

How to write a "Malcolm Gladwell Bestseller" - jgrahamc
http://blog.jgc.org/2010/06/how-to-write-malcolm-gladwell.html

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efsavage
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 edited. His conclusions are meant to spark conversation, not end
them.

Lighten up.

~~~
pavs
I haven't read any of his books, though I got many recommendations from
friends. Which one should I start with? (don't care much about relevance to
startup/business, as long as its a good book)

~~~
lylejohnson
I've read all of them (I think?) but _The Tipping Point_ is still my favorite.
Always thought it might be interesting to model the ideas in it using some
sort of multi-agent system.

~~~
pwhelan
You would probably like Linked by Barabasi -- it is similar, but Barabasi is
an academic (my barabasi # would be 2!)

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simplegeek
Well, this may sound obvious to many but I think #1 should be "Become a
regular reader of few psychological and social academic journals". I guess
this alone can give you few ideas to write essays. Now my question is that,
anyone know if journals of repute(related to psychological and social) can be
accessed online?

~~~
jamesbkel
The Society for Judgement and Decision Making has been publishing an online
journal for about 4-5 years now. Very respected Editor and Assoc. Editors and
certainly some interesting papers in there. <http://journal.sjdm.org/>

Also, I've found it useful to build a list of researchers whose work I find
interesting, then trawl Google Scholar for them; this usually turns up some
free sources that would be otherwise hard to find in the noise.

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asdflkj
How to read a "Malcolm Gladwell Bestseller": start in the middle; read 20
pages or so; see sloppy reasoning and general lack of substance; don't read it
or any of the author's other books again. You'd save yourself a lot of time if
you did that, jgrahamc.

~~~
replicatorblog
The sloppy reasoning/lack of substance are features, not bugs. He isn't a
serious intellectual gladiator, he is a merchant who makes soundbites that
educated, upper middle class people can use to sound intelligent and well
read.

As long as people view them as such it is not problem. My frustration is when
people cite Gladwell's ideas as either 1) the basis for strategic decision
making at a business 2) the grounds for a major public policy decisions.

On a side note, I'd love to see this kind of breakdown for a lot of the shows
on NPR, especially This American Life

~~~
travem
As an interesting book countering the "blink" concept is a book called
"Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye" -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416531556?ie=UTF8&tag=...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416531556?ie=UTF8&tag=benmeadowcrho-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1416531556)

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LucaDuval
It probably also helps to be a talented public speaker and he is reputed to be
a very good one.

[http://blogs.ft.com/rachmanblog/2010/02/the-secrets-of-
malco...](http://blogs.ft.com/rachmanblog/2010/02/the-secrets-of-malcolm-
gladwell/)

Generally speaking lot of bestsellers, fiction or non fiction, can be
synthesized as:

\- give to the reader pre-digested, easy, spoonfuls of information.

\- give to the reader something to quote so that he can appear smart to his
friends.

\- try to be appealling enough to be interviewed on TV.

~~~
kmfrk
He also did great at The Moth with a personal story.

<http://www.themoth.org/podcast>

He's also done one or several Ted talks. I recommend the one on spaghetti
sauce.

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lhorie
FWIW, one could argue that many of these elements are also present in a book
like Godel Escher Bach.

\- _Your book is actually going to be a collection of essays drawn together by
a loose thread._ \- "strange loops"

\- _Each of your essays is going to revolve around a single idea_ \- pretty
much every Achilles and Tortoise chapter

\- _Illustrate the idea with stories about real people_ \- Godel, Escher, Bach

and so on...

I don't know about the rest of you, but I read Gladwell and Hofstadter because
they are entertaining in an brain-stimulating way. When I want raw non-
embezzled science, I read scientific papers. In both cases, I'll come to my
own conclusions.

I don't get all this passive-agressive "holier-than-thou" attitude towards
Gladwell being famous I've been seeing lately. Who cares if he's famous?

~~~
pwhelan
'I don't get all this passive-agressive "holier-than-thou" attitude towards
Gladwell being famous I've been seeing lately. Who cares if he's famous?'

It reminds me of what PG said about this in his "why to not not start a
startup" -- he is successful for what he does and they don't think he should
be because he writes about things he doesn't do professionally or something.

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stickhandle
The way to "read" Gladwell is to get the talking-book and have him read it to
you as you commute to work/home. He's a great storyteller - in both word and
voice. And he delivers his own material extraordinarily well. I've listened to
all 3 of the books mentioned and am currently enjoying his collection of NYer
essays "What the Dog Saw". His essay on Ron Popeil was terrific. Word of
warning though ... you might find yourself sad to arrive at your destination
and just sit in the car an extra few mins to finish a section!

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dmitri1981
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson seems to fit the criteria extremely well. He
must have figured out the MGB method before you.

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raganwald
Getting away from criticizing or praising Mr. Gladwell, many, many authors
have noticed that an effective way to write multiple best-sellers is to find a
formula that works and stick to it. Michael Crighton is said to have read many
best sellers and made notes about their structure so that he could develop his
own formula for writing a best-selling novel.

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tjmaxal
If you are the type of reader that accepts everything you read as fact, then
pointing out a formula isn't going to change that now is it?

Most popular TV shows are written on a 3 act formula yet you can still find
them engaging, germane, and thought provoking.

In short formulas do not equal thoughtlessness.

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kadavy
So basically, writing a "Malcolm Gladwell Bestseller" requires _a shitload of
work._

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aresant
Author misses Gladwell's largest advantage: he became a bestseller because he
had laid the groundwork with years of writing magazine articles - built up an
audience and alliances with huge, influential publications like the new
yorker, NYT, etc.

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erikstarck
He missed "get a funky haircut".

~~~
bl4k
Malcom Gladwell cuts his hair?

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c00p3r
_books actually contain very few ideas. But these few ideas are chosen to be
interesting to a general reader, to be understandable by a layman_ \- take
almost any religious books - it is the same collection of short stories for a
layman, which illustrate one simple idea at a time, so the formula was a
thousands years old. =) Some of them were poetry in original language.

btw, famous books by Dale Carnegie are brilliant adoption of that style.

bbtw, in many cases of such writers (compilators) the first book is the best
one. The Tipping Point (and, of course, How To Find Friends) is really
enjoying one.

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napierzaza
This article is very strange. It's pretty cynical about Gladwell but his
details on him aren't all negative are they? Gladwell sure is good at telling
stories and proving points! It has to be a formula. A formula of what pretty
much equals good writing and research.

~~~
roundsquare
Entertaining writing, maybe, but certainly not good/education writing. And
certainly not good research.

Side note: He may have solid research, but it doesn't come out in the writing.

~~~
kurtosis
Perhaps the sad fact is that being entertaining and being accurate are
conflicting goals. Who wants to listen to a complex explanation for why the
"fifteen minutes of videotaped conversation" method
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gottman> )for predicting the likelihood of
divorce is flawed due to overfitting issues (see
[http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2010...](http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2010/03/shooting_down_b.html)
for details)

Gladwell doesn't let complex facts get in the way of a good story.

