No description of the things I've read through the year or what I've listened to would probably be complete without some reference, at least to Malcolm Gladwell, but this year, I thought I might not get to that heading towards the final part of the year as I hadn't really consumed much of this stuff (I'd recommended it a lot but not consumed any).
I'm the type of guy who can't really get through a podcast season, so I can't listen regularly to Revisionist History because I get distracted in different places.
I can't even complete my own podcast, let alone someone else's.
But then, I saw he was releasing a new book 25 years after his original publication of The Tipping Point called Revenge of the Tipping Point.
I tossed up the idea of whether I should have it; I wondered whether Gladwell was running out of steam, so I listened to him read it, as I do with all of his books and articles.
I then bought several copies of it and was gifted a signed copy by my friend Colin Burns, which I then recommended to Grace's boyfriend, Callum (another Callum), so Revenge of The Tipping Point has now really done the rounds.
If you have not listened to Revenge of the Tipping Point, you must, if only for the chapter about Poplar Grove, a fictitious overachieving school in America, which mimics all fictitious overachieving schools everywhere.
The book is extraordinary; I will be back to it again in the sabbatical (along with Oliver Burkeman), but the other thing about Gladwell that I want you to understand is that he is prepared to berate himself and be better again.
Later down the line, I will write a blog called 'Tek Spoil Mek Style'. It's a phrase from his mother taken from the podcast when Gladwell goes to debate school. The link to the podcast is here.
If you've never listened to a Malcolm Gladwell podcast, it's not what you may expect.
Many of the podcasts in Revisionist History are better than this in their production and in their interaction, but the essence of this is utterly extraordinary.
I know Douglas Murray; I have consumed quite a lot of Douglas Murray's material (much to the disgust of my super liberal or left-wing friends), but Murray is an extraordinary mind whether you agree with his politics or not.
This podcast exemplifies what happens when someone brings a knife to a gunfight. Gladwell cries in his hotel room afterwards and phones his mother, that's how bad it is.
Malcolm Gladwell has been an extraordinary influence in my life both clinically and from a business perspective, but also from a family perspective; he taught me the principle of the difference between I can't and I won't when you're raising your Children.
If you don't have any money to buy something, you can't buy it; if you have the money to buy it but it's not right, you have to tell them you won't. It's a fundamental basis for parenting.
There's plenty of that in Revenge of The Tipping Point and plenty of it through the podcast, particularly in the debate school podcast.
Blog Post Number - 4040
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