i know a lot of people like to slag on gladwell as “captain obvious”, or for being someone who tells good stories but doesn’t really present much in the way of evidence or intellectual rigor to support his theories. as someone who has flipped through a couple of his books, i think those criticisms frankly do hold some water. he’s entertaining and thought-provoking to some degree but there isn’t a whole lot of depth there. as a pop-thinker, there’s more pop than actual original thought. but the guy is a good writer, and is pretty knowledgeable about sports, so it’s pretty enjoyable to read the back-and-forth between him and bill simmons (one of the few decent things about the mostly execrable ESPN) on a variety of sports topics, past and present.
