The author of The Tipping Point and Blink may be a pop-intellectual rock star who rakes in “stratospheric” speaking fees, but he says, “At the end of the day, I’m just a journalist […] I spend my time talking to people who tell me things, and then I write them down. I’m necessarily parasitic in a way. I have done well as a parasite. [pause] But I’m still a parasite.”