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Looked Into
The whole world is tipping and blinking because of rockstar MG, and who am I to deny his powers of encapsulation? Since he's been manufacturing theories faster than the JustBorn factory makes Peeps, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there's a brand-new one ready to blow the minds of Oprah and C.O.O.s alike. I'll see if I can convey it coherently to you—I feel so tippy already! (Tipping-pointy takes too long to say, and it always makes me think of the Steve Martin poem: "O pointy birds, o pointy pointy/Anoint my head, anointy nointy.") OK, this is the gist. The blinky thing works pretty well for initial relationship judgments, e.g. I know a louse when I see him. But after you've been involved with someone for a while, it's awfully hard to tell if it's going to last; we're all prone to (as he likes to say) mind blindness. Leave it to Gladwell to pinpoint a technique we've all been using but didn't know it: discerning commitment via concrete physical signals.
This isn't the body language code we had so much fun with in the seventies. It's simpler than that (but, this being Gladwell, infinitely more complex as well, natch). Say you're wondering if the person you've been seeing is interested in more than a casual affair. How do you know? Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology once again, Gladwell breaks it down instinct by instinct. You might be tempted to trust your sweetie's gaze, for instance; eyes may be windows to the soul, but they have deceptively patterned curtains. Same goes for his visage generally, not to mention those theatrical exhalations and comforting hugs—charisma ain't devotion.
Basically, you can't really go by the way someone acts toward you; ultimately, humans need to judge each other by a single standard, another "adaptive unconscious," if you will, and it may be a surprising one. It's the ultimate thin-slicing: the locus of affection is in oscular delivery. I can't do it justice, though; you'll have to take it from him, particularly because, somewhat surprisingly, he repeatedly expresses concern that his message is not being properly listened to.
Look for Gladwell's newest epidoozy on the special table at superstores near you—judging from the galley, it's going to be as massive as the other two. It's called Shoop...catchy.
The Spin Myth [New Yorker, via Gladwell.com]
Categories: Gladwell
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Hello! We are media enthusiasts and culture addicts—not to mention classically trained (as we like to say) professional journalists. This is our collection of generally civilized conversations about magazines, movies, politics, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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