863: Major in the Universe

Major in the Universe

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Title text: I hear Steven Levitt is writing a book analyzing A.J. Jacobs' quest to spend a year reading everything Malcolm Gladwell ever wrote. The audiobook will be narrated by Robert Krulwich of Radiolab.

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Explanation

Several authors are referenced here. Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian author who wrote such books as "The Tipping Point", "Outliers" and "Blink." His works tend to cover a wide range of topics, usually tied together by a common thread. For example, in Blink, a motif of intuitive judgments ties together the examples of the Getty kouros, John Gottman's marriage studies, the Millennium Challenge war game, speed dating, and Paul Ekman's FACS, to name a few.

Gladwell's books are highly popular for being entertaining and eloquent, but are sometimes criticized for addressing the various subjects superficially, providing an incomplete picture, which may be used to draw overly broad conclusions.

Steven Levitt is one of the co-authors of the book Freakonomics and the Freakonomics blog on NYTimes.com.

Robert Krulwich is a science correspondent for NPR (National Public Radio, for those outside of the US) and a co-host of the show Radiolab.

A. J. Jacobs is a journalist who immerses himself in different ideas and lives them out for periods of time. For example, he lived for a year according to all the rules in the bible literally.

In this comic, Cueball as a college student, meeting with his adviser or professor (Hairbun) trying to decide what to major in. He decides to major in "The Universe", but when his adviser details the real work required of that major, Cueball scratches his head and responds that he just wants to "read Malcolm Gladwell books and drink". This suggests that he wants to be exposed to multiple ideas, in a simple, accessible, and entertaining way, but is unwilling to study and research deeply enough to become truly educated in any of them.

Randall is making fun of people who claim to have a broad range of interests, but apparently only want to deflect attention from the fact that they are too lazy to master any specific subject.

The authors and presenters in the title text are all known for creating content that deals with intellectual content, but produce it for a general audience, rather than for academics or experts. In consequence, they generally don't deal with the kinds of details, data, and methodology required to genuinely understand a topic, instead presenting a polished narrative with conclusions already drawn, and just enough data to support those conclusions. These kinds of writers tend to be popular with readers who consider themselves to be educated and curious, but the implicit danger is that people might imagine that they're gaining a real education, rather that just receiving high-brow entertainment.

Transcript

[Cueball before a professor.]

Cueball: How can I pick a major? I'm interested in everything! Can't I major in "the universe"?

Professor: Okay. First, I'll need papers on every European trade summit that did not result in an agreement. Then, spend a year memorizing every microprocessor instruction set ever used in a production chip.

[Cueball scratches head.]

Cueball: What I meant was I just want to read Malcolm Gladwell books and drink.

Professor: We all do, sweetie.

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Discussion

If all else fails, you could always become an artist. Davidy²²[talk] 10:03, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

What does that mean? That art is a "backup" field that anyone can do? Art is one of the only things I think I would be unable to succeed at, no matter how hard I tried. Like saying "you could always become a professional basketball player." You just can't. 108.162.219.7 23:58, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

On the contrary, art is a form of self expression, therefore anyone can do it (according to my old art teacher). It’s like singing. Anyone can sing, although the results may not be the same as a person who can sing "better" than you, but if you can make a noise with your mouth then you can still claim you're singing. Brenda (talk) 08:21, 10 July 2018 (UTC)

I thought if all else fails you become a teacher? ~JFreund

If all else fails, become a bureaucrat. MeZimm (talk)

I know I'm late, but isn't the professor Hairbun? Nitpicking (talk) 03:14, 8 September 2021 (UTC)
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