The NYT has this interesting piece on instant celebritydom of some intellectuals, when ideas find resonance …

The 21st century has been less welcoming to big thinkers. The Internet and social media favor the bite-size thought over the grand thesis, the sharp insight over the belles-lettristic narrative. Gifted thinkers, like the political scientist Robert Putnam and the psychologist Daniel Kahneman, are better known through the writings of popularizers than through their own work. It has been the age of idea-savvy journalists (Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Lewis) rather than of scholars and intellectuals.