Malcolm Gladwell argues against modern economic pessimism by pointing to broad long-term global progress in historically disadvantaged regions.
What-if
Gladwell: Remote Work in His Twenties Would Have Derailed His Career
“When I look at my own career, I would not be where I am today if in my twenties and thirties I was working remotely.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Gladwell: Remote workers lacking social capital will be laid off first
“When people stop, stop hiring and start firing, we're going to find out who gets fired first. And if you don't have any, if you're not built up any kind of face time or any kind of social capital in your organization, you're, you, it's much easier for you to b…”
Insight
Gladwell: Interview questions about hard tasks fail because top performers enjoy challenges
“The problem with the question
tell me the hardest thing you've done is that the person we're most interested in wouldn't be able to answer that question because they wouldn't have perceived it as hard.”
Opinion
Gladwell: Housing crisis stems from not building and blocking market forces
“Oh, we're just not building enough of it. You know, for a million stupid reasons, and we've let existing homeowners close the door to potential homeowners. We treat landlords like enemies. We think the rules of the marketplace don't apply when it comes to hous…”
Insight
Gladwell: Students should choose schools where they rank in top third
“In an academic context, there are real costs to being in the bottom third of your class. There's a huge amount of research that just says, when you're in the bottom third, or the bottom quarter, whatever, it's psychologically Quite debilitating. And if you're …”
Insight
Gladwell: Employers should prioritize class rank over school prestige
“There is some intriguing evidence that if you're an employer and you're hiring, You're better off choosing people who are at the top of their class regardless of where that class was situated, right? In other words, paying more attention to class rank than you…”