person feeling of the former and the escapist fantasy of the latter.

If Gladwell has any value, it's that he inspires us to imagine ourselves rising above our current limitations. He does for us as adults lusting after career success what books like the Hardy Boys adventures did for us as kids. And maybe we might elevate ourselves by acting out these fantasies in reality.

However, in his article in the latest New Yorker (about the distance runner Alberto Salazar) he steps back from inspiration and embraces the vicarious, voyeuristic nature of his work. After taking us through the vicarious thrill of being so committed to winning that we run through our self-protective mental limits all the way up to the true limits of our bodies, eliminating all slack, he absolves us of responsibility: Salazar's competitive career ended ten years too early; Gladwell himself abandoned competitive running because he couldn't take the pain; we need feel no self-consciousness about failing to follow Salazar's insane example.

The perfect time to read it would be while taking a nice break at work.

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Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by crafter on Sunday August 05, 2012 @03:35PM (#4342378)

Gladwell has managed to combine the best parts of reading a book about Vietnam and watching Rambo: First Blood Part II. You get the virtuous smart-person feeling of the former and the escapist fantasy of the latter.

I think you nailed it here. This is why I enjoy reading Gladwell - his writing inspires me, and without the fist pumping bravado of motivational speakers.

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Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by MaxGabriel on Sunday August 05, 2012 @01:05PM (#4341929)

I haven't read much Gladwell, so I'll set aside factual accuracy of criticisms of him. But I don't think your comment is responsive to the OP. If the OP's argument is true, Gladwell is sharing ersatz knowledge and distorting reality. That he's successful at doing it is irrelevant to the truth of what he writes.

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Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by tomasien on Sunday August 05, 2012 @12:56PM (#4341907)

I could not agree more. I'm pretty sure the author of this post spends the day patting him/her self on the back.

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Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by Lewton on Sunday August 05, 2012 @02:42PM (#4342198)

Zach Weiner is one of the more productive people on the internet. He has a daily webcomic at http://www.smbc-comics.com

He's also the man behind http://www.captainexcelsior.com/

and writes the script for this comic: http://www.snowflakescomic.com/

He creates sketch comedy at http://www.smbc-theater.com

Writes the weinerworks blog

has a podcast at http://www.weeklyweinersmith.com/

currently working on a space opera: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smbctheater/smbc-theater...

also this choose your own adventure book: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/999790007/trial-of-the-c...

And that's only the stuff that I'm aware of

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Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by songrabbit on Sunday August 05, 2012 @01:41PM (#4342024)

The author of this post writes smbc [1], an extremely popular webcomic, among a variety of other things.

[1] http://www.smbc-comics.com/

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Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by hackerpolicy on Sunday August 05, 2012 @02:08PM (#4342100)

Just browsed some of the comics, and between Gladwell's popularity and smbc's, I take the former.

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Re:How to Write a Malcolm Gladwell Book by to3m on Sunday August 05, 2012 @01:38PM (#4342016)

Well... the post IS amusing...

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