There’s a review[1] on Amazon that speaks to the kind of books Gladwell writes, and it's both funny and perhaps contains a shred of truth. It goes:<p><i>”There's a school of thought that runs something like this: the average US citizen isn't very bright, has a limited attention span, and has an appetite only for the superficial. So if you want to write a book about something you feel to be important, you have to sugar the pill - with lots and lots of sugar and make sure it's a very small pill indeed.<p>Hence the style "American-Folksy." In this genre the author leads the reader gently along by means of first-person narrative, tons of anecdote, and just the gentlest hint of new information here and there. The lexicon is undemanding and the pace is calculated to be just brisk enough to prevent the onset of catatonia while being leisurely enough not to require any strenuous intellectual activity on the part of the reader. It's basically DisneyWords.<p>This is a well-tried genre used across a wide variety of subjects. In Search of Excellence and The Omnivore's Dilemma both use the same style despite their contexts being very different. And Weiner uses American-Folksy here for precisely the same reasons and to precisely the same effect. The purpose of American-Folksy is to take something that could have made a somewhat interesting 6-page monograph and stretch it out into a book-length peregrination.”</i><p>[1] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3KMN29SZX9ZKS/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=145169167X" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3KMN29SZX9ZKS/re...</a>
Despite owning some of his books, I can't say that I am a fan of Gladwell's writing style. But his Revisionist History podcast (revisionisthistory.com) is, by far, one of my favourite things to listen to and I highly recommend to give it a shot.
Slightly off topic, but I was thinking of doing Neil Gaiman's storytelling course [1] on masterclass.com. Wondering if anyone here has done it and found it useful (or otherwise)?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/classes/neil-gaiman-teaches-the-art-of-storytelling" rel="nofollow">https://www.masterclass.com/classes/neil-gaiman-teaches-the-...</a>
I can’t believe marketing culture has gotten to the point where someone is pre-announcing Part 2 of his notes and offers to notify you if you subscribe.
This might have been interesting, but, as a source of truths, it did not age well. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell" rel="nofollow">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-m...</a>
For those leveling the criticism that Gladwell's style is too simplistic and unacademic, is this stylistic form simply a product of the author or a product of a publishing industry that knows their audience will choose digestible prose over dense manuscripts (and sponsors authors and their books accordingly)?
If you haven’t heard this before, listen to Gladwell’s unhinged thoughts on which race/nationality/region (he seems to use the 3 interchangeably) is best at basketball:<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/draymond-vs-kd-embiid-for-mvp-and-the-rise-of-podcasts-with-malcolm-gladwell-and-chris-ryan-the-bill-simmons-podcast-ep-442" rel="nofollow">https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/draymond-vs-...</a><p>Absolutely wild and the host is just along for the uncomfortable ride. I still have no clue what he was thinking.<p>There are hits, there are misses, and then there are whatever that was.