What Might “Thought Provoking” Produce?
I’ve been intrigued lately by a new section of books in the Barnes & Noble bookstore that I frequent. It is a grouping of books labelled “Thought-Provoking”.
Clearly ”Thought-Provoking” isn’t a subject that one can easily build a business idea or a keyword strategy around. People aren’t likely to go to a store or to Google looking for something “Thought Provoking”.
Either way, ”Thought-Provoking” seems to be a viable and growing category of books which might include a mix of psychology, sociology, philosophy and science. Such books are perhaps just as likely show up in the Self-Improvement section as in the Business section of a bookstore.
Perhaps this new category has been spurred by Malcolm Gladwell’s success with his books, Blink and Tipping Point. As a recent article from Timesonline.co.uk entitled, “The 10 secrets of Malcolm Gladwell’s success“, suggests, the popularity of “arcane” books like his might be due to a “sociological transformation of the past 25 years”. An interesting premise. Could there be a “more intellectually curious” business-mindset developing out there?
Are we at a turning point? As the economy slows down and people pull back to take the time to rebuild their net worth and adjust to potentially widespread structural changes, will a new mindset and new work ethic arise, too?
Might not the next ten years be a time when a new set of successes show up to challenge Gladwell’s assertion that there’s not a shortage of talent in the world but that there’s a shortage of people willing to put in the 10,000 hours it takes to become successful? Could these “Thought Provoking” books be a sign of something new to come….
