Malcolm Gladwell Criticism

The cluster centers on critiques of Malcolm Gladwell's work, highlighting his storytelling style, cherry-picking of facts, and presentation of entertaining anecdotes as science rather than rigorous analysis, with some defending him as enjoyable reading.

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Keywords

t.html MG airplane.html blogspot.com medium.com thecrimson.com nytimes.com t.htm gladwell.com ghost.io gladwell outliers scientist book writes books picks cherry surprising article

Sample Comments

GFK_of_xmaspast Apr 16, 2014 View on HN

Friendly warning, the article quotes Malcolm Gladwell uncritically.

mtdewcmu Jul 7, 2014 View on HN

Malcolm Gladwell's articles can be very enjoyable reading[1]. I suppose you have to bear in mind that he's not an expert on anything besides writing.[1] http://gladwell.com/category/the-new-yorker-archive/

jeffreymcmanus Nov 22, 2011 View on HN

Referencing Malcolm Gladwell unironically == zero credibility

onebaddude Oct 8, 2013 View on HN

I'm with you.I've read and enjoyed Mr. Gladwell's books, and may even prefer his essay writing[1].The guy isn't writing a dissertation; this is lightweight pop-science from a fairly good writer and presenter, with a knack for inductive reasoning (albeit sometimes controversial). The fact that the masses misjudge the scientific efficacy of his arguments is not a real issue. It's not like the guy is selling hate-speech. He should be WAY down the list of authors re

jarek Mar 12, 2011 View on HN

I feel it's worth pointing out that this paraphrases poorly researched and anecdotally supported arguments from Malcolm Gladwell.

abandonliberty Nov 8, 2018 View on HN

Gladwell is an entertainment writer who picks facts and writes interesting stories.None of them should be taken as factual; he cherry picks and often writers stories well after the source material has been disproven.For example, Gottman's marriage research in blink that could predict divorce with extreme success was an overfit model without a validation set that didn't generalize well.

_tk_ Oct 22, 2024 View on HN

See here: https://culture.ghost.io/forget-gladwell/

efsavage Jun 10, 2010 View on HN

Gladwell is a fantastic storyteller.Unfortunately, this isn't obvious to many people, who seem to think he's a scientist or a journalist, despite no claims on his part for these qualifications or assertions that his work stands up to the rigors of those disciplines. They have decided that he is one or both of these things, and since he isn't, he does not fare well when assessed along those lines.He writes very well, his books are interesting, his anecdotes are carefully selected and edite

oh_sigh May 18, 2022 View on HN

Reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell without all his hucksterism

jpwagner Jan 20, 2010 View on HN

True Gladwell writes garbage that sells itself, but isn't this article attempting to do the same thing?