What world awaits Gen Z? | Malcolm Gladwell

[nelsonic]

https://youtu.be/2AaQn3FOrfY

Gonna listen to this when doing house work later. 🎧 ⏳

[nelsonic]

This was a very interesting/insightful talk. Skip the questions, they aren't.
The take away is this:

Gladwell provides a useful sports analogy for his argument: the success of sports teams is dependent on different team dynamics depending on the sport.

In Basketball 🏀 there are only 5 people on the court and often 3 or more of those players will play the whole game. He mentions the 2 greatest Basketball teams in history: 90's Chicago Bulls: Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and the GOAT Michael Jordan and a couple of other "tall people" (good players only obsessed fans can remember):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Bulls#1984%E2%80%931993:_Michael_Jordan_era_begins

By some metrics Michael Jordan takes 6 of the top 10 spots for points in an NBA season:
https://nbamath.com/progressive-goat-rankings/

The rules of the game have changes significantly since Jordan last played in the NBA,
which has allowed more recent players to have more impressive stats.

VOX's "How the 3-point line is breaking basketball": https://youtu.be/2p3NIR8LYoo summarises this well.

don't go down the NBA "GOAT" YT rabbit hole unless you're suuuper into sports and have a hour to burn ... ⏳ 🙄

Gladwell's point is this: basketball is a "Strongest Link" sport where the star player makes the team. ⭐
So investing heavily in the strongest player is the key to success. He refers to this mindset as "Strongest Link Teams".

By contrast Football ⚽ ("soccer") is a sport where a mistake by the weakest player
can easily cost the team the match as the opposing team capitalises on the fumbled pass to score a winning goal.

Gladwell supports his argument referencing the book "The Numbers Game":
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/24/numbers-game-everything-football-wrong

This isn't the place to debate who the GOAT in Football ("soccer") is ...
https://time.com/6240741/messi-ronaldo-greatest-of-all-time-stats-comparison/
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10059048-theres-no-debate-now-lionel-messi-is-the-goat-after-world-cup-final-master-class
“It’s always going to be Messi.” ~ Lex 21:21

Most western society invests resources into their "strongest players",
e.g. the already well-endowed schools & universities get more money/donations from wealthy benefactors.
Harvard already has a $53Bn endowment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University_endowment
and yet billionaires continue to pour money in each year.
e.g: Hansjörg Wyss Makes $350 Million Gift To Harvard University:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2022/10/21/hansjrg-wyss-makes-350-million-gift-to-harvard-university

I find the argument Gladwell makes in this talk compelling.
Sadly the leaders & policy makers don't understand the Strongest Link vs Weakest Link dichotomy.
But I've been advocating for it my whole adult life.
Your team is only as strong as it's weakest player. 🔗
Communities, Schools, Businesses, Governments & Countries are only as strong as the weakest player.
So we should be continuously investing in helping the weakest player to improve/succeed.