Unassuming intellect

Malcolm Gladwell has written a pair of famous books: Blink and The Tipping Point...both of which are worth reading. In fact, some would say they're increasing become part of the conversational pop-science lexicon...you know, one of those books (like Sun Tsu's Art of War) that people like to talk about at parties...and that other people pretend to have read - even if they haven't.

Gladwell has an interesting characteristic I'm growing to appreciate more and more - unassuming intellect. I worked with a reporter in Orlando named Scott Fralick, and he told me something that's sat with me for years. He pointed out that intelligent people like to be challenged on a piece of knowledge, because they want to find out about things they don't know, so they can learn more. Not-so-smart people will be intimidated by someone who calls them on something they don't know, because their identity rides on being all-knowing about everything in a certain field. They get defensive and brutal when challenged, falling back on their educational credentials or breadth of experience.

I'm still trying to understand these different types of people (and try as hard as possible to be the former), but much like Steven Johnson, Malcolm Gladwell is definitely one of the natively intelligent ones. He's smart, and conveys that intellect in approachable ways that all of us can appreciate. If you haven't read one of his books (which, you kinda should, since they're short and really enlightening) just read this latest piece of his about how football coaches and schools try to find the best people for the job.

Yes, it's in the hoity-toity New Yorker...but don't let that throw you - it's good stuff.

If you'd prefer, you can also listen to a discussion with Malcolm Gladwell at the 92nd street Y at Robert Krulwich's Giants of Science series on iTunes (Robert Krulwich, also, is an intellectual bad ass when it comes to simplifying complex ideas, though I've mentioned that before).

Who else do you think is smart, and makes you smarter just by being exposed to them? Let me know what you think...leave a comment.