The Serious Question
After reading Group Think, I could not delineate the main ideas that Malcom Gladwell addressed in his article that well. It seems that the question, “What does “Saturday Night Live” have in common with German philosophy?” was something he was alluding to, but not the main point of his article. Perhaps the question he was trying to answer was “To what extent has group work changed SNL?”. The main idea of the article seemed to be the history of group work. He had some good phrases like, “innovation attracts groups but that innovation is found in groups; that it tends to arise out of social interaction”. These statements about groups really stood out in from all the other ideas mentioned in the article. Now, I think the rest of the article talks about talks about groups and social interactions like the Lunar men that did great things in groups, but also lost tract of what they planned to do.
Gladwell starts the article with an anecdote (the discovery of Aykroyd and Radner). He briefly describes people or a group of people that were somewhat related to Akyroyd or Radner. I assume these people are famous and influential. It would see pointless for him to just add random names. Then, he gives an overview on the early days of SNL. Gladwell is careful not to miss a detail. He gives the most context to his readers before he leads them to his conclusion. Connections and being in a group is a good thing. The next section gives examples of group work and the pros and cons of working together. He uses the example of the lunar group and their innovations. The last section refers back to SNL, circles of people and inside jokes. Gladwell ties all these ideas back to benefits of group work. He ends with finishing his anecdote and showing the change in SNL (he says,”Because back then when he was here, they were doing it. What are we doing, for crying out loud? Oh yeah. Thinking up characters.”)
SNL is a good show. :)
