Everyone knows that Koreans have low Igon Values, causing them to crash planes.
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I’ve seen this idea before, possibly on one of those plane crash shows, and I thought it was generally accepted as true. Interesting stuff.
But now that I think about it, W0X0F said deference to the captain was a problem on American airlines until I don’t know how recently. And poor communication tends to be one of the culprits in lots of plane crashes regardless of the airline.
Gladwell hate is really silly.
His books and podcasts are interesting and entertaining. He has written hundreds of thousands of words over dozens of books, articles and podcasts.
“But some of his conclusions are suspect!”
Welcome to every synthesis writer ever who tackles the big questions.
Read his work like you should read anything, with the normal level of critical thinking, and it’s great. I’ve been introduced to a number of interesting new things through his books and podcasts.
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A solid closing argument for the prosecution :)
He tackles the big questions like “why were people upset with Joe Paterno when he did nothing wrong?”
And “why am I on the epstein flight logs?”
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Perhaps the least attractive trait of modern discourse is the tendency for people to define themselves, not on who or what they love, but on who or what they hate.
I guess Gladwell was just on Epstein Island doing research for a book and that chapter got cut later?
And him defending Penn St and being related to Epstein have nothing to do with each other?
The writing/ideas aren’t good, but were a very mid 00s thing. Like thinking The Strokes would save rock music.
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I wouldn’t say that I hate Gladwell, but I find his ideas kind of shallow and not very interesting. Aren’t we allowed to “hate” poorly reasoned or expressed ideas?
Sure but that isn’t what happens anymore. Here is the standard chain of logic common today.
Person X has a bad idea.
Therefore, person X is a bad person.
Therefore, all ideas person X have ever put fourth are bad.
Finally, I am a better person for hating person X.
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I think if the idea is “let’s go on a flight to epstein island” I can safely say they are a bad person.
He may be a bad person. I have no idea. But that doesn’t speak to his books validity.
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I’m pretty comfortable writing off literally every single person that goes to bat for Joe Paterno.
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The Gladwell books I’ve read have largely been garbage. And I’m particularly attuned to this because my (otherwise lovely) in-laws are convinced that I like reading his books, which means that I’ve received several of them as gifts. The last one I read was David and Goliath, which somehow has 4.5/5 stars on Amazon despite being absolutely terrible. The last one I received was Talking to Strangers, which I can only imagine reading under severe duress.
I don’t think I’m a better person for hating his books, and I don’t hate him personally.
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He was wrong. Full stop. But this is like saying you won’t take the covid vaccine because James Watson is a racist scumbag.
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This was his worst book IMO. In general, I’d say his books are getting less interesting and more pop.
Put me down for gladwell being fine.
Its pop psych writing. Its well written and he gets people talking. So what if its not high quality research. Gtfo.
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Identity politics is the new religion and there are nearly zero atheists itf.
This is the silver lining to Gladwell. The hilarity that ensues when people who quote Gladwell find out how shoddy the research is. Most reading Gladwell have good intentions to improve their knowledge, so are typically very receptive to the criticism.
This takes me back to the Praiseball Bospectus days.
Never heard of Praiseball Bospectus before this, but I thought the name was awesome so I googled it. https://praiseball.wordpress.com/
In a small world kind of way, the most recent article is from 2012, mocking 2p2er Kyle Boddy! Let’s see what he has to say about kyleb (which will always be pronounced “Ky-Leb” in my mind):
Someone show me a front office talking to Kyle Boddy about mechanics and I’ll show you a, uh… front office that is doing a bad job? I’m a little rusty with my zingers, I’m no “internet in a nutshell”.
I think this aged poorly!
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You should stop following those steps with respect to people that think Gladwell is dreck.