Gladwell, the Infotainer
Malcolm Gladwell. Author of best sellers like Blink and The Tipping Point . A guy who is referenced everywhere, from bars to boardrooms. And hugely popular on the speaking circuit. His books and articles are informative and fun to read, a very rare combination. Other books like Freakonomics follow the same style. But it was Gladwell who invented that genre. As Ian Leslie puts it: “Gladwell has done more than anyone else to turn ideas into one of the most valuable currencies of the internet age. He did this by unearthing material lying dormant in the rarefied realms of academic psychology, sociology and anthropology and shooting bolts of narrative electricity through it.” And, he is a terrific writer: “His finest pieces are put together like a Bach cantata: the themes are introduced, then played in counterpoint, building to a polyphonic climax. They are full of feints, false leads and playful misdirects that make the insights, when they arrive, all the more thrilling.” ...