

Trying to See Through: A Unified Theory of Nerddom - rheide
http://theviewfromhell.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/trying-to-see-through-unified-theory-of.html

======
quesera
This is a good article, but the title doesn't do it justice.

The point that stuck out for me:

Do you find yourself reading/watching/listening to things that leave you
feeling a little smarter than you know you have any right to feel? Malcolm
Gladwell, TED, etc? The author calls these "insight porn", and posits that
they trigger some of the same pleasure centers as real learning.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't a full replacement for the
real thing, either.

I've often felt this, and been bothered by it, but haven't figured out an
effective filter. Source is a good negative indicator (skip the Gladwell
unless I'm feeling like powdered cheese), but there are lots of amateur
gladwells out there too.

The real stuff is harder to locate, identify, and digest.

And honestly, sometimes the cheap alternatives have a greater ROI, since the
investment is so much lower, and the return isn't quantified objectively.

~~~
jonnathanson
My issue with Malcolm Gladwell, and others like him, is that he distills
information down to a thesis that is so easily digestible as to make it seem
like commonsense. You don't really _think_ when you read a Malcolm Gladwell
book. You just sort of scan it, page by page, your critical and evaluative
faculties turned off, and nod your head. It's like the highly refined white
flour of insight.

I admire Gladwell the man, and I think he probably has a net-positive impact
on most people who read him. But he's highly disappointing for those who want
a real spark of insight, or an intellectual exercise. (Also, tangentially
speaking, his books are pretty repetitive; most of them could be summed up
adequately by a single paragraph, if not a single-sentence logline).

I guess the real question is: are we, the self-described nerds of the article,
really better off in a world full of Gladwells? Or were we better off when
insight was hard to come by, and you had to go off looking for it? We have a
lot more information and insight at our fingertips, but have our critical
thinking skills atrophied accordingly? I realize you could take this line of
thought a little too far and follow a sort of neo-Luddite vein with it. But
that's not my intent. Rather, I'm just asking if all this ready-to-eat insight
is actually good for us. I think it's good for the averages, but we probably
think of ourselves as being at the margins.

~~~
RyanIyengar
I wonder if your admiration would continue if you read his S.H.A.M.E. profile:
<http://shameproject.com/profile/malcolm-gladwell-2/>

~~~
jonnathanson
If even half of that is true, then it does indeed taint my opinion of him, and
fairly seriously.

------
azmenthe
Is this article not insight porn itself?

Also I can never get through anything with such broad generalizing statements.

------
aristus
Sure, some concepts are hard to grasp. Once upon a time the same was true of
multiplcation. And reading. Then we, as a species, grew up. The only serious
question is this: are you content to be part of a self-congratulatory "mostly
male" priesthood, or do you consider that a problem to be solved?

------
jhrobert
whoa. Looks like I have a new addiction: "insight porn". whoa.

