I'm with you. The focus on this line also ignores context.
Gladwell is directly quoting Nassim Taleb, and openly says how little he follows the math Taleb discusses earlier in the same chapter. The point is "Look at how smart Taleb is, I don't even know what half these words mean", he was never trying to understand the math or imply he did. In that context mis-transcribing eigenvalues doesn't feel nearly as damning as it's made out to be around these parts?
Gladwell is directly quoting Nassim Taleb, and openly says how little he follows the math Taleb discusses earlier in the same chapter. The point is "Look at how smart Taleb is, I don't even know what half these words mean", he was never trying to understand the math or imply he did. In that context mis-transcribing eigenvalues doesn't feel nearly as damning as it's made out to be around these parts?