The Malcolm Gladwell rule: how to succeed while annoying critics
A new book offers a chance to assess why he has global appeal
YOU KNOW what you’re getting when you open a book by Malcolm Gladwell. It will centre around a modestly counterintuitive argument: being huge and strong is often a disadvantage, for instance, or talent and genius are overrated. Evidence for this thesis will be broken into around ten chapters, each containing a combination of briskly written reportage, historical anecdote and social science that draws out unexpected connections—between, for example, Lawrence of Arabia and a girls’ basketball team, or a high-achieving school district and the wild-cheetah population. Readers will finish the book feeling better informed about how the world works.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Malcolm Gladwell’s appeal”
From the October 5th 2024 edition
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