malcolm gladwell

Fluid Factors of Success

by OpenConceptual on 07-06-2009

in commentary

If you haven’t read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel yet, you should (full disclosure: I’ve read a lot about it but it’s on my to-read list as well). At the Change.org Social Entrepreneurship blog, Nathaniel Whittemore lays out the book’s basic premise… The essence of the argument is a total rejection of the notion [...]

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What is Good Writing?

by OpenConceptual on 07-02-2009

in commentary

A funny thing happened in the course of my last post: I committed the same error I was complaining about: putting readability before rigor. In an earlier version (this is where the problems began, perhaps: fussing over it too much) I had a lengthy excerpt from Seth Godin’s excellent post. In the process of making my post more [...]

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Halfway through his review of Free: The Future of a Radical Price, it became totally clear to me. I mean, I always knew it but I didn’t appreciate the full implications until now. Malcolm Gladwell is essentially an entertainer. He writes to be read and enjoyed rather than to challenge and educate. He turns ideas into [...]

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