The 10,000-hour rule

So if you have been on SJ since the beginning you should now be an
elite poster.

 

Malcolm Gladwell, pop theorist, is exposed as being totally full of shit by someone (a real journalist) more interested in reporting than making $10,000 per corporate lecture. Stunner. Perhaps Epstein used unconventional tactics to outmaneuver superior forces. Like, I don't know, not cherry-picking facts to fit his cute theories.

 

Hey now, don't be telling me the birthday thing is bullshit too. Baseball's deadline is April 30 and my son was born in May, thus I am fully expecting a long major league career. I will accept Double A and a spot on the 40-man roster, however.

 

It is shocking how influential the birthday chapter has been. I challenge you to find a suburban mom who is not strongly considering holding her summer birthday 4-year-old back for another year of preschool.

 

It's the best writing and speaking gig out there.
To belch forth utter piffle, not have to prove it, and have it be taken for gospel truth by helicopter moms and the Dick Whitmans of the intellectual community.

 

I get that you're a troll and I'm not going to get anything resembling honest engagement on this, but I'm not sure where I've indicated that I take anything Gladwell writes as "gospel truth."

 

I am not trolling.
I think this guy is every bit a fucking clown, right down to his clown hair.
His ideas should be discredited every time he comes up in serious conversation.
Not given merit.

 

Gladwell: Inch-deep thinking masked as wisdom for people who want to seem smart or interesting without any of the hard work.

 

Here's an excerpt from the Epstein book.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20130724/the-sports-gene-excerpt/

I don't know if Epstein planned to go down this road when SI hired him, but he's become one of their most essential writers. The stuff he's done on the intersection of sports and science and being able to make it digestible and compelling for readers is a real gift. Probably the best hire SI has made in the last decade.

 

Crichton did this, also.
It was called science fiction, edutainment, novelization.
No pretense any of it was rooted in reality.
At best, Gladwell is taking other people's thought experiments and applying it to the banal, half-cooked.
(Not unlike Klosterman.)

 

Fixed

 

David actually just took a job at ProPublica. But I share the love. He's awesome. His skill is a real gift. Book is fantastic and shockingly easy to read and digest without being trite. Did a podcast with him recently, he talks about the 10,000-hour rule and other stuff:

http://www.sportsonearth.com/podcast/hruby_tuesday/56042782