Gladwell on Anderson: The Gods Must Be Crazy (to be dissing each other like this)

In India, we have 16-330 million gods whom we pray to daily, so they can explain life to us. They don't do a good job.

In the US, since things are more rational and efficient, every generation has only 4 gods, but they explain everything.

Currently they are called Gladwell, Anderson, Surowiecki and Diamond (though Diamond's luster is fading, and is being replaced by lord Taleb on his chosen vehicle - A Black Swan)

Gaze upon their holy countenances.






Don't you feel elevated?

Recently, the New Yorker published an snappy critique by Gladwell of Anderson's book Free. Observe the thunderbolts of Great God Gladwell.

Information wants to be free,” Anderson tells us, “in the same way that life wants to spread and water wants to run downhill.” But information can’t actually want anything, can it? Amazon wants the information in the Dallas paper to be free, because that way Amazon makes more money. Why are the self-interested motives of powerful companies being elevated to a philosophical principle?

Overall, a quite cogent argument. The Great God Gladwell (3G?) is revealing an avatar I would like to see more of, the thoughtful critique.

Unfortunately, I think that was possibly an Outlier

I now quake to imagine what might happen if there were to be a clash of the Gods, a type-face Titanomachia? Blogs would bleed the world over.


"GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL rain down upon a LONG TAIL of OUTLIERs. for FREE"

"The WISDOM OF CROWDS says if you BLINK you will COLLAPSE"


etc. etc. A truly horrible outcome.

I can't wait.