Malcolm Gladwell says you need 10,000 hours of doing something to achieve success at it. So as of today, I'm only about 9,974 hours away from getting people to stop taking Malcolm Gladwell seriously. The first 25 or so hours, I spent reporting and writing a piece for the Observer in 2006. Today I added maybe another hour of work for The Awl (though we spent some of that time on Adam Gopnik) trying to deal with Gladwell's insane contention that Rick Pitino and his 1996 Kentucky Wildcats were basketball overachievers, who defeated more-talented Goliaths through innovative strategy. Really. Poor Rick Pitino was stuck with only one player who went on to be an NBA All-Star. Only one future All-Star! How could any team succeed at college basketball with so little talent going for it?
