Malcolm Gladwell

There used to be a taboo of non-fiction books. One would imagine a library full of formidable-looking hardcover books like that of Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat. When one chances upon a less thick paperback, one would possibly dismiss it as lacking in depth. Malcolm Gladwell does not lack in depth of ideas. Even if the above is true, what Malcolm Gladwell compromises in depth, he makes up for with storytelling that captures the interest of the mainstream audience and introduces non-fiction as a genre accessible to the public once more.

Outliers is an insightful book. It put forth many interesting ideas in simple terms that the layman can understand. It shows how our systems create an accumulative advantage towards babies born near a certain birth date, how a close-knitted community can do wonders to health, how professionals are not born overnight (they spend a calculated 10000 hours of their lives on their niche), how family background matters in child growth, how the cultural contexts of pilots are directly linked to plane crashes, to name a few. As with other Malcolm Gladwell’s books, such knowledge makes you feel instantly cleverer because they are concise and they give you moments of epiphany (ohhhhhhh…).

If there is one thing I am very appreciative of, it is the fact that Outliers is not a self-help book, which I generally don’t believe in. It informs you of refreshing ideas, and leaves you with the decision-making of whether you want to change your life based on the perspectives provided. It doesn’t even tell you how to change your life. It simply brings you the knowledge and one can argue that awareness is the first step to change.

His storytelling magic however, is too deliberate an attempt in Outliers and unnecessary too. It does not provide value to his argument. For example, he describes the rice paddies in China elaborately when he points out the argument that the Asian culture could possibly be the reason for Asian countries’ accomplishments and excellent standings in international grading systems. There are too many case studies this time as well. Having many examples does not prove a point further. If more evidence has to be shown, I’d rather Malcolm Gladwell utilize national or international statistics. Instead, he brings up specific case studies and expounds on them too much. I found myself nodding even in the midst of reading how the first example illustrates the point. A slight overkill of examples got me bored a tad too soon.

Also, although Malcolm Gladwell should be credited for consolidation of various studies and putting forth the essence of what such studies really meant, I think we do not credit the sources of such studies involved enough. One must note that Malcolm Gladwell just writes about success in general and cleverly picks out studies that revolve around his themes of ‘Opportunity’ and ‘Legacy.’ The ideas put forth and the ingenious conclusions drawn from such studies should be credited to the respective people deservingly.

In conclusion, I think Malcolm Gladwell’s books are worth reading. What I stated above are just areas of improvement which may compromise on the message put forth by him, specific to Outliers. However it does not discount the value of the ideas he put forth. I vaguely remember Blink being an enjoyable read (the first book I read from him so maybe that set the expectations) and The Power of Context theory put forth in The Tipping Point very mind-blowing. Anyway if all else fails, you cannot fault a guy with such cool eccentric hair.

If you want The Tipping Point, feel free to ask. Note to self: I got to get What The Dog Saw from Palani soon. (:

This is one of the most favourited TED talks of all time. Needless to say, he delivers both in style and content.