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Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

4.15 · Rating details · 469,762 ratings · 23,280 reviews

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that ...more

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Hardcover, 309 pages

Published November 18th 2008 by Little, Brown and Company (first published 2008)

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Dec 06, 2008 Rebecca rated it it was amazing

Shelves: philosophy, political

Gladwell argues that success is tightly married to opportunity and time on task. He states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master something and that gives me comfort. It helps me feel better about my many failures at initial attempts to master things (like glazing pottery, algebra, Salsa dancing, skiing and sewing... to name a few). I kept thinking, "I've just got to put in more hours if I want to do better."

While I can see a different way of spinning the data provided to support Gladwell argues that success is tightly married to opportunity and time on task. He states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master something and that gives me comfort. It helps me feel better about my many failures at initial attempts to master things (like glazing pottery, algebra, Salsa dancing, skiing and sewing... to name a few). I kept thinking, "I've just got to put in more hours if I want to do better."

While I can see a different way of spinning the data provided to support Gladwell's argument, I didn't care. In a rare moment, I found myself not wanting to argue. : ) Instead, I found myself reflecting on things that have felt like lucky opportunities in my own life. This reflection was very humbling.

Moreover, I felt the text tugging at the need for greater equity. What could all the people with limited opportunities do if given greater opportunities? Think Darfur. How many people who might have come up with the cure for pancreatic cancer been forced to spend their time standing in lines waiting for clean water or food?

My own personal experience as a teacher of refugees reflects Gladwell's primary thesis. Many of my refugee students are pre-literate. They have not been given the opportunity to gain a formal education. As a result, there are many well-intended, but misinformed people who place these students in special education courses or deem their I.Q. low, diminishing their opportunities even more.

The students I teach are hungry for skills and spend hours outside of class practicing. They make huge gains despite earlier opportunities denied them. While many will not go on to big colleges out of high school, I feel like given enough opportunity and time they could make it there. Sadly, many have families who depend on them to work to help financially support the family. (Yet, another limited opportunity to spend time focused on developing skills.)

In the past week, I have shared Gladwell's thesis with my students. We have applied the 10,000 hours to master a task to reading and writing. I remind students that if we don't get our 10,000 hours this year together, they must continue on their own. I remind them that it IS possible to move forward if they are focused and keep adding hours of work to their reading and writing. We even write on the board how many hours left before we are masters.

"2 hours down, only 9,998 left to go."

Friday, I had a student from Somalia smile and ask, "So it's not true that white people are smarter than black Africans? They just get more chances to read?" Imagine my pleasure when I could respond, "YES! That's correct. You are just as smart as any white kid in this school. It's just that some of them have been reading for years and you are just getting started."

Thank you for your work Galdwell, it is salient in today's political conversation surrounding education (especially for our most vulnerable students who have been given the fewest opportunities).
...more

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Jun 24, 2013 Bill Kerwin rated it it was ok

When I think about Malcolm Gladwell, the first phrase that comes to mind is "less than meets the eye."

At first glance, his work seems thoroughly researched, even visionary at times. Beginning with a few maverick, counter-intuitive insights, he often ends with an affirmation of consensus, but it is a consensus that has been broadened by investigation and enriched by nuance.

On second look, however, I'm no longer sure any of this is true. What first appeared to be new insights are nothing but ...more

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Jan 03, 2009 Trevor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: psychology, behavioural-economics, social-theory

I know, you don’t think you have the time and there are other and more important books to read at the moment, but be warned, you do need to read this book.

There are a number of ways I can tell a book will be good; one of those ways is if Graham has recommended it to me (how am I going to cope without our lunches together, mate?). And there is basically one way for me to I know that I’ve really enjoyed a book, and that is if I keep telling people about it over and over again. Well, not since ...more

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Dec 29, 2008 Allie rated it really liked it

Didn't exactly read this book - Joe and I listened to it in the car on the way home from visiting family for Christmas. I really enjoyed it, and was very fascinated by certain parts of it, especially the sections about the Beatles, computer programmers and Korean co-pilots.

But my enjoyment of the book was marred by the glaring absence of any well-known female "outliers." By chapter four or so, I noticed it and mentioned it to Joe, and then it just kept getting worse to the point that it was ...more

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Dec 16, 2008 Steve rated it it was ok

Occasionally insightful, but Gladwell's science is pretty junky. His reasons for success change by the page. And he cherry-picks examples to exactly fit the scheme under consideration. Plus, he's obsessed with callbacks and summary statements that only showcase the faulty connections between ideas.

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Nov 14, 2008 David rated it liked it

Shelves: culture-society

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Malcolm Gladwell's new book reads like a series of cocktail-party anecdotes. Whether the book is a mere fluff piece or something more is open to debate. At its heart, it has two themes: (1) That success depends not just on talent but opportunity, and (2) that success (and failure) also depend on the cultural legacies we inherit from our forebears. Boiled down, here are his essential ideas:

OPPORTUNITY

1. Luck matters. Hockey players who happened to be born between January and March were Malcolm Gladwell's new book reads like a series of cocktail-party anecdotes. Whether the book is a mere fluff piece or something more is open to debate. At its heart, it has two themes: (1) That success depends not just on talent but opportunity, and (2) that success (and failure) also depend on the cultural legacies we inherit from our forebears. Boiled down, here are his essential ideas:

OPPORTUNITY

1. Luck matters. Hockey players who happened to be born between January and March were disproportionately represented in professional hockey leagues. From an early age, these players were the oldest in their age bracket, and therefore bigger and more coordinated. Coaches selected them for better training and playing opportunities, and overtime, success bred success. Likewise, students who happened to be older for their class scored higher on math and science tests than their younger classmates, and were more likely to be picked for "gifted" and other advanced programs.

2. Even smart people need 10,000 hours of practice before they master a skill. Those that can get those 10,000 hours during childhood are a step ahead. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and The Beatles all had unique opportunities to have lots and lots of practice in their specialties at an early age before becoming successful.

3. After 120, increases in IQ are less important than creativity and "practical intelligence" -- knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect. A lifelong study of geniuses showed they were no more successful than the average population. Nobel laureates are just as likely to come from City College of NY, Augsburg College, or Gettysburg College as they are from Harvard.

LEGACY

4. Rural Americans in backcountry states -- Kentucky, Tennessee, North & South Carolina -- inherited a "culture of honor" from their Scotch-Irish forefathers. These herdsmen warriors brought with them a willingness to fight in response to the smallest slight. This led to a pattern of bloody and violent feuds between families across the Appalachian states. (Think Hatfields vs. McCoys.)

5. Korean Airlines had an unusually high rate of plane crashes because of the Korean culture's extreme deference to superiors. Junior pilots were reluctant to directly contradict their Captain on a flight, even in the face of grave error. This explains, for instance, the Korean Air Flight 801 crash in Guam in 1997. When the airline hired a specialist from Delta to retrain the pilots to speak more transparently, their safety record went up dramatically.

6. Asians are good at math and science because their ancestors planted rice paddies. Rice farming was more labor intensive than Western agriculture. Asians have inherited this stick-with-it-ness that allows them to excel in math and science, where perseverance is mandatory.

7. Unlike rice paddies, wheat or corn fields need to be left fallow every few years. Early American educators adopted this principle toward schooling - that students must not be exhausted. Hence, the long summer vacation, a distinctly American legacy. But this legacy is counterproductive, because kids tend to forget things over the summer. Kids who go to schools with shorter summer breaks tend to have higher test scores. ...more

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Dec 19, 2008 Eric rated it liked it

I can save you the trouble of reading the book: smart people don't automatically become successful, they do so because they got lucky. This rule applies to everyone including the likes of Bill Gates and Robert Oppenheimer. That's it. That's what the whole book is about. Gladwell looks at case after case of this: Canadian hockey players, Korean airline pilots, poor kids in the Bronx, Jewish lawyers, etc... Even with all this evidence it feels like he's pulling in examples that fit his theory and ...more

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Dec 30, 2008 Adam rated it it was amazing

People are criticizing this book because it is not a journal article. Well guess what: we're not all sociologists. I have read plenty of journal articles in my own field (law). I'm in no position to read journal articles in fields outside my own. Having a well-written piece of mass-market writing is just the thing I need to access this information.

Another criticism of the book is that Gladwell is the "master of the anecdote." Well, it seems to me that ALL SOCIAL SCIENCE is in some sense ...more

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Dec 05, 2008 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-18 hockey team came from the first three months of the year. Turns out the age cutoff is January 1 in Canada, so the 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-18 hockey team came from the first three months of the year. 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.
...more

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Dec 26, 2008 Hank Mishkoff rated it it was ok

Well, it's official: Malcolm Gladwell has run out of things to say.

His prose is still lively and entertaining, and he maintains his famous I-look-at-things-differently-than-anyone-else attitude, but "Outliers" has so little meat that it would have more appropriately been published as a magazine article.

I think that the main value of reading Gladwell is that he plants a seed in your brain that encourages you to seek unconventional explanations for familiar phenomena. That's a very healthy thing, ...more

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May 11, 2011 Jason rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: for-kindle, reviewed

I skimmed this book instead of reading it. I didn’t entirely love it.

Although the author makes some interesting points, I find some of the correlations he tries to draw a little silly. Like the Italian community in Pennsylvania where people are healthier and live longer because they have a sense of “community” or the fact that Southerners react more violently to certain situations than Northerners because they derive from a “culture of honor.” Sounds like extrapolated horseshit to me, especially ...more

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Oct 07, 2016 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 ...more

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Sep 10, 2011 David rated it did not like it

Malcolm Gladwell writes very interesting and entertaining books. J.R.R. Tolkein writes very interesting and entertaining books as well. However, after reading Tolkein, I did not venture out into the world in search of hobbits, dwarves and elves to be my new friends, or worry about being attacked by trolls. Tolkein's books, while entertaining, have little connection to reality. Unfortunately, the same can be said about Gladwell. "Outliers" is a series of well-written and interesting essays along Malcolm Gladwell writes very interesting and entertaining books. J.R.R. Tolkein writes very interesting and entertaining books as well. However, after reading Tolkein, I did not venture out into the world in search of hobbits, dwarves and elves to be my new friends, or worry about being attacked by trolls. Tolkein's books, while entertaining, have little connection to reality. Unfortunately, the same can be said about Gladwell. "Outliers" is a series of well-written and interesting essays along the lines of New Yorker or Vanity Fair articles. However, their connection with reality is highly, highly dubious.

This book is a big disappointment after "The Tipping Point" and "Blink", both interesting books that don't have the reader arguing with the author the entire way through. One main problem is that there isn't really an identifiable thesis in the book. It seems like Gladwell wants to say that the myth of the "self-made" person is not true, since every successful person has had help and lucky breaks along the way. Well, duh! But then he goes on to say that successful people spend 10,000 hours on their chosen area of success. Do they get any credit for that? Does working on something for 10,000 hours when you could be goofing off make you a bit "self-made"? In my book it certainly does.

Take Bill Gates. Yes, he came from a rich family, had some breaks and some unique opportunities. But what about his former classmates who are now meth addicts or bitter failures who had similar opportunities, but didn't sieze them? Or those who simply were too lazy to put in 10,000 hours in front of the computer? Is Gates "lucky" that he had the drive to do that? So either the main thesis falls apart -- that if you are privileged and lucky you will be successful, or it becomes something completely prosaic, such as "Gates worked hard, but he had some unique breaks". Again, duh! That's life. Every person can identify positives and negatives in their own lives. It is the choice to overcome the negatives and to capitalize on the positives that makes the difference. If Gates hadn't found the computer lab Gladwell discusses, would he have just given up, or would he have kept on looking? I think that he would have kept looking until he found a similar opportunity.

The science is also incredibly flimsy. He asserts - "Successful hockey players are almost all born in January - March". Well, wouldn't that apply to all athletes? Wouldn't somebody before Gladwell have figured that out? Where is the data from the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB? It really is an example of inductive reasoning, not good science. Gladwell is made aware of a pattern with *certain* hockey teams in Canada, and then assumes that this small sample proves that if you are born in April or after, you won't become a good athlete. Maybe so, but Gladwell needs more data to prove his point.

Another assertion is: "Asians are good at math because their ancestors were rice farmers - They come from a patient, hard-working culture". But perhaps there are other reasons that could explain the same thing: religious traditions, government, how education is structured. Hey, maybe Asians have a high tolerance for their own body odor and can spend more hours in the field than Europeans! I'm not seriously arguing that, but it is an example of Gladwell making a connection between two things that is far from proven.

The book is best read as a series of colorful essays on some interesting topics. However, as a guide or explanation of success, it is an example of truly sloppy science and shoddy reasoning. True, successful people don't get there on their own. But everyone can review their lives and identify lucky breaks as well as unfair disadvantages. In the end, Gladwell doesn't explain success at all in a convincing fashion, and risks leaving the reader with the impression that fatalism is the only attitude to have towards their own success. Nothing could be further from the truth. ...more

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Apr 09, 2013 seak rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, 2013

Outliers. Or as it should be called, "Outliers don't exist." I not only couldn't put it down, but my wife feels like she's read it now too.

It starts with a story about a town whose inhabitants only ever die from old age (i.e., not from cancer or ANY OTHER problem) and quickly goes into a story about hockey players in Canada.

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 Outliers. Or as it should be called, "Outliers don't exist." I not only couldn't put it down, but my wife feels like she's read it now too.

It starts with a story about a town whose inhabitants only ever die from old age (i.e., not from cancer or ANY OTHER problem) and quickly goes into a story about hockey players in Canada.

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 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 ... or lived in Canada (not a Canada slight, I love you guys eh!).

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 (10,000 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." That an outlier doesn't really exist because it's a person who is a product of their surroundings. 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!

4 out of 5 Stars (highly recommended)

PS. The audiobook is read by the author and he reads his own words well. :) ...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Michael Perkins rated it it was ok

The term I've coined for books such as these is "the illusion of erudition."

We love the anecdotes, many a form of comfirmation bias---the author telling us what we want to hear (cha-ching)---and we feel oh so much wiser once the wheels of the plane touch down on the runway at our destination because of having read a book such as this on our flight.

====================================

The famous, or infamous concept of the 10,000 "rule" in this book is not real. In a 2012 paper in the British ...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Claudia rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: all non-fiction fans

Recommended to Claudia by: Bob and Shirley

Shelves: nonfiction

"Outliers" those wildly successful people, for whom 'normal rules don't apply.' Are they just lucky, talented? Maybe...but, outliers may not be outliers after all...after reading the entire book, I was slapped by that at the very end. 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 ...more

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Dec 01, 2018 Monica rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aoc-male, kindle_nonfiction, popular, aoc, business-economics, soc-sci-politics, behavior-psychology, pub_2000s

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 3.5 Stars

Read on ...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Siddharth rated it really liked it

"If only I'd read this book earlier," the old man sighed. He shook his head sadly. "I was at the wrong end of the cut-off age. I'd have made a champion swimmer...". His voice trailed off.
"Hmmm."
He sighed again. "Then there's this 10000 hour rule. What the hell am I supposed to do about it now? The only thing I have 10000 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." He shook his head again. "It's the ...more

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Apr 28, 2017 ScienceOfSuccess rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

Here is my animated review!

youtu.be/5HUjk6Zf0xg

This book made me think about the advantages and disadvantages connected to the birth date, place and few other things most kids can't change.

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Nov 19, 2008 Ben rated it liked it

Recommends it for: those interested in sociology or the oustide factors involved with success.

Shelves: sociology

This is not a feeling oriented review like those that seem to be getting esteem here. While this is a well-researched and easily readable book that makes some interesting points, most of its contents are pure common sense.

In a world so highly populated with such strong inequities, of course there will be a lot of luck and chance involved with how someone turns out, aside from those that result from innate ability. You already knew that, right? So, shouldn't specific ideas and remedies be ...more

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Jan 09, 2014 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-non-fiction, book-club

In just one week, this book transformed a relatively normal woman into someone who's been saying, "Well, in this book I'm reading. . . you know, Outliers? Yeah, there's this section on. . . there's this part about. . . 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!"

I can't think of one reason why you shouldn't join me in my enthusiasm.

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Mar 29, 2018 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. For me that is amazing, I am easily distracted and seldom retain most information, ADHD yep. 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 ...more

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Dec 11, 2008 Kressel Housman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: east-asian-culture, non-fiction, jewish, psychology, world-culture, all-time-favorite

This has got to be Malcolm Gladwell’s best book yet, and coming from a fan like me, that’s saying something!

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. The first half of the equation is much like Carol Dweck’s thesis in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success . Hard work matters much more than raw talent. In This has got to be Malcolm Gladwell’s best book yet, and coming from a fan like me, that’s saying something!

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. The first half of the equation is much like Carol Dweck’s thesis in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success . Hard work matters much more than raw talent. In the chapter called “10,000 Hours” he cites a study of music students which shows that the number of hours spent practicing is the key determinant in mastery. I found that very encouraging. If you want to succeed, spend your time practicing.

But it’s the second half of the equation that makes his thesis unique, even though this part is somewhat discouraging. 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! A whole chapter on the history of Jewish immigrants to America), but a genius in non-nurturing circumstances won’t make it no matter how talented he is (hence the depressing chapter on Chris Langsam, the man with the highest IQ in America.)

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. And in many ways, I do feel I haven’t lived up to my potential, so I have to remedy the situation by putting in my 10,000 hours of practice, by becoming as efficient as a Chinese rice farmer (another particularly inspiring chapter). 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.
...more

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Aug 25, 2015 Daphne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own-audio, quest, own-ebook

Wow! This book was incredible. This goes directly on the very tiny pile of books that I can say have drastically shifted the way I understand and view the world. I know I've heard this author's work referred to many times in other books and IRL, but I didn't realize how much of a paradigm shift in understanding human success and reality it actually was.

I'm both sad it took me so long to finally read this, and happy that I finally did!

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Jul 21, 2019 Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship rated it it was ok

Shelves: sociology, nonfiction, 2-stars, psychology

This is one of those books that give popular nonfiction a bad name. Which is unfortunate, because what could be better than books that both educate and entertain? But Outliers embodies everything that people who sneer at the genre are talking about: its conclusions are both obvious and simplistic, its writing persuasive but glib. It’s easy to see why Gladwell is a popular author: he’s a good storyteller, his writing accessible and entertaining. But this book is so riddled with oversimplified This is one of those books that give popular nonfiction a bad name. Which is unfortunate, because what could be better than books that both educate and entertain? But Outliers embodies everything that people who sneer at the genre are talking about: its conclusions are both obvious and simplistic, its writing persuasive but glib. It’s easy to see why Gladwell is a popular author: he’s a good storyteller, his writing accessible and entertaining. But this book is so riddled with oversimplified conclusions and strange contradictions that it should be read for entertainment, perhaps for gaining a little bit of knowledge on a few very specific subjects, but not to be taken too seriously.

Gladwell wants to examine why some people are wildly successful, and his basic thesis is pretty obvious: the most successful people benefit from advantages beyond their own talent. The first half of the book sticks mostly to this point, examining the advantages wildly successful people have had: much of it boils down to opportunities to hone their skills, though timing is also important. People who come of age in a favorable economy do better in their careers (no surprise there), while for skills where children are sorted into the gifted and the not at a young age, then given different levels of training, being born shortly after the cutoff date (and thus several months older than most of the competitors) confers a major advantage. The discussion of the effect of cutoff dates on hockey players (who are sorted at age 9 or 10) and on academics (with “gifted” classes often beginning in elementary school) is perhaps the best portion of the book, though Gladwell neglects to consider the psychological impacts of being classified gifted or not at a young age; it seems to me that even if kids aren’t separated out young, knowing you’re ahead of or behind your peers would affect your confidence.

The book takes an abrupt turn in the second half, to talk about cultural legacies: for instance, feuds used to be common in Appalachia due to an “honor culture,” while planes piloted by people from cultures with a high level of deference for authority used to crash more often, until people finally figured this out and started training flight crews to speak up when they saw danger. Interesting stuff, but only sort of related to the first half. Gladwell talks a lot about his theory that Asians are better at math because their ancestors farmed rice paddies, which is really hard work, and gave birth to a culture that values hard work. There may be something to this, but I suspect it’s a lot more complicated than that; check out Little Soldiers for an in-depth comparison between the Chinese and American school systems. The most startling thing about all this, though, is that Gladwell never asks why, if Asian cultures are so much better at hard work, and hard work is what leads to great success, why are all of his “outliers” Americans or Brits and not Chinese or Japanese? Why wasn’t the Internet invented in China, if Chinese rice-paddy culture is so perfect for math skills?

And the book is this way throughout, its analysis incomplete (and its outliers all white men). Gladwell coins the idea of the “10,000-hour rule” here – the notion that to become great at something, you have to practice for this magical number of hours. (He actually refers to this number as “magic” multiple times, despite the fact that the authors of the key study he relied on disagree with his analysis, pointing out that 10,000 hours was the average amount of practice put in by the best students at an elite music school, not a magic threshold between average and world-class. Gladwell, not the scientists, coined the idea of a 10,000-hour rule.) He talks at length about a study of violinists showing an apparently direct, linear correlation between hours practiced and skill, but that’s only one very specific talent (and those best violin students were merely expected to succeed, not yet embarked on their careers). Anyone who’s ever attended school knows that some people are just better at certain skills than others of similar backgrounds, even if nobody practices beyond their homework. And even Gladwell doesn’t quite seem to take his idea, that the number of hours practiced is all that matters, seriously. Within the same chapter he says, of the Beatles, “Lennon and McCartney had a musical gift of the sort that comes along once in a generation.” Wait, what? I thought this was a chapter about how it’s all about hours of practice, in a book that’s all about how the world is full of people whose talents are never realized because they didn’t get that lucky break. Huh.

There’s plenty of other intellectual shortcuts too. Gladwell says a couple of times that hockey players born in the latter half of the year “might as well not show up for tryouts at all” when they make up 30% of the teams – too low, obviously, but this hardly spells doom for the most talented. He conflates families who teach their kids how to work with the system and navigate institutions (as opposed to poorer families, which tend to impart the idea that the world happens to you and authority is always an antagonist) with families who hyper-schedule their kids, and then suggests that a hyper-scheduled childhood leads to success, despite the fact that this is a very recent phenomenon and generations of successful people have managed to do without it. (Current research even suggests that unstructured time is crucial for developing creativity and independence.) It’s clear why he makes this mistake, since hyper-scheduling is so common in today's middle- and upper-class families that, at least in the study he examines, it occurred in all the families who taught their kids effective self-advocacy. But these are two totally different parenting choices. He even refers a couple of times to the importance of having books in the home for children to read “if they’re bored,” a sad assumption from an author – that reading is a last-resort activity (of course, the schools and families he praises leave no time for it anyway).

I could go on, but plenty of others have reviewed this book already. Yes, the book has some interesting ideas and yes, it’s easy to read, but Gladwell is an intellectual lightweight. I wouldn’t recommend this one . . . unless, of course, you’re bored. ...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Riku Sayuj rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

My first exposure to Gladwell. SO was more or les blown away by the ideas. Have grown more conservative in acceptance of his views as I have grown familiar with his topics through other books. But still an eminently quotable book.

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Dec 05, 2008 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I listened to the unabridged copy while driving to/from Thanksgiving. Gladwell's books are often controversial because he tends to present only one side -- HIS side -- of an argument and gloss over anything that doesn't jive with his view. That said, the guy knows how to write and how to tell a story. His examples of why our success may be due to random uncontrollable factors like birthdate, family upbrining, and cultural background never fail to make me think "huh...that's interesting!"

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Oct 09, 2016 Gautam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paradigm-shifter

A well-researched subject put down to plausible conclusions through inductive reasoning. Gladwell did a commendable job in bringing this subject of success into a logical paradigm that is both palatable and eye-opening.

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Jul 13, 2018 Lily ☁️ rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: psychology, non-fiction, audiobook

“We cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don’t matter at all.”

“Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from.”

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Oct 08, 2009 Chloe rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobook, sociology, science

Malcolm, meet Fonzie. Fonzie, Malcolm. I think you two will get along well together now that you’ve both jumped the shark. I never wanted to introduce the two of them, but I sort of feel obligated to after reading Outliers. In this, his third book, Gladwell stretches his sociological study of all things common sense to its ultimate breaking point. The cover touts the book as an answer to the long-standing question that thousands have tried to answer before him: why is it that some people succeed Malcolm, meet Fonzie. Fonzie, Malcolm. I think you two will get along well together now that you’ve both jumped the shark. I never wanted to introduce the two of them, but I sort of feel obligated to after reading Outliers. In this, his third book, Gladwell stretches his sociological study of all things common sense to its ultimate breaking point. The cover touts the book as an answer to the long-standing question that thousands have tried to answer before him: why is it that some people succeed at their chosen field while others toil for years without ever rising above mediocrity? The answer is an obvious one: people succeed through a fortuitous convergence of different factors.

It is not enough to merely be smart, or from a rich family, or have unique opportunities to embrace your field- be it music, writing, business, or whatever. All of these things form a good base layer for success, but in no way guarantee success (though anyone looking for such a guarantee may buy it from my website, along with some other steals: bridgeinbrooklyn.com). An outlier must also come of age in an appropriate time period to best take advantage of changing business situations (getting in at the beginning of the industrial revolution or the construction of Silicon Valley). In other words- success is determined by a large and complex system of variables that might benefit a determined individual. It all comes down to each person seizing any opportunity that might come their way and capitalizing upon it. Like I said, common sense.

Still, just because it’s not ground-breakingly revelatory doesn’t mean that this book is without merit. Any reader familiar with Gladwell will expect the diverse examples that he draws from- ranging from Canadian hockey to enterprising Jewish immigrants and software programmers. Most interesting to me, though, were his examples of those people who should have become outliers but, for some reason or another, failed. His recounting of the world’s smartest man (IQ 192) who was unable to even graduate college due to an inability to adjust from his standard adversarial approach to hierarchical systems reminded me of dozens of people I have known who, despite phenomenal intelligence and creativity, flounder in the so-called real world and end up in dissatisfying and meaningless jobs. I do enjoy when authors of self-help or finance books admit that most of the problems that we deal with in our daily existence are created by us- Radiohead said it best when they sang “You do it to yourself, it’s true, and that’s why it really hurts.”

Overall, though, this book seems scattered and more than a little unhinged. Much of the demographic analysis seems cherry-picked to support Gladwell’s theory of successful determiners and some of the examples seem to bear no relation to his main point but were included to pad out the length of the book. Still, I’m a little bittersweet about having finished it. I’ve been listening to Gladwell’s books, the above and his two previous, The Tipping Point and Blink, in their audiobook incarnations narrated by the author and his voice is just so calm and soothing, I wish I could make him read all of my books out loud to me. Hell, I’d settle for simply attending a lecture in order for a chance to hear his voice live. This alone is enough to guarantee that I will read his next attempt. ...more

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About Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell

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Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers—The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview ...more