Malcolm Gladwell on shorter attention spans, inherent unfairness, and the selfie.

From an interview with Malcolm Gladwell in The Guardian comes a few of his more interesting comments:

I don’t know why people think attention spans are getting shorter. Thirty years ago, you could go and get a sandwich in the middle of a Kojak episode, come back and still follow it. Today, if you get a glass of water in the middle of Homeland you have to pause and go back.

Running teaches you about the inherent unfairness of the world. Two people can work exactly the same, in fact, one can be infinitely more devoted and train much harder and not do as well. An object lesson in how unfair life is.

On a personal note, the inability to acceptance that life is inherently unfair seems to be one of the greatest stumbling blocks in people’s lives and the reason why so many fail to realize their dreams. I rarely receive more pushback from readers than when I write about this. 

Gladwell also prefers the selfie when someone who has recognized him request a photo, mostly because it’s quicker to take a selfie than get a third party involved to take the picture.

I’m not so sure about this opinion, mostly because I almost never get recognized, and when I do, no one wants a photo with me.