Harvard Prof does nice job of poking a few holes in Malcolm Gladwell's genius

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/books/review/Pinker-t.html

Something has always bugged me about the way we've sort of anointed Gladwell to be this amazing social philosopher. Gladwell is an excellent writer and reporter, but some of his contrarian reasoning is just horse shit. His piece about 6th grade girls pressing all the time and these surprise tactics being the equivalent of armies winning wars in unconventional wars was debunked with some success earlier here, but this Harvard prof does a better job of boiling down the flaws in some of Gladwell's arguments.

 

I always thought Gladwell was a good writer who does bring up interesting concepts sometimes, but I agree that you have to take some of his stuff with a grain of salt.

 

Pierce wasn't impressed either.

 

Good read. Thanks.