[ardy42]

> I'm genuinely curious why Gladwell is a negative control. The name sounds familiar but I don't know much about him

He's written a lot of bestselling pop social science books. IIRC, he's a good storyteller, but is criticized for cherry-picking stuff to create the impression that you've just learned something profound and counter-intuitive when maybe you actually haven't.

Here's a review of one that makes that point: https://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/malcolm-gladwell-backla...

Disclaimer, I actually enjoy his books.