David Epstein in Conversation with Malcolm Gladwell

Join bestselling author David Epstein in conversation with Malcolm Gladwell for an engrossing discussion about Epstein’s book, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Recorded May 30, 2019 at 92nd Street Y.

[deidrekellogg]

Fascinating conversation. As a former professional ballerina who was “discovered and chosen” at age 5.5, and was “forced” into the exclusive world of elite ballet training, even being banned from doing recreational things such as downhill skiing, and just about anything that could cause injury or undo my intense physical training. Sadly, I not only burned out, but was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at age 20 (I turned professional at age 16). As an adult I have taken the opposite approach, and have worked in a variety of fields including teaching & artistic coaching, medicine, politics, advocacy, human rights, social justice, and Disability Rights. Sadly (?), I never made it to the top of any field I have worked in...🤦🏼‍♀️

[deidrekellogg]

What a great combination of brilliance and decency! I am a longtime Malcolm Gladwell fan, and now a new fan of David Epstein’s. I’m looking forward to reading his new book “Range.”

[faithmutheu]

It's amazing how accomodating they both are of each others' ideas even when some are seemingly 180 degrees out of phase. I have read both Outliers and Range and I think both books have their own place in the world. Planet Earth needs more of such a beautiful combination of brilliance and tolerance👌

[JAYDUBYAH]

they're both so tiny, and brilliant and kind.

[abhinavsingh]

“Presumably you could keep searching, forever” was meant to say, “One can’t keep searching”, and hence what should be the stopping rule. But Epstein responded to the question for himself. Gladwell smiled because even though his question was misunderstood, he was going to get a great answer. 46:08

[ms.mn]

What a charming intro: their exchange of criticism that birthed their love 😅🥰

[TouMuchMediaFM]

They just validated every person with ADHD’s experience ever

[mmendi]

The degree of humility these two posses, so rooted, so tolerant, so just wonderful

[toucandoit]

this is an interview worth watching once and then go experiment in your life, then come back once more and learn something new.

[the_Analogist]

i hate when people like this are ignorant of the Sudbury Model of K-12

[izzyjones]

Range is a really good book! I enjoyed it immensely. I'm going to re read it soon.

[DustinMillerPolyInnovator]

The audio is really quiet I had to turn volume all the way up, a little bit of audio enhancing would make the quality of this video better. Quick reupload. ;)

[donedennison]

Not finished watching, but I wanted to get this out before I forget it. As a polymath, I find it really interested that the idea of variety as a key to performance, kind of endearingly naive. Most of society REALLY wants people to stick to "their lane." And those who teach, weirdly resist any other method than the one they use. It'd be great if they just stopped "training bureaucrats" which is what the current system was designed to do.

[dr.scorpiopus]

These two men are very well spoken and just as considerate.

[ubaydullomirzahojaev]

Range is great book! Just finished it.

[trevorndhlovu]

Malcolm Gladwell did a fantastic job in this interview❤

[chicherannah]

Sir Epstein's talk is very similar to sir Ken Robinson's talk about finding the element. And i love it ❤

And when he mentioned "self regulatory learners are the best learners", unschooled or democratic schooled kids that was mentioned by sir robinsons came to mind.

[mariogutierrez]

Tim Duncan is another example of an NBA player who specialized later. He was a swimmer with little interest in basketball.

[markgreenhough]

In reference to Malcom’s comment people racing a car. I was always amazed at people racing steam engines at the turn of the century. And it seemed to be a spectacle. And a horse racing a train. Am I wrong?

[peacefulisland]

"Know Thyself" means doing the action and the reflection. Without reflection we can't know anything. It's all just superficial data in unruly quantities.
So, no, one doesn't know themselves just performing actions, functions; "choosing" an activity or career. It's the result that matters. Looking at the average western human, we don't tend to account for the results of what we do, at least not longer than a few seconds inside the individual bubble.