Brooks on Gladwell
17th December 2008
Read it.
Clive Crook doesn’t have a lot of affectoin for Malcolm Gladwell.
Since the first chapter of “Tipping Point” I have been enduring Gladwell out of an increasingly weary sense of professional obligation. This is what they pay me to do, I tell myself. The man has a nose for interesting tales, I grant you, but his unfailing combination of intellectual parasitism, credulity, false modesty, and self-importance repels me.
And he’s no fan of David Brooks, either.
For this premature outburst, blame David Brooks. “Outliers” is an “important” book, he says, in an excess of professional courtesy. (Important to whom?) Further compliments follow. In the end he criticises a little, but quite respectfully. I see no blood on the floor. It’s disappointing.