Biography

Malcolm GLADWELL

2009 ranking: 2

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell was born in England in 1963 but grew up in Ontario, Canada. He attended the University of Toronto, earning a history degree in 1984. From 1987 to 1996 he worked on the staff of the Washington Post, first as a science writer, then as New York Bureau chief. In 1996 he joined the staff of the New Yorker and continues to write articles on an extensive spectrum of topics.

It is hard to categorize what Gladwell does. He has written with apparent expertise on a plethora of subjects. He may be described as an observer of social trends or as a describer of culture in the act of creation. His scope involves the worlds of science, business, and their intersections with people.

The Tipping Point (2000) explores the theme that little things mean a lot. Gladwell looks for the fulcrum, that point at which loose ends become a critical mass, magically converting the ordinary into the extraordinary, the little into the many, the normal into the notable. How this happens often revolves around the character of unique human beings. Calling it “The Law of the Few,” he feels that tipping points can be generated by unusual (but far from abnormal) types of people:

• Mavens: these are information brokers and sources; they are people who know things, who are both teacher and student at the same time but who do not try to persuade others overtly
• Connectors: these are information conduits, a kind of societal glue, who consciously disseminate ideas
• Salesmen: these are sellers of ideas, people who persuade other people of the value of the information they proffer

The Law of the Few has the potential to give an idea or a product a property he calls stickiness. Via this occurrence, an idea or product gets attached to the general public’s way of life and mode of thinking. Yet, whether it actually becomes sticky depends on many other factors — sometimes a few simple, apparently insignificant, changes or enhancements. For Gladwell, the most important tipping point factor is the right context. An often vital contextual element is the physical environment we inhabit. If it is congested, untidy, and unkempt, it can have a serious impact on our individual behavior and on the receptiveness of individuals to stimuli.

On the adoption of trends and products, he quotes from the work of Geoffrey Moore who highlights the role of different groups such as innovators, early adopters, and the early majority in the acceptance of new technology. Gladwell sees the mavens, connectors and salesmen as having a specific role in translating the ideas of the innovators and early adopters. They adapt ideas so that they are acceptable by the majority, who are, as a rule, more risk-averse and intuitively conservative.

The Tipping Point is, as Gladwell states on his website, about epidemics: “As human beings, we always expect everyday change to happen slowly and steadily, and for there to be some relationship between cause and effect. And when there isn’t — when crime drops dramatically in New York for no apparent reason, or when a movie made on a shoestring budget ends up making hundreds of millions of dollars — we’re surprised. I’m saying, don’t be surprised. This is the way social epidemics work.”

In his second book, Blink (2005), he offers a paradox in the subtitle: how to think without thinking. He says that there are two ways to think — first, there’s the spur-of-the-moment variety performed very quickly and apparently independent of the second type of thinking, careful analysis. For Gladwell, the first kind of thinking is done in a blink. This kind of thinking often evolves into split-second decision-making, but he argues that this is not to be considered random or spontaneous. Such decisions can be described as a “gut response.” Yet, this doesn’t mean that they are irresponsible or trivial. The mind may well be making a perfectly sound and rational decision based on accumulated experience.

In Blink, Gladwell asserts that our mental faculties work so quickly that we haven’t time to see what is going on. Gladwell examines the psychological phenomenon of “thin slicing,” when decisions are made by zeroing in on relevant information and brushing out irrelevant noise. While snap judgment may be suspect — and analysis is considered preferable — we only resort to the former when there is an acute shortage of that luxurious but necessary commodity for analysis: time.

Gladwell presents examples in which snap judgments prove eventually correct; conversely, he shows how extended analysis and dissection can ultimately trigger failures. A key point for Gladwell: Humans are hopeless at analyzing their own responses. They are also less than competent at analyzing the responses of others. He suggests that many marketing errors occur because too much weight is given to data from the wrong types of tests, such as blind tasting.

Both books are written in a narrative and episodic style, illustrated with quotations and examples from the real world. In November 2005 we learned that Blink was to become a movie. Actor-turned-producer Leonardo DiCaprio has bought the rights from Gladwell and intends to make a film tied to his concepts. Gladwell will be involved as an advisor and possible screenwriter.

Most recently, Gladwell has produced Outliers which essentially examines the secrets of success – practice, practice and more practice. The style remains the same: a powerful combo of storytelling and simplicity.

Essential Reading

http://www.gladwell.com/bio.html

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000)

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005)

Outliers (2008)

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