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

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

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Jun 17, 2009 Ellen Druda rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I just finished listening to Outliers by Malcom Gladwell while simulateously reading Drunkard’s Walk (more about that next entry.) The case against the hero stereotype – the person who makes it to the top because of exceptional brilliance, pluck, or talent – is neatly destroyed by Gladwell’s arguments. He takes some well know examples of extraordinary success, such as Bill Gates and the Beatles, and traces their paths backwards to see what got them where they are today. The keys are timing, luck ...more

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Jan 12, 2010 Kevin Browning rated it liked it

Not as groundbreaking as the hype although very interesting examples and stories to prove his points. My dad has told me many of the same things long ago about the advantages of being "older for your age", as in holding kids back so they are more developed when they start school, sports etc. I am living proof of many of the premises of the book, that your upbringing and the societal environment you are exposed to makes a huge difference. Thanks Dad! ...more

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Oct 29, 2009 Ted Magnuson rated it it was amazing

Nothing too new here...Successful people have at least three things going for them. Talent, Hard work, Opportunity. It doesn't hurt to be at the right place at the right time either.
Gladwell's look behind the scenes and his ability to parse out the pieces leading to acheivement are fascinating. Kind of an over the shoulder trip to the narrow end of the bell curve... ...more

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Apr 23, 2009 Willonda Camille rated it really liked it

gladwell reviews "success", in the vocational sense, revealing effects of cultural strata and how it shapes who we become. like all the other reviews, i have to echo appreciation for the great job in the simple way he details how correlations can be much more elegant, yet just as simple as they appear to be. fun read. ...more

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Jul 29, 2010 Betsy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: business

Great book that explains how hard work, culture and good luck creates extremely successful people. Explains why baseball superstars are typically born in August, why Asians are good at math and so on. Very interesting stuff.

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