So here's the short of it,
A great evening with Malcolm Gladwell...

And here's the long

 Tonight Malcolm Gladwell was the speaker for the Hunter lecture series. I've read The Tipping Point, and Blink, but after tonight I want to read them again.  Alan went down quite early and got us a place near the front of the line.  I joined him soon after and we got really good seats in the main auditorium.  They announced that it was the largest crowd ever for the Hunter lecture - they filled the Roland Hays auditorium and 4 overflow auditoriums, as well as a couple of classrooms!

His topic was leadership and the cost of what he called overconfidence.  I have a couple of take aways to share.


The first thing that really caught my attention was his notion that we shouldn't go through this great financial calamity without understanding the lessons we were supposed to learn.  I thought that is so true about any of the difficulties we face - we need to be sure we get those lessons.

The other take away was that the finanicial crisis was caused by intelligent, competent, and savvy people - people who were well respected and who knew what they were doing.

He went on to talk about the difference in outcomes between ordinary incompetent people and the experts who are overconfident.  The one annoys him, the other terrifies him.

I loved his metaphor using the Battle of Chancellorsville in the Civil War.  And I loved the references to Robert E. Lee. 

What a thought provoking evening - and how lovely to attend with Alan!