Outliers: The Story of Success in Daily Show / Colbert Report / Nightly Show / The Opposition

Nov 07, 2009 Judy rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. I haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's previous books, but I will be doing so in the near future. Part of the American national mythology is that in this country, anyone, from any class, has an equal opportunity to be successful if they work hard enough and apply themselves. Yes, the old Protestant work ethic rears its ugly head once again. Gladwell's thesis, however, is that it is not the hardest working and the brightest who succeed in America. He feels that "the successful are t I loved this book. I haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's previous books, but I will be doing so in the near future. Part of the American national mythology is that in this country, anyone, from any class, has an equal opportunity to be successful if they work hard enough and apply themselves. Yes, the old Protestant work ethic rears its ugly head once again. Gladwell's thesis, however, is that it is not the hardest working and the brightest who succeed in America. He feels that "the successful are those who have been given opportunities and who have the strength and presence of mind to seize them." And then he goes to demonstrate the importance of culture, circumstances, timing, birth year and month, and luck are all key players in determining success. He also argues that no one ever gets to be really good at something until they have done about 10,000 hours of it. Well, that explains my cooking, quilting, and knitting. To explain his theory, he uses the examples of how the Beatles and Bill Gates are similar. Really? Bill Gates can play the guitar? The Beatles can program computers? No, no, what he means is that both were given almost unlimited opportunities to practice their crafts. Bill Gates went to an upscale private school in which the mothers held an annul fundraiser and they used part of the proceeds to purchase a couple of computer terminals that were attached by time-sharing to a mainframe at the University of Washington. From the time that Bill Gates was 13 years old, he had virtually unlimited access to these computers and he spent thousands of hours programing--so that through a series of fortunate events by the time that he dropped out of Harvard during his second year to begin Microsoft, he had already programmed about 10,000 hours. Likewise, the Beatles during their bookings in Germany, often had to play 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. Gladwell notes that by the time they began to realize their first commercial success in Great Britain, they had played together for about 10,000 hours. Intriguing, but seems to downplay their inherent creative talent. Gladwell goes on to show that outside forces also play an important role in an individual's success. For example, he investigates why 40% of Canadian professional hockey players have birthdays between January and March. He tries to explain why culture has played a part in the seemingly greater ability of Asians to learn and apply math. He investigates why there are so many Jewish doctors and lawyers. He argues that during an aviation emergency, you are better off having the First Officer rather than the Captain flying the plane. The examples that he uses to support his arguments are innovative as well as interesting. I highly recommend this book. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 15, 2011 Nicholas rated it liked it

Outliers is the study of success and an attempt to reconceptualize the traits and factors that we typically associate with success. Gladwell is eminently readable and he builds his arguments in an engaging way - usually with some rather startling or puzzling statistics, or a story of success, that is then analyzed to reveal some broader concept or meaning behind the nature of the theme: what makes some individuals so spectacularly successful, and others not?

What's great about Outliers is that Gl Outliers is the study of success and an attempt to reconceptualize the traits and factors that we typically associate with success. Gladwell is eminently readable and he builds his arguments in an engaging way - usually with some rather startling or puzzling statistics, or a story of success, that is then analyzed to reveal some broader concept or meaning behind the nature of the theme: what makes some individuals so spectacularly successful, and others not?

What's great about Outliers is that Gladwell is not afraid to focus in on the importance of factors that have for a long time, at least in America, been considered taboo since the Civil Rights Movement. What role does ethnicity play in someone's success? Are Korean pilots inferior to pilots of other ethnicities? Are American Jews more likely to succeed than members of other immigrant groups? Can poor children really learn? Gladwell does an admirable job tackling these questions without a hint of bias or racism, or even ethnocentrism. (It's not that Koreans are poor pilots, it's the culture as it relates to authority that made them more prone to easily avoidable accidents in the 60s and 70s.) This is particularly so for that time-honored question in American education: are Asians better at math? Gladwell does his homework, both sociologically and historically to put forth some compelling arguments that we are as much a byproduct of our upbringing, our geography and our time as we are of our genetics. Perhaps more so. In the broader philosophical conceptualization: nurture is more significant than nature. This is a wonderful idea, and the evidence is fairly solid, though one can conceivably poke holes in some of it as being tailored specifically for the argument and rather subjective. It is a hopeful idea, especially in the realm of education reform that hard work does matter much more than your family background or income and that these traits can be learned. It's also not a bad idea to poke holes in the myth of genius that we've built up in America, especially since the days of Horatio Alger and the booming business tycoons of the 19th century. It's a marked step on the road to both racial and socioeconomic equality that we recognize, sociologically and informationally, that all people are capable of success, and that we can breed success for a better society if we're willing to abandon our preconceived notions of it.

The book tends to be repetitive. By the time Gladwell gets to his third or fourth example of a life-study, you're already anticipating where he's going with it. The people profiled are interesting, but you just want more of the analysis than the life story. He has a tendency to over-emphasize too, as if he's insecure about whether or not the reader is really going to appreciate the point he's trying to make, and the ending chapter on his own personal history seems to drag the work out rather than end it with definitive punctuation. His anecdote likely would have worked better toward the beginning or the middle, with the ending reserved for the KIPP story and the idea of transforming society to take new factors of success into account.

Worth reading, and definitely has peaked my interest in reading Gladwell's other book, The Tipping Point, which from what I've gathered from other reviewers, is much better. In short, this could have been an extended article or blog post series and worked far more effectively at a much leaner size. That's not to say that it isn't enjoyable. It is immensely so and immersive, but with so many other good things waiting to be read on my shelf, I found myself skimming some parts when I felt like I knew where he was going. Maybe that's more my fault than his. Or perhaps the arguments are so intuitive, that it seems like he's just voicing something that an observant reader probably already knows. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2012 Pang rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ecomics-finance

This was a quick and enjoyable book. It's an inspiring book (e.g., work hard and you can catch up eventually, etc.), but I must admit that it's discouraging at the same time. Even if you have what it takes to succeed in this world (e.g., being a genius,) without the opportunity you can be doomed. The odds are against you, unless you're lucky than most of us.

A few things that have struck out from it: (view spoiler) ...more

Like · see review

Dec 26, 2015 Letitia rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club-suggestions

This was my first Gladwell, and I'm so glad I made the plunge! Really delightful, readable, well-researched and convincing. I love the creative ways he tackles social science conundrums.

The strongest part of this book, in my opinion, is the 10,000 hour section, where he uses previous research and interesting stories to make a credible argument.

I really started drifting when he talked about the Avianca plane crashes, but stick with it, because it gets so good. His descriptions of cultural legacy ...more

Like · see review

Sep 27, 2012 Natalie rated it really liked it

Really enjoyed this book, I found it highly relatable and like thinking about the parallels I have seen with my friends, family, and self. The power of groups, and environments should not be underestimated, but another lesson I took away from this book was to regularly reexamine my opinions of people and situations to see if I can get to a better understanding of what's really going on! ...more

Like · see review