Outliers The Story of Success
Amazon Best of the Month, November 2008: Now that he’s gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”
Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots’ culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. But there’s more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples–and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps–Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential. –Mari Malcolm
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Loved It. One Of My Favorite Books of The Year.
Gladwell cleverly debunks much of what we take for granted.
I no longer say the phrase, “self-made woman” or “self-made man” without giving some sort of disclaimer about social context, now.
No need for me to repeat what everyone else said, but I’d say GET THIS BOOK. I adored it. It’s one of my favs of the year. Truly memorable and, in my view, the best I’ve seen from Gladwell yet (covering only Blink & Tipping Point, not his latest).
4 Stars Food for thought
I found this book to be entertaining and well written. The conclusions the author reaches, however, are based on less than scientific analyses. I gave the book a 4 star rating because of the lack of science and the many assumptions he makes based on correlations that sometimes are weak. That said, I also feel that he brings up interesting points and makes one stop and think. This is an outstanding book for a group discussion.
4 Stars Interesting Studies But Not Sure How it Can Help
As many people at work were raving about this book I needed to read it for myself. I was a little reluctant at first because of some of the Amazon reviews saying that Gladwell culled information from a lot of studies and that the reader would be better served going to some of those studies themsleves.
Gladwell has done an excellent job of poring through mountains of data and presented many of these studies in a concise way that can be understood by any layman. Most of the information is presented in a logical and interesting progression. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it in the same way when I am flipping channels and I see something marvelous structure being built on a Discovery Channel show.
Though the information is fascinating and I enjoyed reading most of the book, I wonder if this is really a “self-help” book or not. The first few chapters talk about how successful people are made. Having not been born in the first three months of the year, I already missed the first level of success. Not having 10,000 hours available to master something new, I missed the next idea. I was not born in the ideal years for success in the computer field (1952-1955) and my parents were not clothing makers in Eastern Europe.
I was not born Asian so I will never have the mastery of math that someone that speaks and Asian language has from the time they started first learning numbers. Then the chapter on the likelihood of a crash based on ethnic background makes one be more frightened to fly on one of the airlines that may have a pilot and copilot from a “class-laden” country. I assume that the studies and new training methods have since reduced these risks.
What it all comes down to is that this is a fun read and I definately recommend the book because the reader will find most of it fascinating. But there is very little information that can be used for those that want a “self-help” manual to be successful.
5 Stars Deep Impact
This is a must read for any thinking person I believe. Gladwell makes his case very convincingly for lack of coincidences and what we call accidents in general. He is very quantitative, not surprising for an ex-editor of the NYT Science pages. The idea that significant events and developments in human history are rarely random is not very original of course. Gladwell on the other hand cleverly extends this concept to more daily events at more personal level, like how and why Gates was propelled to the pinnacle of success and riches as a result of not just his hard work and intelligence but also as a result of factors that came together beyond his control. Even in sports, the arena of ultimate individual talent and determination, we find that there are factors at play that determine the success of an athlete that have little to do with skill. Similar analysis is extended to other phenomna from aviation disasters to education.
The findings and conclusions are extremely interesting and thought provoking, maybe familiar concepts to scholars but told in a way that makes it very pleasant for the average reader. The writing is very good, though maybe some points are overdone, overall a catchy and entertaining book.
4 Stars As always…..
there are exceptions to the rules. The 10,000 hour rule is fascinating, and makes sense. Although, Malcolm uses Bill Gates and several other prominent masters of their fields, what’s left out is that all of them had ACCESS. They were people who knew people, or by family proxy. Good for them, but sucks for the rest of us who don’t have the hook-ups. One has to plow through all the nonsense to get ahead.
10000 Hours = 1.14079553 Years
Include sleeping and other activities (life in general), and you’re looking at about 5 years to “master” something.
I’m gonna re-read it again, it’s a pretty good read, but that last portion of the book is really boring, and low energy compared to the excellent first half, in my opinion.
No related posts.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment