I didn't read the Gladwell article, but it sounds like he's a victim of hindsight bias [0]. It's easy to think that there was less risk involved when reflecting back on someone's decisions <i>after they succeeded</i>.<p>[0] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias</a>