I do love to read Gladwell. However, I must admit that I love it for the delicious "aha!" moments, even though I know they are unscientific. He is a fantastic storyteller. Some of his cool facts are well-known by now (maybe because of his own articles in the New Yorker), i.e. that hockey players are much more likely to be born in January. But the rest of the book is little more than a restatement (albeit a clever and enjoyable restatement) of the obvious. Does anyone really think that Bill Gates would have been Bill Gates in a vacuum? Or that the Chinese are just naturally good at math vs. culturally inclined to be good at it? You probably know better, but you'll still be mesmerized.

If you want to know why Asians are good at math, how many hours it takes to master something (anything), why Skadden and other law firms founded by Jewish people are so successful, or why you may as well forget about raising a professional athlete if your child was born after April, then you'll want to read this. I am heading out to do some research into what August-born kids excel in. But I'd also like to know Steve Jobs story. Did he not fit neatly into Gladwell's thesis?
Update - oops, he did cover Jobs in a few paragraphs. I just forgot about it.