Sadly, the book is typical example of the Malcolm Gladwell school of writing, with a mix of some research, wide extrapolations and the author’s ideas all mixed up.
To me, that amounts to “not worth reading”.
I actually think the book /has/ a point, and I some of the ‘findings’ make sense; but perhaps a magazine article would enough for this?
Every book of this sort has a point, and some of its findings will always “make sense”. That’s just part of the same marketing template, as is the “Catchy Title: Subtitle From Which You Can Extrapolate The Entire Contents Before Opening The Book” title.
It’s the title that’s the giveaway. It will put off people who don’t like the message from picking the book up at all, thus planting a positive bias into the reviews and word of mouth. It also primes every favourably disposed reader with the message, making its arguments to that end “make sense”.
Indeed these books seem to be engineered for effect (Gladwell is an absolute master at that). Slightly ‘unexpected’ conclusions that go well with the readers’ cherished beliefs, and optimized for short attention spans.
To me, that amounts to “not worth reading”.
Every book of this sort has a point, and some of its findings will always “make sense”. That’s just part of the same marketing template, as is the “Catchy Title: Subtitle From Which You Can Extrapolate The Entire Contents Before Opening The Book” title.
It’s the title that’s the giveaway. It will put off people who don’t like the message from picking the book up at all, thus planting a positive bias into the reviews and word of mouth. It also primes every favourably disposed reader with the message, making its arguments to that end “make sense”.
Indeed these books seem to be engineered for effect (Gladwell is an absolute master at that). Slightly ‘unexpected’ conclusions that go well with the readers’ cherished beliefs, and optimized for short attention spans.