Malcolm Gladwell news stories on Newser

Non-Golfer Will Practice 6 Years, Try to Turn Pro

John Johnson — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:09:05 CDT

In his book Outliers , Malcolm Gladwell popularized the notion that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become great at something. Portland's Dan McLaughlin is testing the theory in a remarkable way: The 31-year-old quit his job in June 2009 and devoted himself to practicing golf six hours a...

Biased? Harvard Wants to Know

Harry Kimball — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:57:16 CST

Do you have a subconscious love of gays—or hatred of white people? There's an app for that. Actually, it's a website that's part of a study by Harvard, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington . “Project Implicit” gathers personal information, then puts you through a 15-minute test...

Dog Fighting, Football Share Brutal Similarities

Caroline Miller — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:12:48 CDT

Malcolm Gladwell is serious when he asks the question, in the New Yorker , whether football is really any different from dog fighting. He doesn't just mean that both inflict grievous injury to combatants—though the brain damage sustained by football linemen takes considerably longer to kill them—but that there...

Wall Street Lives, Dies by Overconfidence: Gladwell

Harry Kimball — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:31:02 CDT

Confidence is key to the banking game, but an overabundance of it seems to have made the industry’s titans so delusional they blundered into the financial crisis, Malcolm Gladwell writes in the New Yorker . “The roots of Wall Street’s crisis were not structural or cognitive so much as they were...

Anderson vs. Gladwell: The Battle Over Free

Jason Farago — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:45:00 CDT

Chris Anderson's new book, Free , examining the repercussions the Internet trend of bringing costs to zero, triggered a mini-war with Malcolm Gladwell, who lambasted him for arguing that "the New York Times should be staffed by volunteers, like Meals on Wheels." In the London Times , Antonia Senior does play-by-play commentary,...

Writers Hail Message From a 'Prince'

Rob Quinn — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:23:32 CST

Barack Obama's inaugural address showed a literary mastery of language, assorted authors tell the Los Angeles Times . The president's plain speaking and restraint is commended, along with his use of "we" instead of "I." Author Ted Wilmer hails the president's use of "tight language, short sentences and strong images," and...

Gladwell on Success: It's About Luck

Matt Cantor — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:49:08 CST

Journalist and pop guru Malcolm Gladwell brings other people's big ideas to the masses, and in that way, “I’m a parasite,” he says. In his new book, the author takes modesty to a new level, crediting his success—which, by the way, manifests itself in a $4 million advance for...

The Moral-Hazard Myth

NewsDude — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:43:03 CDT

Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, examines the premise underlying U.S. health insurance known by the Dickensian term: Moral Hazard. The theory of Moral Hazard describes the notion that insurance can change peoples’ behavior. Without deductibles, co-payments and other barriers to use, people will use too...