Gladwell Interview
For those of you who’ve been scarfing down my copies of Malcolm Gladwell-ian goodness, you may be interested in this interview with him by Powell’s.
I think the most interesting bit of the interview, for me, was this:
I don’t know if in my lifetime I will witness a social transformation as inexplicable and as dramatic as that. We took a city that was obsessed with crime, and in three years we removed crime and the obsession with it. People do not talk about crime anymore in middle class New York. Even in areas that were once deemed to be completely overwhelmed with crime, the fabric of everyday life has changed in ways that would blow you away. And that happened in three years. It’s extraordinary. It’s our version of the Berlin Wall falling. I still have not gotten over it.
I’ve been watching a lot of Law & Order, and I’ve noticed that, too. The show has had to evolve in what crime it covers it and how New Yorkers are portrayed as the city’s changed. Just go watch some show from the first three seasons and be thrown into the way-back machine.
Who has what book? I just know it ain’t at my house. [I just want the goodness to spread. I'm fine if they don't come back to my possession for a year or so.]
[HT to Brendon Bushman.]
we still have blink. I set it aside to read HP and another book. I can probably return it though. Not sure when I might finish it.
July 25th, 2005 at 11:35Oh and for L&O, since it is “ripped from the headlines,” that kinda makes sense.
July 25th, 2005 at 11:36I have the tipping point, which Stephen wants to read but is currently in LA so if you want it back to give to someone else you can have it when you come over on Wednesday.
July 25th, 2005 at 13:23It doesn’t matter to me who has them, as long as someone does have it.
July 25th, 2005 at 13:35Also, very cool interview. I just emailed Stephen’s dad to make sure that he put both of these books in the library.
July 25th, 2005 at 13:45Ok cool. And another L&O, I suppose that would be a pretty neat observation to make.
July 25th, 2005 at 14:29