Double the number of junior hockey leagues—some for kids born in the first half of the year, others for kids born in the second half. Or take the case of Bill Gates. He was way past 10, hours. How many similarly brilliant people never get that opportunity? Citing the work of an educational researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Gladwell attributes this phenomenon not to some innate mathematical ability that Asians possess but to the fact that children in Asian countries are willing to work longer and harder than their Western counterparts.
That willingness, Gladwell continues, is due to a cultural legacy of hard work that stems from the cultivation of rice. Get rid of summer vacation in inner-city schools. Outliers is filled with those sorts of diagnoses and prescriptions. Their own greatness is not the salient fact about them. I am explicitly turning my back on, I think, these kind of empty models that say, you know, you can be whatever you want to be.
And the appropriate place to provide opportunities is at the world level, not the individual level. How does Gladwell explain his own success? Malcolm grew up in a tiny Ontario farm town called Elmira, because his father, a math professor at the University of Waterloo, wanted to live in the countryside.
One brother is now an elementary-school principal in London, Ontario; the other works for a chicken-processing company in Kitchener. At his small country school, which was made up mostly of farm kids, Gladwell made two similarly precocious friends, Bruce Headlam and Terry Martin, who is now a professor of Russian history at Harvard. In high school and then at the University of Toronto, Gladwell immersed himself in conservative politics, putting a Reagan poster on his wall and naming his plant Buckley as in William F.
After failing to get a job in advertising, he landed at the right-wing American Spectator, which eventually led to a reporter position at the Washington Post in It was moving to The New Yorker. Ever faithful to his big new idea, Gladwell continues to attribute his success to everything and everyone but himself. And I worry about that. Gladwell is a journalist. Bloom and Canning are two exceedingly prestigious economists at Harvard, who are considered world experts in the field of demography and economics.
Also by Malcolm Gladwell. The Tipping Point From the bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia: discover Malcolm Gladwell's breakthrough debut and explore the science behind viral trends in business, marketing, and human behavior.
Blink From the 1 bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia, the landmark book that has revolutionized the way we understand leadership and decision making. David and Goliath Explore the power of the underdog in Malcolm Gladwell's dazzling examination of success, motivation, and the role of adversity in shaping our lives, from the….
What the Dog Saw The bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia focuses on "minor geniuses" and idiosyncratic behavior to illuminate the ways all of us organize experience in this "delightful"…. View all 6 comments. Dec 05, Jonathan rated it liked it Shelves: non-fiction.
Here's what I wrote earlier. I have to admit to the more I think and talk about the book, the less I think of it. It all seems too superficial. A pretty interesting book, albeit with not quite as many "knock me over with a feather" moments as Blink. It starts off with a bang, as he discusses amateur hockey teams and how it was noticed that virtually all the players on an Under hockey team came from the first three months of the year.
Turns out the age cutoff is January 1 in Canada, so the olde Here's what I wrote earlier. Turns out the age cutoff is January 1 in Canada, so the older players those born early in the year advanced further due to their slight maturity advantage which continued to multiply, as they got better training, put on better teams etc.
This subject hits close to home, as I am a soccer coach and heavily involved in my daughter's soccer league. My oldest has a birthday at the worst possible time, just a few weeks before the cutoff date, while the younger one has a birthday the month after the cutoff date.
So far, it hasn't seemed to slow the older one's progress, but it is something I will certainly keep an eye on. Gladwell's suggestion is to have multiple cutoff dates, so other ages can play against others of the same age. Doesn't seem likely though. He also explores how the timing of your interests can really change things.
Something as simple as how available computer time was to early pioneers like Bill Gates and Bill Joy. Certainly, in the late 60s and early 70s, the amount of keyboard time these guys had pales in comparison to what would be available just a few years before that.
He also talks about a major law firm in New York that benefited from getting the kinds of financial cases the other law firms wouldn't deal with, only to explode in popularity as the money days of the 80s and 90s struck.
I thought the book felt like it suffered from data mining, in that there didn't seem to be enough exploration of other equally successful groups that may not have had the same advantages. But still a fascinating look at what kinds of thing influence success, whether we think about them or not.
View all 3 comments. Oct 07, Amir Tesla rated it liked it Shelves: productivity , success. Recommend to: If you like exploring phenomenon beyond their appearance and if you enjoy story-telling writings about factual subjects, here: success What this book is about: Here, the famous columnist, Malcolm Gladwell deeply investigates the topic of success and people or nations with far beyond average achievements whom he calls " outliers " to figure out what has contributed to their accomplishments.
Pros The way Gladwell observes and concludes is so enticing and far different from what you might Recommend to: If you like exploring phenomenon beyond their appearance and if you enjoy story-telling writings about factual subjects, here: success What this book is about: Here, the famous columnist, Malcolm Gladwell deeply investigates the topic of success and people or nations with far beyond average achievements whom he calls " outliers " to figure out what has contributed to their accomplishments.
Pros The way Gladwell observes and concludes is so enticing and far different from what you might think about why a phenomenon has happened. For example, see how these arguments might sound: 1. Chinese are good at math because of their way of sowing and reaping rice in the fields.
The flight number X crashed, because the co-pilot was Colombian. And any other Colombian in his place might have led to the very same outcome. Yes, is seems so, and Malcolm nicely shows how these seemingly unrelated events are tightly bound.
So from the point of the way he see's things differently and actually tries to find real reasons behind events you'll find the book amusing and thought provoking. Cons There are two major problems I have with this book.
Things like the date of birth which opens up opportunities for practice in cases he studies etc. But it would have been much nicer had he provided vivid guidelines on now that we can't choose the roots, how we can provide the opportunities and the environment caused by the roots.
The other problem with some of his observations is that they can be potentially badly flawed or be results of what scientists say clustering. Namely, you look at a particular area with particular trends and specifications and you extend the qualities to the whole group in other areas.
Or in situations I think, despite his keen observation and uncovering an aspect of an event, fails to see other dimensions as well. Now my argument: Haven't the Americans been smart to build such advanced machineries? The book's message though I think is noble, really noble, which tries to tell that communities and societies are responsible for provisioning an environment in which members can fulfill their potentials.
Oh by the way, the famous hours rule for mastery is the result of the Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson studies and was merely popularized, by Malcolm Gladwell.
View all 12 comments. Jun 02, Anirudh rated it really liked it. Ever wondered why Bill Gates is so rich? Or why the Beatles is considered to be a "once in a millennium" band? An enthralling psychology novel by Malcolm Gladwell , "Outliers" reveals the secrets behind the success of some of the most famous people in the world. The book, with its sublime delivery and almost fantastical though real Ever wondered why Bill Gates is so rich?
The book, with its sublime delivery and almost fantastical though real anecdotes has the capacity of enamouring even pure fiction lovers. As it is said, "life is stranger than fiction. Outliers: The Story of Success leaves audience with knowledge of how to entice some of that success into their own lives. If nothing else, at least you will be able to figure out why those particularly irksome people in your network behave so, lmao upon extrapolating information gleaned from a part of the book.
Sep 28, Kevin rated it did not like it Shelves: z-propaganda-liberalism. The Banality of Neoliberalism 1 Sloppy methodology: --Let's take a gentle start. Even a lottery has real people winning it. If your methodology is to only examine the winners and bypass the structure of the lottery system , then you can surely come up with some highly entertaining and biased results! In fact, Goldacre has a couple words on Gladwell: On my left shoulder there is an angel. She says it's risky to extrapolate from rarefied laboratory conditions to the real world.
She says that publication bias in this field [psychology] is extensive, so whenever researches get negative findings, they're probably left unpublished in a desk drawer. And she says it's uncommon to see a genuinely systematic review of the literature on these topics, so you rarely get to see all the conflicting research in one place.
My angel has read the books of Malcolm Gladwell, and she finds them to be silly and overstated. The key assumption here is an apolitical i. The question is to what degree competition and meritocracy exist not to mention the perverse consequences that often results, let alone alternatives.
Next, there's the assumption of a certain class, thus skimming off the un-deserving peoples. Many poor countries are perfectly embedded into global capitalism, open for business with transnational corporations extracting their oil, minerals, forests, cash crops, labor, etc. Hence, " global Trumpism " Mark Blyth is on the rise. View all 8 comments.
Apr 09, seak rated it really liked it Shelves: audio , Or as it should be called, "Outliers don't exist. It starts with a story about a town whose inhabitants only ever die from old age i.
For some reason the best hockey players are born in January through March and rarely any time after. The reason - it's all because of the date of the cut-off for playing hoc Outliers. The reason - it's all because of the date of the cut-off for playing hockey in the junior leagues I use that meaning "for little guys first playing" not because it is in any way accurate as to the actual name.
Because the cut-off date for kids joining the hockey league is January 1, those born right after have to wait about a year to join. What happens when one kids plays against another who is a year older? They get slaughtered in only a sports sense I hope. That year makes a difference to the little guys and girls and so they get to play on the advanced team, they get to be an all-star and therefore, they get more and more playing time.
What starts out as an arbitrary date, turns into something real since those who get more playing time actually become better and end up making up the majority of the professionals. This strikes a particular cord with me, being a December birthday. Luckily I've never had the desire to become a professional hockey player Anyway, this book is filled with stories like this, making the point that when it seems like someone is a unique and even a prodigy, it usually is because of way more factors than just they worked hard and they are smart.
From Mozart to Bill Gates and even geniuses who never made a mark on society. To airplane copilots who rather than speak up about a problem, lead the plane directly into a mountain. To the fact that there really isn't a magical type of person who becomes great, but someone who can put in the right amount of practice to do so 10, hours to be exact.
But then again, you have to be blessed with the ability to have those hours of practice rather than being forced to survival. His main point is that societies and culture and even timing like birth make up a lot of who people are and why they become "outliers. A good portion of the richest people throughout history were born within 9 years of each other, just in time to take advantage of the industrial revolution.
This is an extremely eye-opening book that comes highly recommended. I couldn't stop thinking about it or talking about it and I already have another of his books, Blink, ready in the queue. The only criticism I can make is that as with most arguments, those that aren't as advantageous to his claims are left in the background a bit. He says that the timing of birth is a factor and I certainly think so, but it's also because of one or two of those people born that the next big shift in society happens and I don't think that can be ruled out.
However, that's not even mentioned. Anyway, it got me thinking and you can too! The audiobook is read by the author and he reads his own words well. I skimmed this book instead of reading it. Although the author makes some interesting points, I find some of the correlations he tries to draw a little silly.
Like the fact that success breeds success, opportunity is key, practice pays off, etc. Regardless, this was my first experience skimming. View all 25 comments. Jan 12, Siddharth rated it really liked it. He shook his head sadly. I'd have made a champion swimmer His voice trailed off. What the hell am I supposed to do about it now? The only thing I have hours practice is of scrunching my nose when my wife farts.
And even that is more due to habit now. You get used to the smell pretty quickly. She loves them too much. If I had been, I would not have just stood there and nodded meekly when my boss told me that I was the love child of a donkey and a pigeon. I would have given him one - right in the kisser. Right in the kisser, I tell you boy. Would have run the prison library and made it famous, like that guy in Shawshank. Life dealt me the wrong hand. I wouldn't have felt sad at my failures.
I would have regarded them as inevitable. I would have waved the book at everyone who looked at me as a loser. I would have Blake, why couldn't you have bought the book 35 years ago when it came out? This wasn't fair. He shook his head and sighed prodigiously.
My boss gave me this book on my 30th birthday. But I hated him so much, I threw it away in the dustbin. Jan 19, Claudia rated it really liked it Recommends it for: all non-fiction fans. Shelves: nonfiction. Gladwell looks closely at success, and those who seem to have waltzed into incredible success Canadian hockey players, who just happened to have been born in the right month of the year; Bill Gates, who just happened to go to a school where the PTA moms bought a "Outliers" those wildly successful people, for whom 'normal rules don't apply.
Canadian hockey players, who just happened to have been born in the right month of the year; Bill Gates, who just happened to go to a school where the PTA moms bought a new-fangled computer system. Mozart, who didn't hit his stride until ten years after he began composing Their sound was born of the 10, hours of performing in Hamburg -- more than other groups could amass in years of playing. Success is timing, and hard work It's luck -- having the right family, having the right opportunities -- Gladwell's description: "a combination of ability, opportunity, and utterly arbitrary advantage We go with him anywhere When Bill Gates admits he was very lucky, Gladwell hammers home that point.
But to me, the , hour rule is what I'll take with me. Do you want to be the best? Put in the effort! Talent and opportunity can help, but success is hard work. Jan 09, Julie rated it it was amazing Shelves: book-club , favorite-non-fiction. In just one week, this book transformed a relatively normal woman into someone who's been saying, "Well, in this book I'm reading. Yeah, there's this section on.
You should read this chapter. No, no, just wait here and let me read these 3 pages out loud for you. Have you read it? Oh, you haven't? Let me just show you this one page, it'll just take a minute! Apr 28, ScienceOfSuccess rated it really liked it Shelves: favorites. Here is my animated review! View all 5 comments. I don't know about Malcolm Gladwell. I've read 3 of his books. All of them fine, but nothing special. All of them fairly superficial with nothing original or innovative.
I think his books are very pop culture and should be read in the time frame say within a year that they are published. Too long after that and they become stale, not prolific or prescient. Gladwell is a very good and interesting writer, but I don't think his books have much depth or staying power. Almost 3. Dec 07, Hamad rated it liked it Shelves: reads , non-fiction , e-books. It is amusing how different authors interpreted success; some see it as the power of believing in something and it will happen as in the law of attraction.
Some think you have to work but that you need to have some unfair advantages and Gladwell in this book also makes his own arguments and at the end of the day we just have to remember that all of these are arguments and we should make our own opinions and beliefs and that we are not obliged to take each and every word for granted! This book has more than half a million ratings and an average rating of 4. I enjoyed the book but I expected a bit more to be honest! Gladwell knows how to make a good argument and he does provide data and evidence to support his writing which I think is cool.
The problem is that I found the writing to be a bit chaotic and cluttered, sometimes jumping back and forth many times before making the point clear! The topics that the author chosen were mostly interesting but some of them were more interesting than the others, I found the Korean Airline chapter to be boring to be honest and it was one of the longest chapters in the book!
Also, despite the author providing data and evidence, I found it to be a bit biased. The author mentions that older students tend to get more attention and be more successful, as the class valedictorian and one of the youngest students at the same time, I find it hard to believe! I believe that it was interesting and that I took some things of the book but once again, I think it is important to make our own opinions after reading books of these kind and to take the chance to think more and be provoked!
Dec 11, Kressel Housman rated it it was amazing Shelves: east-asian-culture , psychology , non-fiction , jewish , world-culture , all-time-favorite. As the subtitle states, this is a book of success stories, and true to his usual style, Gladwell draws on a diverse and interesting set of examples and presents a unique thesis on the ingredients it takes to make a person a success.
Hard work matters much more than raw talent. I found that very encouraging. If you want to succeed, spend your time practicing. True, successful people have to put in many hours to master their craft, but they can only do that when the circumstances of their lives allow it.
Now sometimes seemingly adverse circumstances can turn out to be an incredible advantage Woo hoo! As with The Tipping Point , I read this book to help me advance my career, but the main lesson it taught me was about parenting. Whatever opportunities I may have had or not had, used or not used, made me what I am today. But the area in which I can make the biggest difference is for my kids. My job as a parent is to create practice opportunities for my kids to exercise their talents and interests.
And if they become the people they can be, then all of us will be success stories. View all 9 comments. May 25, Tanu rated it it was amazing Shelves: 5-stars , reviewed , non-fiction , psychology , business , self-help , favorites. One of the finest book I have read this year. How exactly does this work? The fascinating analysis of the American Football Rugby team gave me a new way to look at the system.
Most American Football players are born in the first 5 months of a Calender year. I bet not. The author tells numerous true stories of what appears to be shining examples o One of the finest book I have read this year. The author tells numerous true stories of what appears to be shining examples of disadvantaged people who ended up being outstanding success stories.
But then the author goes back through the same story and takes a look at where that person came from and shows that they benefited from a combination of cultural background and a set of unique opportunities and timing that allowed them to succeed. Some of his best books are: 1. Outliers: The Story of Success discusses the subject of success 3.
Mar 29, Yodamom rated it it was amazing Shelves: owned , audio. This was such an unexpected pleasure to listen to. The narration was fantastic. The information clear and written is such a way that I absorbed and considered the facts presented. Some of the information seemed stretching, borderline ridiculous, but there were numbers to back the claim.
I found his research on the learning systems around the world and the KIPP program the most interesting. It was just an This was such an unexpected pleasure to listen to.
It was just another wake up call for American school systems. I listened to this one and want to read it now so I can spend more time thinking about the revelations he explores. I loved it. I think it was one of the best information books I've read on this subject. View all 7 comments.
Jun 26, Alan rated it liked it Shelves: psychology. Without being unnecessarily reductionist, I used to think that there were two types of reactions to Malcolm Gladwell: you either hate him or love him. This was an opinion informed by my own experiences, having finished an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and psychology an area Gladwell lives and breathes in.
Graduate students, professors, and my own peers would be quick to talk up or talk down Gladwell upon hearing the name of any his books mentioned in conversation. But here is the thing: most of them would talk down on Gladwell.
So guess what I did for about 6 years? I sheep-brained, pretty hard. I read zero Gladwell books.
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