Fascinating book, changed the way I think about success. The central thesis is that success isn't something that happens to an individual in a vacuum. Success comes from a mix of opportunity, cultural background, hard work, luck, and the traditional things like intelligence. The Bill Gates example is good: yes Gates is highly intelligent, but Gladwell simply and clearly proves that a huge part of Gate's success came from the fortune of being born at a certain time, having had 10000 hours of computing work under his belt before most other people and at a young age, being lucky to have access to computing facilities when it was rare, etc.

The most memorable part of the book for me was when Gladwell explained why Korean Air had a worse air crash record than any other airline, which Gladwell explained at length was due to cultural factors - not technical ability, bad luck, etc. When the airline recognized and worked to correct the cultural issue, their record vastly improved.

This book makes me want to work harder to give my own child the opportunities she needs to be a success in life. It also makes me curious about looking at what has made me a relatively successful blogger. I've always claimed it was a mix of hard work, intelligence, writing ability, being in the right place at the right time, etc. If I mapped it out like Gladwell did in this book, no doubt I'd find that my family history, cultural legacy of being a kiwi, and much more, has a lot more to do with where I am today than even I realize.