[temphn]

Malcom "igon value" Gladwell is probably not the person one wants to cite on an empirical or technical matter.

http://monkeysuncle.stanford.edu/?p=541

  Pinker’s term: “The Igon Value Problem” is a clever play 
  on the Eigenvalue Problem in mathematics.  You see, 
  Gladwell apparently quotes someone referring to an “igon 
  value.” This is clearly a concept he never dealt with 
  himself even though it is a ubiquitous tool in the 
  statistics and decision science about which Gladwell is 
  frequently so critical.  According to Pinker, the Igon 
  Value Problem occurs “when a writer’s education on a 
  topic consists in interviewing an expert,” leading him or 
  her to offering “generalizations that are banal, obtuse 
  or flat wrong.”  In other words, the Igon Value Problem 
  is one of dilettantism. 

As for the Horatio Alger "myth", the modern incarnation is the internet startup. Look at YC. There is just no dispute that smart people working hard can put a few million in the bank after several years of all out toil in the Valley.

[danssig]

>There is just no dispute that smart people working hard can put a few million in the bank after several years of all out toil in the Valley.

This statement is either utterly nonsensical and backed up by nothing or it's circular in nature (i.e. "How do you know they're hard working and smart? Because they put a few million in the bank", "Why were they able to put a few million in the bank? Because they're hard working and smart").

[rsheridan6]

Not that I'm a fan of Gladwell in any respect, but his gaffe shows that he never took linear algebra, which is true of almost everybody who didn't go into hard science or engineering.

[marbletiles]

"in the valley" suggests that geography matters as much as the smarts and the hard work. What other assumptions have you missed?

[vidarh]

He's ridiculing the people who holds the blind belief in the valley startup as a sure way to wealth, not promoting it.

[yzhengyu]

I am well aware of his flaws. I actually placed a higher weight on the accessibility of Gladwell's work. He might not be an economist/sociologist who studied the problem, but the fact that he is able to introduce difficult concepts to a larger audience with his writing is a plus to him and not a minus.