Excitable Personalities: Malcolm Gladwell
photo by Greencolander
Say what you want about him, Malcolm Gladwell is brain storm. He gets people talking. I find him riveting, passionate, and inspiring. I want to drink whiskey with him.
He wrote two books (here and here) a while ago, and his latest book, Outliers, came out last month. It was wirelessly delivered to my Kindle at midnight on release date. That night’s sleep was fucked.
I gobbled Outliers. I’ve ordered several hard copies of it to give out. Because where Blink and the Tipping Point were armchair pop-psycho-sociology, Outliers was a manifesto. A manifesto about genius that exists everywhere we look. It was a call to arms about our society and our shortcomings as parents and teachers. It was stirring.
Some criticize him for having meandering, tangential, and sometimes superficial case studies in his articles and books. It fits my brainwave patterns perfectly. I don’t know if Gladwell is a writer perfectly suited for me or my generation. Either way, I’m digging it.
Malcolm Gladwell gets a big fat seal of Easily Excitable approval. Read his books. Read his articles. YouTube him. You won’t be sorry.
He also had an article about education (a big topic in Outliers) released today in the New Yorker. Check it.