The book is getting snarky reviews but if it were by an unknown, rather than by the famous Malcolm Gladwell, many people would be saying how interesting it is. The main point, in economic language, is that human talent is heterogeneous and that the talent of a particular person must mesh with the capital structure of his or her time if major success is to result… The main enduring insight… is simply how much we live in a world of complementarity rather than substitutability… In reality the complementarity concept is easier to work with and also more fruitful for thinking about policy implications or for that matter the implications for management or talent training. Success is fragile but foster competing cultures based on clusters of talent motivated by rivalry and emulation. Don’t filter out the eccentrics or the risk takers. It’s still a good book and a fun book.
The rest is here. I concur. I think it is the best of Gladwell’s books, actually. And he handled himself very well with Matt Lauer this morning.
Tags: Malcolm Gladwell
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 am
How come the NYTimes never reviewed “Who’s Your City?” Perhaps you should be grateful…
November 24th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Nathan Glazer kind of snarked “Who’s” in a TNR review online today.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I flashed though Gladwell’s book today in a “Borders” bookstore in Seattle. “Border’s” had the book in the self help category, which was odd… It was very easy to read quickly, but enjoyable, with lots of entertaining anecdotes. The stories of Bill Gates, the Beatles in Hamburg, and others were used to illustrate his concepts about how Outliers achieve mastery. There is a novel explaination of why so many Asian students are good at math. This book will likely not be not scholarly enough for many, but not deserving of a bad review. It is the perfect book for my eighteen year old.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Agree completely with Will. An enjoyable, easy read, but a little “light.”
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