Anti business meme meme
Is The Bad Economy Killing The Business Meme? is a (rare) great analysis by Gawker of something substantive.
One of Malcolm Gladwell’s main theses in The Tipping Point was that there are people with vast social networks who influence trends and introduce creative people to each other. It was built, to some extent, on the six degrees of separation chestnut.
But in 2001, Watts made use of the Internet and vastly expanded the messenger group, enlisting around 61,000 people to forward emails to 18 targets around the globe. True, it did take on average six people to complete the chain of information, however, the “hubs” weren’t important after all. Only 5% of the emails, Watts found, ever passed through them; almost all reached their targets through a conduit of nobodies.
Apparently, being a “connector” means less than Gladwell would have us believe. But I forgive him. The Tipping Point was a fun book and Gladwell eats at Dell’Anima, which makes him a swell guy in my estimation. But I won’t forgive him for Blink, that mess of contradictions, which I slogged through on the strength of The Tipping Point, and which Steve Sailer gleefully demolished.
I can’t say I’ll be sad to see the end of the celebrity business book. Even Moneyball, which is a very good book, has a basic point for business leaders: look at the data and challenge conventional wisdom when making decisions. There. I just saved you hours of reading.
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22. July 2008 at :
Wow! Gawker is writing serious pieces. The world must be changing. I will try to restrain my glee at the death of the celebrity business book.
22. July 2008 at :
Yeah, but 18 hours after being written, the post has only gotten 4,197 views and 30 comments. “Non-Lesbians Able to Heal Baby Deer With Their Whimsical, Name-dropping Charms” posted around the same time has garnered 6,778 views and 57 comments. Intelligence doesn’t sell.
22. July 2008 at :
Further evidence that intelligence doesn’t sell can be found in the key search words and phrases which bring people to American Madness. Here’s a hint, “impact of market forces on America’s health care system,” isn’t one of them.