Creation Myth

Written by Malcolm Gladwell

Creation Myth tells the story of many technological geniuses during the 1970’s and 1980’s. In Palo Alto, California, engineers at the Xerox PARC facility had invented the first personal computer. One day, Steve Jobs, then a young entrepreneur, toured the Xerox facility and was inspired by Xerox’s personal computer. Later, Steve Jobs would drastically improve the device and make billions of dollars of Xerox’s idea. As Jobs and Xerox worked on the computer, many other engineers attempted to make smaller accessories to go along with the personal computer. One man, Gary Starkweather, struggled to get Xerox to fund his project, but eventually made the first laser printer. In the essay, Malcolm Gladwell establishes his credibility by interviewing Gary Starkweather and other members of Xerox. This tells the reader that the race to create an efficient computer and printer is absolutely true, enforcing Gladwell’s purpose for writing this essay. Gladwell wrote this essay to inform readers that inventions may not always be successful, but often lead to better innovations. This argument put forth by Gladwell targets young entrepreneurs that are struggling to make their ideas successful in today’s market.  To achieve his purpose, Gladwell uses metaphors that are more familiar to the reader and help communicate his point. To describe the competition between three growing technology companies in their quest to create the perfect computer mouse, Gladwell compares them to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Israel competing to develop high-tech missiles and drones during the digital age. Another metaphor compares Steve Jobs and Xerox to biblical figures, something that may appeal more to readers than describing them as competitive engineers. I believe that Malcolm Gladwell did an excellent job of accomplishing his purpose by incorporating metaphors into the stories Steve Jobs and Gary Starkweather. By using more understandable metaphors, he was able to communicate his point that unsuccessful inventions may lead to great innovations.

Source- flashissue.com

This image portrays Malcolm Gladwell's purpose that people that copy ideas and improve them, often become more successful that the inventor of that idea.