Gladwell/Johnson

Just a quick note to say that Malcolm Gladwell and I are doing some kind of joint appearance at The Strand bookstore in NYC this Wednesday, the 21st of September, at 6:30. (The Strand is at 12th and Broadway.) Right now the blurb on their site says that we'll both be reading from our books, but I suspect we'll end up doing something more interesting than that. I have no idea right now what that will be, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.

Comments

[Kevin Marks]

What would be fascinating would be you applying the science-based insights on the Amygdala from Mind Wide Open to his more impressionistic treatment in Blink.

[Brett]

Sounds great, the "Steve and Malcolm Show." When are you guys coming to St. Louis?

[susan]

I won't be able to make it cause of work but please keep me updated on other "shows" prefferbly on weekends yea?

susanitacha3@yahoo.com

[Adrián Carbajal]

Hi Steven! My name is Adrián Carbajal, I'm Editor in Chief for the Spanish version of a video game magazine that recently interviewed you. I'll like to contact you for a special petition. My email is: acarbajals@editorial.televisa.com.mx. Many thanks!

[YY]

I get to know you on C-SPAN chanel. You're introduing your new book everything bad is good for you in a book store.I'm pretty interested in the game you talked about. And I think you are eloquent and charming. You handle the tough question raised up afterwards so well. With the help of google, I find that you have a weblog!

[carly]

ah, a simple google, and here you are, famous to more than 15 people. i saw your lively discussion with mr. gladwell last night and was charmed into buying your book. you would have made an inspiring professor; just sitting there made me nostalgic for college seminars.

if it had been a seminar, i would have raised my hand at at least one point. you said that it was difficult to pick out truth from the vastness of the internet, said that google had helped with giving people access to information, but that it's difficult, maybe increasingly difficult to discern useful/true information from unfounded/biased information. do you really think that's true? isn't savviness about internet content an arms race as much as media awareness? i'm pretty sure people are developing an increasingly accurate filter when it comes to what web content to trust. you said that people have problems trusting content without context (that unlike a book, facts are plucked up and put down into webpages with no support) but i think people are very good at recognizing that facts without context are untrustworthy. given the plethora of sources of potential data, i think people are getting very good at paying attention to sources, for fleshing out biases. part of this is a skillset that can be taught, but most of it is the application of collateral teaching that is so important. it isn't harder to find truth in all that overabundant data, it's easier, with our refined thin slicing skills among other things.

a woman who asked a question last night was dismayed that the internet hadn't turned into a utopian source of nothing but truth, and you were more optimistic. i don't think you were optimistic enough! in the past, people have had to rely upon a few sources for information, and now we have many. no one is quality-controlling this data at the source (in many cases) any more, but internet readers are filtering what they read, quality-controlling their input. and what's more, they have access to multiple perspectives: official stories, journalistic stories, personal accounts, polemic commentary. people are more adept at this than i think we give them credit for.

this rashomon version of truth/history seeking has inherent value, a great deal more than a straight story in a newspaper or whatever gets edited into the history books.

ack, i am more nostalgic for college than i thought! hope i haven't typed your ear off. but i'd be interested in your thoughts.

[disanpoter]

I enjoyed your talk wednesday, but was intrigued by one of the owner's introductory remarks, which seemed to anticipate that your position on thought and information was somehow antithetical or in opposition to Gladwell's position. What do you think about that?

[wee kee]

see you there!

[Yolanda Krag]

hi steven,

heard of you before but i can't exactly remember where. but anyhow will be there to add to the crowd. :) all the best too!

[Scott Johnson]

It's always good to see either you or Gladwell. Seeing you both will be great!

[Laura Z]

As a university professor, I regret to inform Adrián Carbajal that internet savviness hasn't become the norm just yet. In fact, I am presenting a seminar to high school librarians in a few weeks on evaluating the internet. My students, who are elementary and secondary teachers, often have difficulty discerning primary resources. Perhaps it is the increasing savviness of the website developers who are able to fool their users that contributes to this challenge. As filtering becomes more sophisticated, so do the systems.

[Laura Z]

Excuse the oversight, my comment was directed to the poster, "Carly" not Adrian.

[York]

Great job. Uwielbienie, uczniostwo, ewangelizacja. Keep on keeping on!!!

[Dave]

just testing

[Aidan]

I was wondering if I would be able to e-mail you a number of questions for my senior project interview. If you are willing to please send me an e-mail and I will send questions as soon as I can. Thank you for your time.

e-mail: stefanvalric@gmail.com

[zach]

I am a college student at California State University Sacramento and for my advanced comp class we are reading your book Interface Culture. I just wanted to post a comment to your blog about how i thought chapter four was really insightful and well done. I thought it to be interesting how you made many connections on several different levels to the meaning of the word link, I also liked the difference between channel-surfing and web surfing and how you are actively choosing what to search for... that is all from me- take it easy

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