There is a fascinating article in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell on how outsiders and the underprivileged sometimes have an an advantage. He profiles Sidney Weinberg, the guy who transformed Goldman Sachs into a powerhouse, and how he came from a very poor upbringing. Its a really good read.
3 thoughts on “Adversity and Underprivilege”
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Are you going to share this article with Elvis?
In general, a degree of skepticism is warranted when reading Gladwell and Friedman.
Yes, I plan to. In general a healthy skepticism is warranted when reading anything, but both of the two authors you mention are thought provoking.
Gladwell finally gets a skeptical reviewer, Michiko Kakutani in the NY Times. Excerpt:
Malcolm Gladwell’s two humongous best sellers, “The Tipping Point” and “Blink,” share a shake-and-bake recipe that helps explain their popularity. Both popularize scientific, sociological and psychological theories in a fashion that makes for lively water-cooler chatter about Big Intriguing Concepts: “The Tipping Point” promotes the notion that ideas and fads spread in much the same way as infectious diseases do, while “Blink” theorizes that gut instincts and snap judgments can be every bit as good as decisions made more methodically. Both books are filled with colorful anecdotes and case studies that read like entertaining little stories. Both use PowerPoint-type catchphrases (like the “stickiness factor” and “the Rule of 150”) to plant concepts in the reader’s mind. And both project a sort of self-help chirpiness, which implies that they are giving the reader useful new insights into the workings of everyday life.
“Outliers,” Mr. Gladwell’s latest book, employs this same recipe, but does so in such a clumsy manner that it italicizes the weaknesses of his methodology. The book, which purports to explain the real reason some people — like Bill Gates and the Beatles — are successful, is peppy, brightly written and provocative in a buzzy sort of way. It is also glib, poorly reasoned and thoroughly unconvincing.