Covid is also a weak-link issue in its spread. The prevention of its spread is not dependent on how well/seriously the best individuals wear a mask or self-isolate, but how bad the worst ones do: especially as the majority of individuals are not properly isolating.
The numbers have been played with to induce fear enough to shut down the economies of the world... before they even had tests they were calling cov2 flu deaths as cov.19... we had a shortage in the U.S. as China was buying them up using cash... greedy manufacturers were selling to China over orders already made here... There's a lot of disinformation and if you look at the latest CDC numbers that the MSM isn't talking about, the survivability is much higher than being portrayed. Why ask yourself and do some research rather than listening to corporate run news outlets with an agenda.
Totally agree, at least in the beginning. I can imagine that covid infections in india dropped significantly more than one would have predicted looking at the immunity rate due to this circumstance: First the worst-behaving people account for a lot of the infections, but they are also the ones who get infected first and are therefore immunized.
On the face of it I'm not at all sure that you are correct here. Many other countries that do not have the obesity issues that the US has are suffering greatly from covid. Even if, and assuming everything else being equal, the US level of obesity was as it was 20 years ago, the world would still be suffering from a massive covid pandemic. This would result in effects in the US which would be, economically, socially, and from a health perspective, much much worse than a particularly bad flu season.
This lecture goes back to a statement you made in your book The Tipping Point; 'the best thing that government can do is invest in the potential of it's citizens'.
The strong/weak link perspective is interesting - but it wasnt just a strategic error: its just much easier and probably safer to attempt a solution by some hardware/technical device, some operation, some medicine than to make people change their behaviour. People with obesity dont lack the knowledge about diabetes, blood pressure etc. and not even Corona is a sufficient threat for most of the people with overweight. So we might just have spent millions for courses/information/nutritionists - for no reasonable outcome at all...
Taiwan did exactly what you just share from the beginning and there's only 7 deaths pls never shot down the whole country until now. Be healthy is a must for humanity.
This is a very insightful perspective. Sports make great analogies! Our country would definitely benefit by reducing levels of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. The one point I would challenge is at minute 14:35, "if diabetes and hypertension and obesity were at their year 2000 levels, or better yet at their 1990 levels, we wouldn't have had a COVID crisis. This disease would have looked like simply a bad flu season." I feel that point is contradicted by what happened in China. China has much lower levels of obesity and related health problems, but they still have had a higher rate of morbidity from COVID-19 than previous flu seasons.
1:26 -- Absolutely, the best way to improve your soccer team is to improve your worst player? Why? Because of marginal utility theory -- which those who disparage, despise, & vilify market economics love to hate -- which tells us that the soccer team (in this instance) gets the most value, benefit & advantage from improving its weakest link to the strength of its next weakest link. Interestingly enough, this concept is also what officer candidates were taught more than 50 years ago in the US Army's infantry officers' candidate school, i.e., if you are a commander of a military unit & want to reduce your risk of defeat in a battle you ensure that your reserves are focused first on the weakest of the units in your front line. That's the place where your military adversaries -- if they know your weaknesses & strengths -- will try to break through. This strategy hasn't changed since Alexander the Great.
Amazing! I coached minor hockey and soccer for 30 years and I always coached to elevate the skills of the weaker players. My reasons were different. My theory was the weaker player had more room to grow so I could greater increase the mean skill level by focusing on the basic skills and the weaker players. I had no idea this weakest link theory applied so I was doing the right thing for different reasons. Big fan of MG since spaghetti sauce. Enjoyed Talking to Strangers.
Independent of COVID-19, I took a lot away from this video. I've never been able to articulate the strong/weak link paradigms as perfectly as soccer/bball.
Brilliant! I am into what he says and it is what we call in education as providing the OPPORTUNITY to each student to succeed and discover his/ her full potential!
It's telling that his thoughtfulness is matched (if not surpassed), by his social concern. His books have sold enough that he could just content himself to be another public intellectual, but he is genuinely concerned about the welfare of his fellow citizens.
What he is saying is garbage. If he was actually concerned about the welfare of his fellow citizens, he would say 'I know nothing about pandemics. You need to listen to people who know what they are talking about.' That is exactly what the US did not do.
Isn't it also that the three diseases he talks about are a result of economic distress and not having the resources to buy the right food. If I am making $10 an hour, what are my options for healthy choices?
Many of the items you describe are on demand production items and international trade routes and production were disrupted. In addition many of these inexpensive items are costly to store or warehouse. They break down or get moldy. The competency and will of the Trump administration meant that states and municipalities were bidding against each other in the supply chain to manufacture and deliver needed items. Every other country had the same shortages. In poorer countries they lacked the financial resources to purchase these items. But when dealing with the rich nations the U.S. which had a great deal of expertise even among the bottom (small town public health units can be very good) there was an incompetent person leading the federal response and coordination.
Why go through all of those changes when you could just go to the food industry where food is processed and advertised to create unhealthy addiction. Fix the problem at the source. Advertisement and technology both claim they are giving people what they want, but in fact they create and giving people what they want them to have. Not everyone wants to upgrade their phone every two years, just like most of us don't plan to eat as many chips as we end up eating 🤔
amazing analogy...I love his books...brilliant thinker..still, I think some of the analogies wouldnt work here in Spain, where I live..precisely because we dont have particular obesity or diabetes problems, and age expectancy is 83 years (in the world top three I think) , covid almost wiped out our elders (add also many mistakes and underestimations made here) however, totally agree on the whole paradigm
I agree, he needed to look at other countries to make this solid. But perhaps some of it's universal. Here in the UK, we have the cheaper kinds of tests he's talking about - lateral flow tests - but they're just optional things you can buy if you want to. Especially now with the more dangerous and infectious Delta variant, it would probably make sense to make these mandatory for offices and schools, at least every few days.
gym membership, yes, please subsidize it ... I'd go regularly but I can no longer afford it AND I'm 90 pounds over weight. Unheard of for me, but now at middle age I'm obese
What you are proposing as an alternative way, while the only wise paradigm in the moment of pandemic, is not compatible with the capitalistic ambitions of the US, which is very strongly strong-link unfortunately
We all listen to people giving opinions on everything, opinions that add no value. And then there is Malcolm Gladwell. What a relief that a guy like him exists and still talks to us. Thank you Malcolm.
Lol, bit harsh on Aussie basketballers! Although as a tall skinny Aussie I’m more than happy to be plucked off the street and paid big dollars to lumber around the court, hit me up NBA...
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Thanks so much for all the great input as how we can prevent yet we are apprehensive. It's so easy to sit, than get up and work out. Choose a better food group that works best for us. You are very right. I want to see how much we learned from this for the next one
Understand that there are 2 type strategy on how to improve your team: - weak link team (soccer) - strong link team (basket ball). To improve your organization/sector, understand the type of the strategy appropriate to your organization/sector/problem to success. Regarding COVID, its 'weak link' type. Improve the deficiency elements on this sector (basic things e.g. mask, nasal swab, comorbid)
I like to hear Malcom Gladwell because allows us to be lazy thinkers. Here's the dark side which I am guessing he may admit to. He cannot anticipate a motive with certainty what someone is thinking while in motion and because he after all is just an observer, like the rest of us. Educated people are prone to denial or an avoidance of putting themselves at a mentally vulnerable position. If you look at Judge Judy or Dr. Phil you will see an all you can eat book filler for guys like Malcolm Gladwell when we all know that no producer in their right mind would put someone who would school them as TV stars during an episode. Their not idiots they are very intelligent and that is the basic problem with book authors and professional entertainment mediums. By the way Judge Judy, Doctor Phil and of course Malcom Gladwell are hoots. You could use your own judgement and Malcolm as a final inspection point but that is still suspect. Maybe buy his book then we'll all be satisfied.
I really like listening to Malcolm Gladwell but some of his comments in this video didn't age well. At the time of his videos the ICUs weren't overrun but that is a problem now. The antigen test in every home "spit on a stick" before work was really amplified by Elon Musk who took 4 antigen tests back-to-back-to-back-to-back (each within 20 mins) and got 2 positives and 2 negatives. The same has been seen with the "first cruise" which required a test 48 hours before going and it broke out in covid. Malcolm wasn't wrong because an antigen test in every home would help more than it hurt but he might have oversimplified it. Lastly, he couldn't have predicted the newer strain that appears to be more infectious, so when he says "the pandemic would be over by now", it wouldn't have been, unfortunately.
Interesting concept, but very one sided argument logic. Would've expected more. Some critic: 1) Given the state of our current world, we need breakthroughs in various sectors to maintain stability. So investing into the "top" to - even if only slightly - increasing the chance of getting these, is important 2) Yes, the U.S and lots of other countries (esp western ones) do have a lifestyle problem. And while I 100% agree we should change the school curriculum to tackle this, it is treating the symptoms of covid, not the cause. One cause for example is the wide spread misspread of information, which leads to people believing masks don't help, covid isn't real etc. 20% of the people having covid are responsible for infecting the following 80% of people getting it. These mostly are the people who don't take are precautios measures, because they think it's all a hoax. Than, look how many people, after 4 years, are still voting Trump. I am not a supporter of Biden either, but choosing between these 2, the choice should be easy. So many facts are there about Trump that are just mindblowing, still US citiziens vote them. The U.S. has at its root, an educational problem.
That only furthers his point. Another opportunity to shore up a weak link is in education. If we taught critical thinking and how to check your sources, we'd have a populace that listened to scientists, so they'd wear masks when they were told to. And they wouldn't have voted in Trump, nor would they have voted in McConnell again. So the problem would have been solved even further upstream. That doesn't mean that his low-budget at-home test solution isn't also a valid way to tackle it right now without requiring educational changes, which take generations to propagate through. Covid has now cost us well over a trillion in debt and economic destruction, and those low-budget tests would have cost us only a few billion to implement.
The chemically laden fast food and packaged foods designed to make us want to eat more of those foods are a lot of the problem. These food companies own our government officials. The food regulations in Europe should be observed here. GMOs and many chemicals in food are outlawed in Europe. Bread should not be vitamin enriched and full of preservatives to make it last for weeks instead of a few days. The food in Europe is so much better than the garbage we are fed here in the US. The food and walking/bike riding help the Europeans stay thinner.
One could make the assertion that the Democratic political party uses weak link strategies and policies while Republican (former Republican party not current Trumpian) is a strong link Political party
Hmmmm isn't this a weak link of the "strong link" problem? The weak links were of the west (strong link). If this was only a problem restricted to the east, the world would not have shut down. Love Malcolm Gladwell.
I think football (soccer) managers would do better if they looked at injury prevention rather than post treatment. You can have no weak links in the team but a footballer is more likely to get injured than in almost any other sport. Most injuries occur in the game 15 minutes before the end of the first half and 15 minutes before the end of the second half. This is due to the score line (pressure to score), fatigue usually after 20-25 minutes due to poor breathing patterns leading to mistakes & injuries, previous injuries reopening (particularly hamstrings), various psychological factors & intense playing schedule among others.
Social media has also boosted the "strong link - weak link" disparity in society. The "weak links" have just become a lot more profitable with the constant bombardment on social media apps.
Malcolm Gladwell is a real progressive -minded author. I have bought several of his books. No wonder people listen to him on Ted Talks and buy his books.
This is surely interesting and thought provoking, but if the underlying assumption is true that basketball is a top down sport, then Lebron James would have won 15 straight championships. Just for a moment, when considering whether basketball is a game of errors, let's consider a man named JR Smith.
Brilliant as always. However, the reason to have chosen the prevention path 20 - 30 years ago, which should also include hypercholesterolemia, in addition to the hypertension, diabetes and obesity, would be for the reduction in morbidity and mortality secondary to heart disease itself, which remains the #1 cause of death in the country, now after Covid is no longer a major issue for most people and has been so since the 1920's.
Mr. Gladwell, until you have years and years of medical, public health, and virology education and experience, you shouldn't present yourself as an expert or even remotely qualified to discuss such complex issues. Keep your simplistic sports analogies on the playground where they belong.
So much american money pouring into technology, hospitals, and research is not a result of infrastructure investment. This is money coming from the private sector, the markets. For the simple reason that Health in the US is PROFITABLE. It is a product, like making cars, or mobile phones. That's why Americans pay some bucks for an aspirin, while the rest of the world pays cents for the same pill. This is private money, not the state. There is no centrally managed economy. So, the simple thought that someone could have decided after 2000, let's put some X bilions into Obesity prevention (a thing that would benefit mostly the low-middle, to lowest income classes), instead of putting those bilions into R&D, and hospitals, seems a bit naive. There is no profit into keeping the poor people less obese. It is "Bad for the Economy", and the economy is God down there.
The food industry profits from unhealthy eating habits and so does the health care industry. Well educated and higher earning people generally have more understanding and a healthier lifestyle. The best food, education and healthcare are out of reach for most people.
Advancement in tech and meds has not prepared humans for eventualities especially when they are caught up in the wrong paradigm against an opportunistic enemy like COVID-19. It also came at one of the most polarised era in history.
This is also about more fundamental problems with philanthropy, isn't it? Most of it's just not rational. Prominent causes, e.g pandas in animal conservation, get much more money than obscure ones, but also it's inefficient to just leave it up to individual, scattered philanthropists to be rational or not under their own steam. Rather than doing that, and writing it off against tax, if they really wanted to do good (if), they would pay what they owe in tax and government would at least potentially be able to use part of the money for rational oversight of entire systems, allowing them to make better strategic decisions about where the money goes, based on the kinds of ideas that Gladwell is talking about.
And who is prepared to admit he has changed the way he thinks in face of changing evidence and circumstances, so refreshing and inspiring, paradigm shifts are such a challenge for society and individuals, I know it’s something I’ve always struggled with. Best wishes to you!
Glawell still argues as if the U.S. was dealing with scarcity. If you work towards excellence at the highest level you can't act to strengthen the lower levels. It's a false paradigm. You don't necessarily have to sacrifice pushing forward the work at the world's greatest institutions while neglecting smaller and less prestigious institutions.
i understand that they’re not mutually exclusive, but when thinking of who gets priority, gladwell’s argument stands well that we need to prioritize the most vulnerable & the “weakest link.” humanity is only as healthy as its community & neighbour. likewise, education is a weak link sport too. at this point, you need to prioritize education in impoverished communities not funnel more money into harvard and stanford which at this point are more garnered for rich international kids and haven’t even expanded their number of seats in the past couple of decades despite increasing endowment.
The first western country that was in trouble (huge trouble) from the virus was Italy , which has less than 1 / 3 of the obesity rates of the US. The COVID death rate in Italy per capita has been HIGHER than in the US (100K / 60M vs. 500K / 330M). Understandably, Italy is different than US in many other ways, but it's a huge leap to say that preventing obesity would've solved the problem. He is also not comparing the gains, including lives saved, by doing what we have done.
Hey Malcolm...computer simulations are not proof. Useful yes, but if real life can't mimick computer modeling. Throw it out it isn't reality! Richard Feynman roughly speaking.
Thank you for saying it! The huge elephant in America's Living Room... even with younger people than myself. We're too fat as a country, have too much hypertension and diabetes. My husband and I changed our diets and in our late 50's do not have diabetes or high blood pressure. We are not on medications. It is possible, but Americans want their fast food, their comfort foods, and processed foods. It's not worth it to me.
The myth of exceptionalism plays basketball. But Malcolm, you forgot to include the big cultural aspect of the equation that you present in Outliers. Addressing the 30% percentile has the greater effect on outcome, but unfortunately, in many cultures, this is not the goal. Follow the money.
Malcom, I'm guessing you did not want to stir up controversy, given all that is already stirred up online, but I think ignorance and belief in the ridiculous is probably equally, if not more, responsible for the spread and persistence of the virus. Ironically, if I remember correctly, don't you use the analogy of the virus as a way of spreading information quickly in the Tipping Point? Would love to hear your thoughts on this, either here, or better yet in another video. Thanks for your stimulating ideas.
First world problem - being so rich we over think everything and overlook the tried and true or low-tech ideas. We are in such a rush to flex our money and our might we forget there are other options we can choose. When SARS hit Toronto, it effected the most vulnerable, mostly those in hospitals already. It was stamped out fast enough, but we all too quickly forgot any lessons that crisis may have had for us. We didn't look back to see the pathway forward. That was stupid.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Antigen testing! Have not heard from Gladwell in a while. Started thinking about how he said Cuomo was wonderful and schools will reopen by fall back in March 2020. Basically he had everything wrong. Happy to see he changed his opinions and is still around.
Everyone needs to respect their breath and to learn how to control it & not abuse it. The athletes most in need of this are the “breathe in & out of their mouths” soccer (football) players, Malcolm! Players get fatigued after 20 minutes play, they start to make mistakes at 25-30 min & are more likely to get injured 30-45 minutes in the 1st half & 15 minutes before the end of the second half. Like the Karate Kid, they need to breathe in through the nose & out of the mouth.
We were always going through this pandemic together, but a lot of star players refused to play the game with us, refused to believe, to wear, to slow down, to allow space, to stop playing fast and loose. And then they got frustrated with us and started abusing anyone who didn't want to pretend it wasn't real or downgrade it to a seasonal thing. And then they wanted life to resume at its chaotic pace the second any of the numbers showed even a 1% drop, acting like it's all fine and no one was going to infect them. Stars don't care or take notice of the water boys. Those are the icky people who deserve to die for not being born a star.
It's hard to map out all the bad things that *didn't happen* so its easy to say that the bad thing that *did happen* was bigger. How many bad things were prevented from the high end investments?
He is wrong to suggest face masks were the weak link. The weak link was/is the aged-care sector. 90% of the fatalities were too moribund for intensive care.
well said. But we cant mention GSW in the same sentence as the 90s Bulls. Today's game defense is not allowed and it's volume shooting 3s shooting a bunch of 3s n hoping they go in is not greatest it's luck
Covid is also a weak-link issue in its spread. The prevention of its spread is not dependent on how well/seriously the best individuals wear a mask or self-isolate, but how bad the worst ones do: especially as the majority of individuals are not properly isolating.
The numbers have been played with to induce fear enough to shut down the economies of the world... before they even had tests they were calling cov2 flu deaths as cov.19... we had a shortage in the U.S. as China was buying them up using cash... greedy manufacturers were selling to China over orders already made here... There's a lot of disinformation and if you look at the latest CDC numbers that the MSM isn't talking about, the survivability is much higher than being portrayed. Why ask yourself and do some research rather than listening to corporate run news outlets with an agenda.
Totally agree, at least in the beginning. I can imagine that covid infections in india dropped significantly more than one would have predicted looking at the immunity rate due to this circumstance: First the worst-behaving people account for a lot of the infections, but they are also the ones who get infected first and are therefore immunized.
Revisionist History fans are just here for Malcolm's entrancing voice
I miss Malcolm's voice
I really want to know what he has to say
I would vote for any president that would hire , retain and listen to him!
He's the smartest man in the room.
I would say the wisest.
oh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha yuck yuck yuck Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah…… I think I get the joke
But there are only books in the room.
every single time
every single time mr gladwell blows my mind
he never disappoints! what a joy to listen to
On the face of it I'm not at all sure that you are correct here. Many other countries that do not have the obesity issues that the US has are suffering greatly from covid. Even if, and assuming everything else being equal, the US level of obesity was as it was 20 years ago, the world would still be suffering from a massive covid pandemic. This would result in effects in the US which would be, economically, socially, and from a health perspective, much much worse than a particularly bad flu season.
This lecture goes back to a statement you made in your book The Tipping Point; 'the best thing that government can do is invest in the potential of it's citizens'.
That was one of the lessons of history outlined in Ariel & Will Durant's book, "The Lessons of History".
No, this goes beyond that. It talks about the way to do this and puts forward 2 opposing strategies.
I'm now on my second book written by Mr. Gladwell, I very much enjoy his writing. His lectures are also very informative.
saaaameeee~~
love the talk, wish the conversation about obesity included mental health and support
The strong/weak link perspective is interesting - but it wasnt just a strategic error: its just much easier and probably safer to attempt a solution by some hardware/technical device, some operation, some medicine than to make people change their behaviour. People with obesity dont lack the knowledge about diabetes, blood pressure etc. and not even Corona is a sufficient threat for most of the people with overweight. So we might just have spent millions for courses/information/nutritionists - for no reasonable outcome at all...
Taiwan did exactly what you just share from the beginning and there's only 7 deaths pls never shot down the whole country until now. Be healthy is a must for humanity.
This is a very insightful perspective. Sports make great analogies! Our country would definitely benefit by reducing levels of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. The one point I would challenge is at minute 14:35, "if diabetes and hypertension and obesity were at their year 2000 levels, or better yet at their 1990 levels, we wouldn't have had a COVID crisis. This disease would have looked like simply a bad flu season." I feel that point is contradicted by what happened in China. China has much lower levels of obesity and related health problems, but they still have had a higher rate of morbidity from COVID-19 than previous flu seasons.
1:26 -- Absolutely, the best way to improve your soccer team is to improve your worst player? Why? Because of marginal utility theory -- which those who disparage, despise, & vilify market economics love to hate -- which tells us that the soccer team (in this instance) gets the most value, benefit & advantage from improving its weakest link to the strength of its next weakest link. Interestingly enough, this concept is also what officer candidates were taught more than 50 years ago in the US Army's infantry officers' candidate school, i.e., if you are a commander of a military unit & want to reduce your risk of defeat in a battle you ensure that your reserves are focused first on the weakest of the units in your front line. That's the place where your military adversaries -- if they know your weaknesses & strengths -- will try to break through. This strategy hasn't changed since Alexander the Great.
Amazing! I coached minor hockey and soccer for 30 years and I always coached to elevate the skills of the weaker players. My reasons were different. My theory was the weaker player had more room to grow so I could greater increase the mean skill level by focusing on the basic skills and the weaker players. I had no idea this weakest link theory applied so I was doing the right thing for different reasons. Big fan of MG since spaghetti sauce. Enjoyed Talking to Strangers.
It's not just that he is brilliant, it's that he looks at things in such a unique and interesting way.
Independent of COVID-19, I took a lot away from this video. I've never been able to articulate the strong/weak link paradigms as perfectly as soccer/bball.
Brilliant! I am into what he says and it is what we call in education as providing the OPPORTUNITY to each student to succeed and discover his/ her full potential!
It seems to me that this is the perfect argument for universal health care.
Agreed. However, who really benefits from universal health care, aka Obamacare? The insurance industry!
It's telling that his thoughtfulness is matched (if not surpassed), by his social concern. His books have sold enough that he could just content himself to be another public intellectual, but he is genuinely concerned about the welfare of his fellow citizens.
What he is saying is garbage. If he was actually concerned about the welfare of his fellow citizens, he would say 'I know nothing about pandemics. You need to listen to people who know what they are talking about.' That is exactly what the US did not do.
He is saying he will send people to you home that will force you to work out. Or take drugs. Because its good for society and not for you. Insanity
Who knows anything about pandemics?
We put sugar in EVERYTHING.
Coconut water without sugar: $3.50, coconut water with sugar: $2.00.
this is the dumbest thin I've heard in a while. He doesn't have a clue.
Nonetheless, it would be beneficial to mitigate the spread of these kinds of viruses in the future. Obesity and diabetes will take a while to reduce.
Should be mandatory viewing for all policy makers.
He said he want to send a social worker to your home and force you to work out because its good society, not you. Isnt that insanity?
Smartest man in the room indeed. We need more views on this video. Share Share. Shared.
Isn't it also that the three diseases he talks about are a result of economic distress and not having the resources to buy the right food. If I am making $10 an hour, what are my options for healthy choices?
Many of the items you describe are on demand production items and international trade routes and production were disrupted. In addition many of these inexpensive items are costly to store or warehouse. They break down or get moldy. The competency and will of the Trump administration meant that states and municipalities were bidding against each other in the supply chain to manufacture and deliver needed items. Every other country had the same shortages. In poorer countries they lacked the financial resources to purchase these items. But when dealing with the rich nations the U.S. which had a great deal of expertise even among the bottom (small town public health units can be very good) there was an incompetent person leading the federal response and coordination.
The irony is that blaming others gets you more votes
Why go through all of those changes when you could just go to the food industry where food is processed and advertised to create unhealthy addiction.
Fix the problem at the source.
Advertisement and technology both claim they are giving people what they want, but in fact they create and giving people what they want them to have.
Not everyone wants to upgrade their phone every two years, just like most of us don't plan to eat as many chips as we end up eating 🤔
amazing analogy...I love his books...brilliant thinker..still, I think some of the analogies wouldnt work here in Spain, where I live..precisely because we dont have particular obesity or diabetes problems, and age expectancy is 83 years (in the world top three I think) , covid almost wiped out our elders (add also many mistakes and underestimations made here)
however, totally agree on the whole paradigm
I agree, he needed to look at other countries to make this solid. But perhaps some of it's universal. Here in the UK, we have the cheaper kinds of tests he's talking about - lateral flow tests - but they're just optional things you can buy if you want to. Especially now with the more dangerous and infectious Delta variant, it would probably make sense to make these mandatory for offices and schools, at least every few days.
10:08 please listen, 11:46, 13:15 most important, crucial facts for the next pendamic. Please pass this around 🙏
Shared.
I think u forgot income disparities is what made the comorbidies more pronounced
gym membership, yes, please subsidize it ... I'd go regularly but I can no longer afford it AND I'm 90 pounds over weight. Unheard of for me, but now at middle age I'm obese
What you are proposing as an alternative way, while the only wise paradigm in the moment of pandemic, is not compatible with the capitalistic ambitions of the US, which is very strongly strong-link unfortunately
We all listen to people giving opinions on everything, opinions that add no value. And then there is Malcolm Gladwell. What a relief that a guy like him exists and still talks to us. Thank you Malcolm.
Lol, bit harsh on Aussie basketballers! Although as a tall skinny Aussie I’m more than happy to be plucked off the street and paid big dollars to lumber around the court, hit me up NBA...
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Thanks so much for all the great input as how we can prevent yet we are apprehensive. It's so easy to sit, than get up and work out. Choose a better food group that works best for us. You are very right. I want to see how much we learned from this for the next one
Understand that there are 2 type strategy on how to improve your team:
- weak link team (soccer)
- strong link team (basket ball).
To improve your organization/sector, understand the type of the strategy appropriate to your organization/sector/problem to success.
Regarding COVID, its 'weak link' type. Improve the deficiency elements on this sector (basic things e.g. mask, nasal swab, comorbid)
I like to hear Malcom Gladwell because allows us to be lazy thinkers. Here's the dark side which I am guessing he may admit to. He cannot anticipate a motive with certainty what someone is thinking while in motion and because he after all is just an observer, like the rest of us.
Educated people are prone to denial or an avoidance of putting themselves at a mentally vulnerable position. If you look at Judge Judy or Dr. Phil you will see an all you can eat book filler for guys like Malcolm Gladwell when we all know that no producer in their right mind would put someone who would school them as TV stars during an episode. Their not idiots they are very intelligent and that is the basic problem with book authors and professional entertainment mediums. By the way Judge Judy, Doctor Phil and of course Malcom Gladwell are hoots.
You could use your own judgement and Malcolm as a final inspection point but that is still suspect. Maybe buy his book then we'll all be satisfied.
I really like listening to Malcolm Gladwell but some of his comments in this video didn't age well.
At the time of his videos the ICUs weren't overrun but that is a problem now.
The antigen test in every home "spit on a stick" before work was really amplified by Elon Musk who took 4 antigen tests back-to-back-to-back-to-back (each within 20 mins) and got 2 positives and 2 negatives. The same has been seen with the "first cruise" which required a test 48 hours before going and it broke out in covid. Malcolm wasn't wrong because an antigen test in every home would help more than it hurt but he might have oversimplified it.
Lastly, he couldn't have predicted the newer strain that appears to be more infectious, so when he says "the pandemic would be over by now", it wouldn't have been, unfortunately.
This is incredibly fascinating. Also frustrating, because it makes you realize just how preventable this monster of a pandemic was and is.
Interesting concept, but very one sided argument logic. Would've expected more.
Some critic:
1) Given the state of our current world, we need breakthroughs in various sectors to maintain stability. So investing into the "top" to - even if only slightly - increasing the chance of getting these, is important
2) Yes, the U.S and lots of other countries (esp western ones) do have a lifestyle problem. And while I 100% agree we should change the school curriculum to tackle this, it is treating the symptoms of covid, not the cause. One cause for example is the wide spread misspread of information, which leads to people believing masks don't help, covid isn't real etc.
20% of the people having covid are responsible for infecting the following 80% of people getting it. These mostly are the people who don't take are precautios measures, because they think it's all a hoax.
Than, look how many people, after 4 years, are still voting Trump. I am not a supporter of Biden either, but choosing between these 2, the choice should be easy. So many facts are there about Trump that are just mindblowing, still US citiziens vote them.
The U.S. has at its root, an educational problem.
also sorry for the typos, I'm not a native english speaker
That only furthers his point. Another opportunity to shore up a weak link is in education. If we taught critical thinking and how to check your sources, we'd have a populace that listened to scientists, so they'd wear masks when they were told to. And they wouldn't have voted in Trump, nor would they have voted in McConnell again. So the problem would have been solved even further upstream.
That doesn't mean that his low-budget at-home test solution isn't also a valid way to tackle it right now without requiring educational changes, which take generations to propagate through. Covid has now cost us well over a trillion in debt and economic destruction, and those low-budget tests would have cost us only a few billion to implement.
I concur with everything he's saying
Malcolm, the solution is to break up the monopolies of food production and processed food.
The chemically laden fast food and packaged foods designed to make us want to eat more of those foods are a lot of the problem. These food companies own our government officials. The food regulations in Europe should be observed here. GMOs and many chemicals in food are outlawed in Europe. Bread should not be vitamin enriched and full of preservatives to make it last for weeks instead of a few days. The food in Europe is so much better than the garbage we are fed here in the US. The food and walking/bike riding help the Europeans stay thinner.
One could make the assertion that the Democratic political party uses weak link strategies and policies while Republican (former Republican party not current Trumpian) is a strong link Political party
Hmmmm isn't this a weak link of the "strong link" problem?
The weak links were of the west (strong link).
If this was only a problem restricted to the east, the world would not have shut down.
Love Malcolm Gladwell.
I think football (soccer) managers would do better if they looked at injury prevention rather than post treatment. You can have no weak links in the team but a footballer is more likely to get injured than in almost any other sport.
Most injuries occur in the game 15 minutes before the end of the first half and 15 minutes before the end of the second half. This is due to the score line (pressure to score), fatigue usually after 20-25 minutes due to poor breathing patterns leading to mistakes & injuries, previous injuries reopening (particularly hamstrings), various psychological factors & intense playing schedule among others.
Just get rid of fast food instead of masks and vaccines.
This guy just said he want to send people into your livingroom that will force you to work out. Because its good for society. This is insanity.
Social media has also boosted the "strong link - weak link" disparity in society. The "weak links" have just become a lot more profitable with the constant bombardment on social media apps.
Malcolm Gladwell is a real progressive -minded author. I have bought several of his books. No wonder people listen to him on
Ted Talks and buy his books.
This is surely interesting and thought provoking, but if the underlying assumption is true that basketball is a top down sport, then Lebron James would have won 15 straight championships. Just for a moment, when considering whether basketball is a game of errors, let's consider a man named JR Smith.
Brilliant as always. However, the reason to have chosen the prevention path 20 - 30 years ago, which should also include hypercholesterolemia, in addition to the hypertension, diabetes and obesity, would be for the reduction in morbidity and mortality secondary to heart disease itself, which remains the #1 cause of death in the country, now after Covid is no longer a major issue for most people and has been so since the 1920's.
we need a Malcolm and Yuval seminar with various topics...simply amazing
I jut came from a Yuval ted talk lol
I like both of them.
So, trickle up?
Mr. Gladwell, until you have years and years of medical, public health, and virology education and experience, you shouldn't present yourself as an expert or even remotely qualified to discuss such complex issues. Keep your simplistic sports analogies on the playground where they belong.
So much american money pouring into technology, hospitals, and research is not a result of infrastructure investment. This is money coming from the private sector, the markets. For the simple reason that Health in the US is PROFITABLE. It is a product, like making cars, or mobile phones. That's why Americans pay some bucks for an aspirin, while the rest of the world pays cents for the same pill. This is private money, not the state. There is no centrally managed economy. So, the simple thought that someone could have decided after 2000, let's put some X bilions into Obesity prevention (a thing that would benefit mostly the low-middle, to lowest income classes), instead of putting those bilions into R&D, and hospitals, seems a bit naive. There is no profit into keeping the poor people less obese. It is "Bad for the Economy", and the economy is God down there.
The food industry profits from unhealthy eating habits and so does the health care industry.
Well educated and higher earning people generally have more understanding and a healthier lifestyle.
The best food, education and healthcare are out of reach for most people.
So brilliant and so correct if you can think clearly.
Advancement in tech and meds has not prepared humans for eventualities especially when they are caught up in the wrong paradigm against an opportunistic enemy like COVID-19. It also came at one of the most polarised era in history.
Brilliant as always !
Putting this into practice would kill America's junk food industry. Good luck with that. :-)
This is also about more fundamental problems with philanthropy, isn't it? Most of it's just not rational. Prominent causes, e.g pandas in animal conservation, get much more money than obscure ones, but also it's inefficient to just leave it up to individual, scattered philanthropists to be rational or not under their own steam. Rather than doing that, and writing it off against tax, if they really wanted to do good (if), they would pay what they owe in tax and government would at least potentially be able to use part of the money for rational oversight of entire systems, allowing them to make better strategic decisions about where the money goes, based on the kinds of ideas that Gladwell is talking about.
This is off topic but I cringed when the Larry Bird/Celtics team didn't get a mention,
That's where I thought he was going to go also but for the Lakers (I'm an Angeleno at heart ;-p)!
Glad i found this
amazing video
Just curious, is "American football" a strong or weak link sport?
Little did he know that next year would not be better. In fact it was worse than 2020 in many parts of the country.
So smart! Such a relief to hear somebody who thinks differently about things.
And who is prepared to admit he has changed the way he thinks in face of changing evidence and circumstances, so refreshing and inspiring, paradigm shifts are such a challenge for society and individuals, I know it’s something I’ve always struggled with. Best wishes to you!
There is a generation whose teeth are as knives, whose jawbones are as swords, to wipe the poor and needy from among men"🤐🤔✝️
Glawell still argues as if the U.S. was dealing with scarcity. If you work towards excellence at the highest level you can't act to strengthen the lower levels. It's a false paradigm. You don't necessarily have to sacrifice pushing forward the work at the world's greatest institutions while neglecting smaller and less prestigious institutions.
🤔 huh.?
i understand that they’re not mutually exclusive, but when thinking of who gets priority, gladwell’s argument stands well that we need to prioritize the most vulnerable & the “weakest link.” humanity is only as healthy as its community & neighbour. likewise, education is a weak link sport too. at this point, you need to prioritize education in impoverished communities not funnel more money into harvard and stanford which at this point are more garnered for rich international kids and haven’t even expanded their number of seats in the past couple of decades despite increasing endowment.
Excellent analysis.. 👌
The first western country that was in trouble (huge trouble) from the virus was Italy , which has less than 1 / 3 of the obesity rates of the US. The COVID death rate in Italy per capita has been HIGHER than in the US (100K / 60M vs. 500K / 330M). Understandably, Italy is different than US in many other ways, but it's a huge leap to say that preventing obesity would've solved the problem. He is also not comparing the gains, including lives saved, by doing what we have done.
Hey Malcolm...computer simulations are not proof. Useful yes, but if real life can't mimick computer modeling. Throw it out it isn't reality! Richard Feynman roughly speaking.
Thank you for saying it! The huge elephant in America's Living Room... even with younger people than myself. We're too fat as a country, have too much hypertension and diabetes. My husband and I changed our diets and in our late 50's do not have diabetes or high blood pressure. We are not on medications.
It is possible, but Americans want their fast food, their comfort foods, and processed foods. It's not worth it to me.
Thank you!
The myth of exceptionalism plays basketball. But Malcolm, you forgot to include the big cultural aspect of the equation that you present in Outliers. Addressing the 30% percentile has the greater effect on outcome, but unfortunately, in many cultures, this is not the goal. Follow the money.
You make it all sound so easy. Our next PM could use your intelligence.
Malcom, I'm guessing you did not want to stir up controversy, given all that is already stirred up online, but I think ignorance and belief in the ridiculous is probably equally, if not more, responsible for the spread and persistence of the virus. Ironically, if I remember correctly, don't you use the analogy of the virus as a way of spreading information quickly in the Tipping Point? Would love to hear your thoughts on this, either here, or better yet in another video. Thanks for your stimulating ideas.
First world problem - being so rich we over think everything and overlook the tried and true or low-tech ideas. We are in such a rush to flex our money and our might we forget there are other options we can choose. When SARS hit Toronto, it effected the most vulnerable, mostly those in hospitals already. It was stamped out fast enough, but we all too quickly forgot any lessons that crisis may have had for us. We didn't look back to see the pathway forward. That was stupid.
I think media gives you a little more space than it should.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Antigen testing!
Have not heard from Gladwell in a while. Started thinking about how he said Cuomo was wonderful and schools will reopen by fall back in March 2020. Basically he had everything wrong.
Happy to see he changed his opinions and is still around.
Brilliant mind
Beautiful!
So much wisdom. My goodness. Way to go Canada.
I'm not too sure about the dissing of Andrew Bogut and Luc Longley - great players.
Everyone needs to respect their breath and to learn how to control it & not abuse it. The athletes most in need of this are the “breathe in & out of their mouths” soccer (football) players, Malcolm! Players get fatigued after 20 minutes play, they start to make mistakes at 25-30 min & are more likely to get injured 30-45 minutes in the 1st half & 15 minutes before the end of the second half. Like the Karate Kid, they need to breathe in through the nose & out of the mouth.
We were always going through this pandemic together, but a lot of star players refused to play the game with us, refused to believe, to wear, to slow down, to allow space, to stop playing fast and loose. And then they got frustrated with us and started abusing anyone who didn't want to pretend it wasn't real or downgrade it to a seasonal thing. And then they wanted life to resume at its chaotic pace the second any of the numbers showed even a 1% drop, acting like it's all fine and no one was going to infect them. Stars don't care or take notice of the water boys. Those are the icky people who deserve to die for not being born a star.
Andrew bogut wasn’t a hack.
I couldn't agree more with Malcolm, that we misfired on the Covid pandemic management because of of our strong link paradigm.
It's hard to map out all the bad things that *didn't happen* so its easy to say that the bad thing that *did happen* was bigger.
How many bad things were prevented from the high end investments?
He is wrong to suggest face masks were the weak link. The weak link was/is the aged-care sector. 90% of the fatalities were too moribund for intensive care.
We cant focus on all those weak links because most of that is all LIFE STYLE related....personal choice
why should there be anext time...just get the poooopulation under control..without these cruel draonian. cull of the poor
Malcom, why weren't you my professor in college???😗
That was too disrespectful to Luc Longley, he was pretty good
well said. But we cant mention GSW in the same sentence as the 90s Bulls. Today's game defense is not allowed and it's volume shooting 3s shooting a bunch of 3s n hoping they go in is not greatest it's luck
"if we had the obesity and diabetes level of 1990, we wouldn't have a pandemic" ... wow
And in 1990 we were saying everyone was fat!!!)
He's saying it would be as lethal.
amazing thanks!
Oh oh taliking about socialism
This didn't age well.
I think programming is a weak link game too. it's obvious if you don't want to hire mediocre programmers it means you think it's a weak link game.
Oh God, I just realised how this connects to the Soviet economy in the 1970s...
just let the weak links die I mean what’s the big deal they are more or less choosing their fate