Malcolm Gladwell (born September 3, 1963) is a British-born Canadian journalist, author, and pop sociologist, based in New York City. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He is best known as the author of the books The Tipping Point (2000), Blink (2005), and Outliers (2008).
Early life
Gladwell's British father, Graham, is a civil engineering professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo; his mother, Joyce, is a Jamaican-born psychotherapist. Gladwell has said that his mother, who published a book titled Brown Face, Big Master in 1969, is his role model as a writer. Though born in the United Kingdom, Gladwell was raised in Elmira, Ontario, Canada, and graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto's Trinity College in 1984. During his high school years, Gladwell was an outstanding middle-distance runner and won the 1500-meter Midget Boys title at the 1978 Ontario High School championships in Kingston, Ontario, in a duel with eventual Canadian Open record holder David Reid. In the summer of 1982, Gladwell completed an internship with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Career
Gladwell began his career at The American Spectator , a conservative monthly. From 1987 to 1996, he was a science writer—and later the New York bureau chief—for The Washington Post . He is currently a staff writer for The New Yorker . His books— The Tipping Point (2000) and Blink (2005)—were international bestsellers. Both works were substantially serialized in The New Yorker . Gladwell received a US$1 million advance for The Tipping Point , which went on to sell over two million copies in the United States. Blink sold equally well. His third book, Outliers: The Story of Success , was released on November 18, 2008. His latest book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures , was released on October 20, 2009. What the Dog Saw bundles together his favourite articles from the New Yorker since he joined it as a staff writer in 1996. Some of the pieces in What the Dog Saw are available free of charge on Gladwell's website. A British journalist suggested that the decision of whether to buy the book or to read the content for free of charge is a Gladwellian dilemma. The journalist suggests that the reader of the book may be "unwittingly taking part in a social experiment 's masterminded to provide grist for his next book."
Works
Gladwell's books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make frequent and extended use of academic work, particularly in the areas of sociology, psychology, and social psychology. He has, however, received criticism from academics for his sampling methods, as well as his tendency to imply causation between events where only correlation exists.
Gladwell's first work, The Tipping Point , discusses the potentially massive implications of small-scale social events, while his second book, Blink , explains how the human subconscious interprets events or cues and how past experiences allow people to make informed decisions very rapidly. Outliers examines how a person's environment affects his or her possibility and opportunity for success. Gladwell stated,
The hope with Tipping Point was it would help the reader understand that real change was possible. With Blink , I wanted to get people to take the enormous power of their intuition seriously. My wish with Outliers is that it makes us understand how much of a group project success is. When outliers become outliers it is not just because of their own efforts. It's because of the contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances.Honors
In 2005, Time named Malcolm Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people. In 2007, he received the American Sociological Association's first Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues. Also in 2007, Gladwell received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Waterloo.
Controversy
Several prominent writers and social scientists have challenged the integrity of Gladwell's approach. Gladwell has been criticized as oversimplifying the essence of large complex phenomena, focusing on out of context data, and making pseudoscientific claims that are inadequately researched.
Bibliography
- The Tipping Point (2000)
- Blink (2005)
- Outliers (2008)
- What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009)
See also
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Stephen J. Dubner
References
- ^ Colvile, Robert (2008-12-17). "Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - review". The Daily Telegraph . http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/3703795/Outliers-by-Malcolm-Gladwell---review.html . Retrieved 2009-01-17 .
- ^ "A conversation with Malcolm Gladwell". Charlie Rose . 2008-12-19 . http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/510 . Retrieved 2009-01-17 .
- ^ "Books by Malcolm Gladwell". Biblio . http://www.biblio.com/authors/667/Malcolm_Gladwell_Biography.html . Retrieved 2009-01-17 .
- ^ "Race". Radiolab . 2008-11-28 . http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/11/28/Radiolab . Retrieved 2009-01-17 .
- ^ "Books and Articles by NJC Alumni". Young America's Foundation . http://www.yaf.org/njcalumnibooks.aspx . Retrieved 2009-10-17 .
- ^ Zengerle, Jason (2008-11-09). "Geek Pop Star". New York Magazine . http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/52014/index3.html . Retrieved 2009-01-17 .
- ^ a b Donadio, Rachel (2006-02-05). "The Gladwell Effect". The New York Times . http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/books/review/05donadio.html . Retrieved 2009-01-17 .
- ^ McNett, Gavin (2000-03-17). "Idea epidemics". Salon.com . http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2000/03/17/gladwell/index.html . Retrieved 2009-01-17 .
- ^ "Gladwell: 'I was an outsider many times over'". Times Online. June 2009. ...
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