I am not normally a fan of Malcolm Gladwell – I find his writing quite simplistic and often wide of the mark. I found his last missive Outliers to be particularly trite.
Steven Pinker the noted psychologist wrote – The themes of the collection are a good way to characterize Gladwell himself: a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates the hazards of statistical reasoning and who occasionally blunders into spectacular failures.
From my perspective his largest failure is his assertion is that an IQ over 120 doesnt matter much and that endless practice will make up for this. It certainly friggen does if you want to win a Noble Prize for physics or Fields Medal. Practice cannot make up for simply lacking the horsepower to understand certain concepts.
Despite his simplifications this article in the New Yorker is not bad as a time passer.
