Question
What are some claims by Malcolm Gladwell that are incorrect?
Answer
Thanks Ani Ravi for that thorough round-up. If this thread doesn't get to best resource status on this question, it ought to :)
Addendum:
Duncan Watts at Yahoo did some rather clever modeling that showed that the spread of ideas in complex networks could NOT be correlated to any specific kind of person. i.e. Gladwell's "mavens," "connectors," and "salesmen" in The Tipping Point universe of archetypes don't correspond to anything meaningful from a social network point of view.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magaz...
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/cont...
http://soc101.wordpress.com/2010...
If there's something to those archetypes (and I think there might be), he basically failed to penetrate how they add value. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with network dynamics, which messes with his whole hush-puppy-extrapolation theory.
That said, I do give him props for being able to lock on to interesting memes that usually reward further digging by more thoughtful people. He's kinda an intellectual canary. When he "dies" through a blunder, there's probably something interestingly poisonous going on in the coal mine. I use his writings as an intellectual early-warning system to learn about areas where paradigms are crumbling, leaking noxious fumes.
Addendum:
Duncan Watts at Yahoo did some rather clever modeling that showed that the spread of ideas in complex networks could NOT be correlated to any specific kind of person. i.e. Gladwell's "mavens," "connectors," and "salesmen" in The Tipping Point universe of archetypes don't correspond to anything meaningful from a social network point of view.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magaz...
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/cont...
http://soc101.wordpress.com/2010...
If there's something to those archetypes (and I think there might be), he basically failed to penetrate how they add value. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with network dynamics, which messes with his whole hush-puppy-extrapolation theory.
That said, I do give him props for being able to lock on to interesting memes that usually reward further digging by more thoughtful people. He's kinda an intellectual canary. When he "dies" through a blunder, there's probably something interestingly poisonous going on in the coal mine. I use his writings as an intellectual early-warning system to learn about areas where paradigms are crumbling, leaking noxious fumes.