Malcolm Gladwell: The M Night Shyamalan of the Literary World?
Academy Award nominee M. Night Shyamalan wrote and directed The Sixth Sense, a critical and financial success in 1999. The story hinged on the literary device of a plot twist in the form of a twist ending. It was a beautiful movie that left many in the theatre, if not all, gasping in shock as the ending unfolded. As a viewer you immediately questioned all that you had seen and heard during the film and felt compelled to watch it again with this newfound knowledge of where the line between reality and fantasy really existed. Shyamalan was widely considered an up and coming star only to see his luminescence dim over time. These days many consider him to be a one trick pony of sorts. All too frequently relying on his widely successful plot twist technique presented in The Sixth Sense and repeatedly including twist endings in his films ever since. As a result none of his subsequent movies have reached the heights of The Sixth Sense and in fact some have been considered flops, most notably 2004's The Village and 2006's Lady in the Water. Shyamalan doesn't seem to have progressed in his story telling and with each passing movie his approach seems stale and regurgitated.
This past week I finished reading Gladwell's new release Outliers. An interesting compilation of biographies, if you will, that get to the heart of his hypothesis that success is simply not a product of those who work the hardest but that where you come from, what tools you have at your disposal, the individuals you are surrounded by and even when along the timeline of history you were born can also play a very large roll in an individuals success. Throw in the presence of luck and there you have it, Bill Gates.
Of course these stories and his ideas are not so simple and Gladwell presents them to you in his typically skilled way. Holding your attention, capturing your imagination and even at times transporting you to a time and place not your own. And so it was with his first two offerings, 2000's The Tipping Point and 2005's Blink. In each, Gladwell presents you with a hypothesis, the power of small things for the former and the power of thin slicing for the latter. All three are then backed up with anecdotal evidence from the real world. All three books were presented in essentially the same way. A simple scientific method: hypothesis, evidence, and conclusion. Of course his hypotheses are never really in doubt, why else would each book be written. But as I was wrapping up with Outliers I couldn't help but feel as if I had ridden this one-trick pony before. I immediately thought of Shyamalan in the sense that something seemed stale and regurgitated.
Sadly, I was left looking for more from him. I can't help but feel that his books have taken on a certain feel of fiction. A collection of short stories all centered on a particular theme (the hypotheses). His ideas are powerful, and maybe it's a compliment to say that his books have inspired thought in others. Perhaps this is just his piece to the puzzle. One writers' research and writing spurs another writers' even further evaluation or derivation towards other ideas. His task is to simply place his ideas into the hands of the masses and allow life to take its course as the cycle of understanding the world in which we live carries on through time from one mind to the next.
I guess what I would really like to see or read about is some real world application of his ideas moving forward and the substance of their accomplishments. Not just an analysis of the past. As it stands his scientific method approach to backing up his claim is not really the scientific method. The scientific method involves enforcing your thoughts with new studies and new results, not simply applying your thoughts to past studies. It's this specific difference that's bothering me. Problem is; how do you test whether an individual's environment affects their subsequent success without cloning said individual and having them two live completely different lives? Beats me.
NOTE: In an amazing coincidence The Morning News' Benjamin Cohen published a satire on Gladwell just this morning. Thanks to kottke for the tip.
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