After the Microsoft years he has proven to be a brilliant individual with a genuine interest I. Using his fame and fortune (and everything that goes with it) to try to improve the world.

Why is this Gladwell character brought up so often? I'd never had known he exists if it wasn't for his detractors.

How many college-educated liberal folks with a non-engineering background do you know? It's all but impossible to avoid him in these circles.

(I say this as a philosophy degree-holding liberal pinko who is is exasperated by Gladwell. To be fair, I'm more exasperated with the culture of cherry-picking near-banalities wrapped in an engaging narrative that he and the TED folks have propagated rather than their work itself.)

I know a few, but perhaps they're not close enough to New York?

Sounds like you're complaining about style over substance... I suppose I'd find it annoying as well.

Precisely the opposite: he has a very engaging style, which makes his lack of substance all the more insidious.

More generally, a certain lack of substance.

You're not missing anything.