Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Malcolm Gladwell and Wendy Kaminer

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415161718
from: Malcolm Gladwell

Re: Unintended consequences & Does size ma

Posted Friday, June 12, 1998, at 3:58 PM ET

I'm just as squeamish as you do about third party liability suits. (Besides, if you're going to sue anyone, shouldn't you sue the makers of the bullets?) The genius detail, though, is that advertisements for TEC-9 pistol describe the gun as having "excellent resistance to fingerprints." How do you suppose, will Charlton Heston explain that one? I once wrote a story about the assault weapons ban (arguing, perhaps a little too tendentiously, that the ban made us worse off because it removed relatively wimpy weapons from the streets--assault weapons use small calibre ammunition--and replaced them with much more deadly weapons, like, for example, deer hunting rifles) and in the course of reporting the story had lots of very straightforward discussions with gun nuts on things like the relative "stopping power" of various kinds of machine pistols. After I got off the phone with those guys, I felt like taking a shower. The guys who make cigarettes can, at least, claim that their product brings people a deal of genuine pleasure before it kills them. The gun makers can only claim that their product brings people a great deal of pleasure before it kills someone else, which is to say that, my reservations notwithstanding, I probably feel a lot less strongly about suing them than suing the cigarette people. . . My favorite Times page, the obituaries, did not disappoint today. Sarkis Soultanian, 57, headed a company that monitors the energy and phone bills of companies. What an excellent idea. Do you think that his company would take me on as a customer? I once sat next to a guy on a plane who had made millions of dollars doing what he called light consulting, which is going into companies and rearranging the lights in their offices and plants so that you didn't need as many burning at one time. I'm convinced that the thing that separates rich people from people who merely want to be rich is that the latter group thinks that they need to come up with a big idea to be rich while former realize that all you need is one really great small idea. And the only way that people like you and me ever find out about those great small ideas, it seems, is on the Times obit page. It's the bulletin board for the niche millionaire.

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415161718
from: Malcolm Gladwell

Re: Unintended consequences & Does size ma

Posted Friday, June 12, 1998, at 3:58 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Wendy Kaminer is a fellow at Radcliffe College.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post