There’s a review[1] on Amazon that speaks to the kind of books Gladwell writes, and it's both funny and perhaps contains a shred of truth. It goes:
”There's a school of thought that runs something like this: the average US citizen isn't very bright, has a limited attention span, and has an appetite only for the superficial. So if you want to write a book about something you feel to be important, you have to sugar the pill - with lots and lots of sugar and make sure it's a very small pill indeed.
Hence the style "American-Folksy." In this genre the author leads the reader gently along by means of first-person narrative, tons of anecdote, and just the gentlest hint of new information here and there. The lexicon is undemanding and the pace is calculated to be just brisk enough to prevent the onset of catatonia while being leisurely enough not to require any strenuous intellectual activity on the part of the reader. It's basically DisneyWords.
This is a well-tried genre used across a wide variety of subjects. In Search of Excellence and The Omnivore's Dilemma both use the same style despite their contexts being very different. And Weiner uses American-Folksy here for precisely the same reasons and to precisely the same effect. The purpose of American-Folksy is to take something that could have made a somewhat interesting 6-page monograph and stretch it out into a book-length peregrination.”
Best advice I ever saw about dealing with recruiters, from someone on this site, though I don't remember who you are; sorry, internet-friend:
Hi $recruiter,
I appreciate you taking the time to reach
out about this opportunity. Luckily, I am
quite happy at $current_employer and not
currently pursuing other options. I do
have one question for you, though. Right
now, what would a typical salary range
look like for someone with my background
and level of experience for a position
like this?
Thanks,
greggyb
I'd say anecdotally that I get an answer more than half the time with a salary range, sometimes based on the position they're hiring for, and sometimes their ballpark based on my profile.
It's not scientific, but it is helpful to keep a pulse on the types of opportunities and compensation available.
What definition does "assignment" have other than "a binding of a name to a definition"?
Keep in mind that there are at least three popular definitions of the = operator:
1. In C or C++, = handles assignment and mutation (no re-assignment):
int x = 1; /* assignment */
x = 2; /* mutation */
2. In Python, = handles assignment and re-assignment (no mutation):
x = [1] # assignment
x = [2] # re-assignment
3. In Haskell, = handles assignment (no re-assignment or mutation)
let x = 1 in
Just because Haskell's = operator does not behave like C's = operator is no reason to claim Haskell does not support assignment. In fact, that is the only thing Haskell's = operator supports.
”There's a school of thought that runs something like this: the average US citizen isn't very bright, has a limited attention span, and has an appetite only for the superficial. So if you want to write a book about something you feel to be important, you have to sugar the pill - with lots and lots of sugar and make sure it's a very small pill indeed.
Hence the style "American-Folksy." In this genre the author leads the reader gently along by means of first-person narrative, tons of anecdote, and just the gentlest hint of new information here and there. The lexicon is undemanding and the pace is calculated to be just brisk enough to prevent the onset of catatonia while being leisurely enough not to require any strenuous intellectual activity on the part of the reader. It's basically DisneyWords.
This is a well-tried genre used across a wide variety of subjects. In Search of Excellence and The Omnivore's Dilemma both use the same style despite their contexts being very different. And Weiner uses American-Folksy here for precisely the same reasons and to precisely the same effect. The purpose of American-Folksy is to take something that could have made a somewhat interesting 6-page monograph and stretch it out into a book-length peregrination.”
[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3KMN29SZX9ZKS/re...