Malcolm Gladwell at the 92nd Street Y

http://www.92Y.org

Recorded January 6, 2009.

In his latest work, best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of Outliers—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful people and asks the question: Why are high achievers different from regular people? Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, the cultural forces that make Asians so successful at math and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Gladwell is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of Blink and The Tipping Point.

About the Giants of Science Series: This is not just for folks who got As in high school chemistry. The scientists are such good storytellers, their subjects so provocative and the conversation so easygoing that all you have to do is bring your mind (and a friend). Robert Krulwich of Nova Science Now, an NPR regular and an ABC News correspondent, is the host.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• malcolm
• gladwell
• robert
• krulwich
• outliers

[liquidcashcow]

shear ingenuity amazing thought process...needs over 1 million views...instead of rappers getting 3 and 4 millions views!

[lynnbibbysmith]

Gladwell's point is that two people could love it equally, with the same passion, but one person has other elements such as environment, culture, support, lucky breaks, etc. and the other doesn't. The point is that "loving it" is simply the starting point. Gretzky loved hockey but if he didn't have parents that drove him to his practices, made a backyard rink and the Canadian Junior A organization, he might be a gym teacher in Brantford, Ontario...born Jan. 26th, btw.

[wetyewruyrtsutrdhjfg]

1.16.30 - I have no love for the asian culture too. Was born in it and only grew my brains when I saw how much bullshit there was.

"You must listen to your elders! Don't talk back! I'm your mother/father/older uncle/older sister! I'm wiser than you! So you must listen to my advice and change, because I'm saying this for your own good!"

Then when I saw that they had feet of clay too, I tried telling them that they weren't perfect too. They laughed in my face. What did I know?

Bullshit.

[MitchellI503]

I must grant that Gladwell is funny ("Oppenheimer, tries to KILL, HIS TUTOR"), but the book is disturbing and wrong on many counts. The whole premise of it is that the american dream of "anyone can be or do anything" is wrong. He states that if you aren't lucky enough to be born in a certain time period, you should just "give up." He applies statistics, which are averages or coincidences, and then turns around that state that if you don't fit the norm, you can't do it! a bit like Socialism, even

[brownztone]

"Oppenheimer, tries to KILL HIS TUTOR..." I love that line.  The same line is in the book (Outliers) in italics. Always makes me laugh.

[redryan20000]

is malcolm gladwell gay?

[TroyBlackford]

This guy doesn't know about the Beatles - not Gladwell, I'm talking about the interviewer. Robert Krulwich is not a great man.

[TroyBlackford]

@liquidcashcow No need to insult other things to prop this up. Not a good tendency.

[b29349]

What makes any child great is what they are praised incessently for doing as a child. Protect the Brain, Guide the Heart and the world will spirl up.

[asianfreak111]

hahahaha the "love of hockey... that dare not speak its name" that's glorious

[Mikeinatorable]

The bird they're talking about is the oxpecker--it's on the back of any large herding animal in Africa. Funnily enough, they pick parasites off of those creatures.

[ZachClooney]

@criminalistic And a compelling speaker.