Contrary to popular belief

Saturday, November 8. 2008

Contrary to popular belief

I like that. I think I'll use that as the title for my first book: Contrary to Popular Belief. I'm not sure what it's about yet, but it's a killer title.

It might be about Malcolm Gladwell. When people have asked me what sort of writing I wanted to do, I have often said, "I want Malcolm Gladwell's job." That is, I want to write lengthy non-fiction about fascinating topics that have real relevance and make you stop and think. But I got to thinking: what does Malcolm Gladwell write about? How can you describe what he does?

Eventually I found the pattern. Almost everything Gladwell writes about is some way in which research or analysis shows that what we would expect to be true, isn't. He takes some commonly held belief about the world, and then stands it on its head. For example:

Common Assumption	Gladwell's contradiction	The resulting work
"Change takes a long time to happen."	"Actually, some change can happen very rapidly."	The Tipping Point
"The best judgments are made with lots of time and as much information as possible."	"Some judgments that are made in two seconds are more accurate than months of analysis."	Blink
"Success is largely a function of being an insider with privileged position within a culture."	"There are lots of advantages to being an outsider."	"The Uses of Adversity"
"Big, ground-breaking ideas in science are quite rare."	"There are tons of good ideas that are languishing, because no one is bothering to look for them."	"In the Air"
"Homelessness is a broad socioeconomic problem that will require a big, expensive solution."	"Lots of problems that appear to be widespread, chronic problems are actually isolated, acute problems that can be readily solved."	"Million-Dollar Murray"

I could go on for pages, but why bother? Look for yourself in Gladwell's archive of New Yorker articles and you'll see the pattern again, and again, and again. It's a really good pattern – almost guaranteed to be engaging, interesting, and relevant.

So, now I have the formula, right? Maybe . . . but first I'll have to see if I can reproduce it. Just because I know what he's doing, doesn't mean I can do it . . . contrary to popular belief . . .

Posted by Georg Buehler in Writing at 19:27 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

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You may want to brainstorm spiritual "popular" beliefs that Augie teaches are wrong.

"Spiritual insight comes from some combination of compassion and balanced living, not from hard work."

"Co-operation is spiritual; competition is anti-spiritual."

"Spiritual work makes you feel better about yourself."

"Anger and confrontation are not part of the spiritual path, or are at best necessary evils."

...and so on.

#1 Kenny Felder (Homepage) on 2008-11-09 14:26 (Reply)

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