Everyday economics and social epidemics are topics that do not come easily to many people. The job of Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, was to explain and teach the science of economics. Economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner also had the task of doing the same, but their book Freakonomics, did so differently. That difference includes several components of the book: the structure, the main focus, and the connection to the audience. The Tipping Point shows a better use of these three components and therefore, Gladwell gave the readers a better understanding of the text and the idea behind it.
A simple book written with the best intentions; Ray brings to the world Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 (Kipen). Having World War II influencing Ray’s ideas for the book. Fahrenheit 451 brings ideas and points that Ray Bradbury felt the need to write and open the public’s eyes to, as to how technology is changing people’s lives and they are leaving behind books and their critical thinking. Ray Bradbury brings a book about censorship and how banning or in this case burning books does not keep people from the curiosity of the message books have. A big irony arises and his book becomes banned and censored, exactly the same way as in his book.
Blink, a book written by Malcolm Gladwell where he explains the psychology of unconscious thinking. Gladwell tells his readers about how our subconscious mind affects a lot of our actions and behavior. In the book he brings up the idea of “thin slicing” in which a person uses little pieces of information about a person and uses that to form a larger opinion of the person. Further in the book he continues to say that most humans cannot explain how our subconscious mind works, he uses the example of Vic Braden a tennis coach who can predict when a tennis player is going to serve two bad serves in a row. When asked, Braden could not explain how he could predict such a thing and didn’t know how to explain this fact to others.
In “Small Change: Revolution Not be Tweeted” by Malcolm Gladwell , Gladwell explains his own thoughts on why even in the age of technology social media will never be the strongest way to display activism. Throughout the article the author highlights what he feels makes activism work and what he feels may not work. He thoroughly explains his reasoning for his opinions by using rhetorical strategies. For example, he notes that for a cause to be effective the people pursuing it must have a strong tie or a strong connection to it. This can tie/connection can come from experiencing the problem first hand or having multiple friends or family already involved in the cause.
Some have named Ray Bradbury “the uncrowned king of the science-fiction writers” because of his imagination and beautiful way of making Fahrenheit 451 come to life. The book Fahrenheit 451 is one of the first books to deal with a future society filled with people who have lost their thirst for knowledge and for whom literature is a thing of the past. The author mainly portrays this world from the point of view of Montag, a man who has discovered the power that knowledge contains and is coming to grips with the fact that it is outlawed. However, the reader also gets to see what life is like for one of the people content in living a life lacking in independent thought and imagination through his wife, Millie.
Therefore, Gladwell’s assertion reveals its fallacy in practical
In this quote, you can see how Gladwell used an analogy to show how rare of an opportunity it was for Steve Jobs to receive spare parts from Bill Hewlett. This is persuasive because it connects the idea, in the reader’s mind, of Giorgio Armani being a big figure in the fashion world to Bill Hewlett being a big figure in the computer world, making readers see how rare opportunities played a part in Steve Jobs’ success and overall connecting back to Gladwell’s
He describes a true outlier as someone who against all odds manages to be extraordinarily successful and remains a mystery in how that is achieved. In one chapter he talks about “The 10,000 hour rule” and how in order to master something you need to put in 10,000 hours of work to achieve that. While discussing Silicon Valley, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs he says, “The perfect age to be in 1975… old enough to be a part of the coming revolution… twenty or twenty-one, which is to say, born in 1954-1955.” (Gladwell 65) Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born in 1955, the perfect year to be right on top of the coming technology revolution.
The author Gladwell helped the reader to reach his message by providing characters with common experiences and turn them into positive experiences. He used characters to help the reader to find hidden messages. Gladwell was trying to make hidden messages easy to locate as a person reads deeper in the chapters within the book, he made this clear since the beginning of his book. The importance of the book is demonstrates how a legacy that includes culture can have failure and can be turned around into success just by an off chance (Locklear, 2016). Gladwell gives the reader a sense of empowerment showing the public to feel self-righteous because they too can become a famous song writer or athlete if they to put in their 10,000 hours of dedicated work to what they love to do (Locklear,
Contrary to the common belief, crime has been on the decline for the past three decades. Yet, news and media have been covering crime more than ever, resulting in the public belief that crime is at an all time high. The sharp drop in crime since the early 1990s has left experts curious to discover the reasons for the decrease in crime. As I compare the article Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not by Steven D. Levitt and the article Evaluating Contemporary Crime Drop(s) in America, New York City, and Many Other Places by Eric P. Baumer and Kevin T. Wolff, I will briefly describe the articles, compare their agreements and disagreements, as well as discuss my personal preferences.
First of all, the opportunity of relative age that gives maturity from early birth date and extends the small advantage from maturity by giving them more experience refutes his assertion that success can be attained with only hard working. Secondly, the opportunity of having practical intelligence that enables people to change the situation in a good way refutes his assertion that success can be achieved by only self- assertiveness. Lastly, the opportunity of fulfilling 10,000 hours practice that gives a chance to achieve basic requirements to become an outlier refutes his assertion that success can be achieved when people imagined the world on their own using mind and imagination. Finally, to shape the world that people desire, people are required more opportunities than factors that Gladwell
A dystopian society is a dysfunctional society that is marketed to its citizens as a utopian society. It includes elements such as a lack/ downplay of religion or one government sanctioned religion that everyone must follow. The government either uses force and or fear to control its population. There is a suppression of freedom of speech and a suppression of intellectualism. In this society, there is a protagonist who rebels against the status quo.
Gladwell 's main argument is that although hard work and talent are essential for success, one’s given opportunities and cultural legacy are what really drive them to the pinnacle of success. The first aspect that Gladwell introduces to support his argument is the importance of opportunity. One example that he talks about is “The Matthew Effect”. “The Matthew Effect” is shown through the Medicine Hat Tigers elite hockey team of Canada; if one was to look at the roster, which includes their birth dates, they would find something quite peculiar.
The novel exploits human desire for the now and the easy, critiques human dependency on technology and the media, and shows the effects of extreme government control. This causes the reader to examine their actions from a different perspective. Fahrenheit 451 was also written to show the importance of knowledge. It causes the reader to think of valuable questions about the need for the information located in books. Ultimately, knowledge is power.
In his article, “Thresholds of violence” by Malcolm Gladwell, has effectively proven that the school shootings changed and they’ve became ritualized. From an incident, a group of three officers had arrived to the unit’s door step, and a young man stood in the center. The man became extremely defensive when one of the officers had to pat LaDue down. The officer had over heard that LaDue was making bombs in the storage locker, then had found a SKS assault rifle with sixty rounds of ammunition, a Beretta 9-mm, hand gun, including three ready-made explosive devices hidden in his bedroom. “There are far more things out in that unit than meet the eye” (Gladwell 2), exampling how there’s not only going to be a specific amount of bombs that would have
