Malcolm Gladwell and "Perfection"

by rabbifink on December 17, 2008 · 9 comments

I was sent this link by PJC member Judd Magilnick.

Malcolm Gladwell is a great writer and has had a great influence on my thinking. Perhaps the greatest secular influence on me of all! I have not yet had a chance to read his new book “Outliers” however I have read this NY Times OP-ED piece.

I am not necessarily agreeing with the writer’s assessment of Gladwell’s position rather I am commenting on the writer’s position in relationship to “Perfection”.

The astute will notice that this is exactly the point we made in our “Perfections” discussion. Success in not predetermined, it is our hands and our task to be vigilantly improving ourselves. Of course there are elements that are outside of our control such as location of birth, IQ, default personality traits etc. but none of those can stand in the face of our will to succeed!

I guess Malcolm Gladwell (in the writer’s view) and Rabbi Akiva will have to just agree to disagree…

Related posts:

  1. Tweakers and Inventors: Malcolm Gladwell Analyzes Steve Jobs
  2. Malcolm Gladwell Doesn’t Use Twitter or Facebook But He Is Pretty Sure They Are Useless
  3. Another Gladwell Gem | How David Beats Goliath

Tagged as: Gladwell, Perfection, Torah

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