>The best thing I can say about Rowe is that he ranks up there with Malcolm Gladwell in his ability to throw around a bunch of unrelated contentions and anecdotes and pretend to tie them all together with a facile and unsubstantiated thesis.
I think that's unfair to Rowe. He seems quite genuinely to believe two things:
1) The manual and/or menial labor required to keep society working is unfairly maligned, and this can become a problem if no one is willing to do it because it's not respected,
and
2) During his show he has met people who are perfectly happy doing these jobs, so it IS entirely possible to be happy doing them.
I agree that the message felt a bit tacked on in that talk, but it is genuine. He seems to be dedicating himself to spreading that message (see http://www.mikeroweworks.com/) - I think he tried to pick the most interesting examples he could find for this talk, which turned out to be atypical, but most of the people he meets on his show are far from millionaire entrepreneurs.
I say it's unfair to Rowe because Malcolm Gladwell's theses are more pop science for entertainment. I don't think Rowe ever claims any kind of scientific method or results - he is more campaigning for his beliefs and trying to cause what he sees as necessary change in society.
I think that's unfair to Rowe. He seems quite genuinely to believe two things:
1) The manual and/or menial labor required to keep society working is unfairly maligned, and this can become a problem if no one is willing to do it because it's not respected,
and
2) During his show he has met people who are perfectly happy doing these jobs, so it IS entirely possible to be happy doing them.
I agree that the message felt a bit tacked on in that talk, but it is genuine. He seems to be dedicating himself to spreading that message (see http://www.mikeroweworks.com/) - I think he tried to pick the most interesting examples he could find for this talk, which turned out to be atypical, but most of the people he meets on his show are far from millionaire entrepreneurs.
I say it's unfair to Rowe because Malcolm Gladwell's theses are more pop science for entertainment. I don't think Rowe ever claims any kind of scientific method or results - he is more campaigning for his beliefs and trying to cause what he sees as necessary change in society.