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Malcom Gladwell in Omaha

 
 
Reply Mon 8 Dec, 2008 10:03 am
Malcom Gladwell coming to Omaha
The Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s Young Professionals Council is bringing Malcom Gladwell in as a keynote speaker at a conference in March. Has anyone here heard of him? Perhaps listened to him speak?

There is alot going on lately in Omaha to try and make it a place where startups can thrive, and so there is more emphasis on conferences and such then in the past. Gary Vaynerchuk is coming to a conference next May, so that will be fun to watch. However I don't know anything about Gladwell. I listened to his speech at TED (linked from the article) and it was somewhat interesting. Would it be worth paying $90 to watch him (and I don't know who else yet) speak?

Either way, I am glad that Omaha is starting to bring in these types of events.
 
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Reply Mon 8 Dec, 2008 11:13 am
Ok, I see he is the author of some interesting books: Outliers, The Tipping Point, and Blink. (amazon)

A friend of mine actually recommended Outliers to me. Maybe I'll read that one during my Christmas travels.
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Reply Mon 8 Dec, 2008 11:44 am
I adore Malcolm Gladwell's essays in the New Yorker.

His books are still cool but he really benefits from the editing the New Yorker provides, as far as I can tell.

He's a masterful teller of anecdotes, a masterful collector of cool info. He often overreaches in his books (much less so in his individual magazine essays/ articles) in terms of putting it all together, gleaning meaning and Truth from the anecdotes.

I did like "Blink" a lot though it had weaknesses.
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Reply Mon 8 Dec, 2008 12:06 pm
OK, so now I know who Malcolm Gladwell is. Thx, Nick.
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Reply Mon 8 Dec, 2008 12:12 pm
Thanks for the info.. good to know! I get that he is a masterful teller of anecdotes. The TED speech of his I watched was nothing but an anecdote. But enjoyable. I think I will pick up one of his books, and see what I think.
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Reply Mon 8 Dec, 2008 02:09 pm
I've read "Tipping Point" and "Blink" and from reviews of the new one ("Outliers") I'd recommend one of the first two. (As in, the reviews I've seen from reviewers I trust aren't very good.) "Blink" is definitely a fun/ fascinating read even with the overreaching.
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Reply Mon 8 Dec, 2008 02:37 pm
Thanks soz. I think I will start with Tipping Point, and then if I like it, check out Blink. Tipping Point sounds like a more interesting subject matter to me. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I'm a developer of a certain social website Smile
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