"In the vast world of nonfiction writing, [Malcolm Gladwell] is as close to a singular talent as exists today...[Outliers] is a pleasure to read and leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward...Outliers represents a new kind of book for Gladwell...It is almost a manifesto." (New York Times Book Review David Leonhardt )
"...The explosively entertaining Outliers might be [Gladwell's] best and most useful work yet...there are both brilliant yarns and life lessons here: Outliers is riveting science, self-help, and entertainment, all in one book.-A." (Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling )
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers was an interesting read. The subtitle, “The story of success” defines it nicely. Gladwell describes different stories of different people and situations. He explains his thesis: it is mainly the way one was raised that defines one’s success. Their background and upbringing: the things that are generally overlooked are just as important when it comes to success as the well-known aspects, like determination and practice.
ReplyDeleteHis explanation is demonstrated through different, seemingly unrelated stories. However, all of these stories connect to success in some way. For example, Gladwell offers a theory of how one becomes an expert at a subject: the 10,000-Hour Rule. He gives the example of the Beatles, who weren’t very good until they went to Hamburg, Germany. There, they performed eight hours a day, seven days a week. With this amount of practice, it really wasn’t surprising that they came back so improved. Gladwell writes of very wealthy people, like Joe Flom, and the circumstances that led to their wealth. This chapter is called “The Three Lessons of Joe Flom”. The lessons being “The Importance of Being Jewish”, “Demographic Luck” and “The Garment Industry and Meaningful Work”. He mentions IQ, and how there seems to be a threshold: any higher than 200 and the height no longer correlates to success. Rather, it depends on the person, and their ability to deal with difficult situations. Incidentally, this goes back to their upbringing. These chapters support his theory that it is the circumstances that result in a situation or person’s success.
The novel is very explanatory and entertaining. The actual content kept my attention well, and I genuinely enjoyed the read. There were a few weaknesses, such as how Gladwell barely talks of personality. With the 10,000-hour rule, it seems that one of the key features would be liking the subject you’re spending 10,000 hours on, wouldn’t it? However, Gladwell never mentions this. On top of that, as many problems as he offers, he never exactly offers solutions to them. There seems to be many things that we should do differently, but Gladwell does not really offer how to change them.
Outliers sold well for a reason. The ideas within it are thought-provoking; they are engaging, but fairly easy to understand. As for it’s place in literature, it’s not very profound, but it was still an inspiring read. I certainly recommend it.
Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” is about exceptional people and how they succeed. Gladwell’s aim in “Outliers” is to teach his audience about the pathway to success. His scope is success stories of the 20th and 21st century, because these stories are more relevant to us, and also because even those who are not born rich have an increasingly good chance of being successful.
ReplyDeleteHis thesis is what allows people to succeed are sometimes surprising factors that are not immediately obvious. Gladwell’s main contention is that some people have advantages in their class, culture, and generation that allow them to succeed. More than just hard work and perseverance, there is a large degree of luck involved in success. Gladwell was biased in discussing mostly those people who are successful; he should have acknowledged that there are people with similar advantages who do not succeed. Though he talked with some people who didn’t succeed, such as Chris Langan, these were only people who were lacking the possibilities he was demonstrating.
He listed several interesting factors such as birth month and how it affects sports and school performance from a very early age, and how certain classes and cultures tend to put more value in education. Another contention was that we don’t live in a completely equal society; certain people are born with advantages over others.
Gladwell used a variety of sources. He didn’t just prove his theory of success from one angle. He talked about success from the viewpoint of culture, birth month, generation, in a variety of different cases ranging from hockey players to airline pilots.
Gladwell should have made more of a point about the fact that, even with the advantages that some people have, not everyone in a similar scenario actually takes advantage of these possibilities.
I have never read a book similar to Outliers but I think that it was so easy to understand and the points were conveyed so well, that it really is accessible to everyone. It was not a self-help book, nor did I want one, but it was a fascinating sociological look at the inequality of the world that we live in; some people have so many more opportunities than other people. More than anything, I found it interesting and it will allow me to be more analytical of the basis of people’s success.
As the cover illustrates, Outliers is a novel that is ultimately about the story of success. In the novel, Malcolm Gladwell explains the stories of individual’s lives and scenarios of how they reached incomparable success. The author’s objective is to give the reader an understanding of how seemingly ordinary people end up standing out from the crowd. Gladwell argues that social factors have a major effect on determining whether someone will be an outlier or not.
ReplyDeleteOutliers is based on looking beyond the capacity of an individual’s dedication and coming to a realization that a person’s success is not solely based on their talent. Along with hard work and preparation, the success of an individual depends on their culture, family views, and generation too. Gladwell is biased in a way that he only recognizes the people who have become successful, when he should have also identified the individuals who had equivalent experiences and opportunities but did not succeed.
Gladwell’s argument is presented through different stories that are eventually all linked to success. “The Matthew Effect” talks about the relationship between birth-dates and professional athletes. In chapter two, Gladwell explains that the cause that differentiates each individual is how much practice is put into their work. He reveals the connection between the possible disadvantages of being a pilot from a certain cultural background, and plane crashes related to this factor. All of these scenarios go back to the correlation of an outlier’s background to reaching a high standard of success.
Outliers is organized in a way that is very easy to understand and follow. The headings and content of the novel keeps the reader engaged and aids them to continue reading the novel. An excellent strength is how Gladwell organizes his thoughts: quick, precise and to the point. While he is trying to prove his main contention through explaining stories of each outlier’s life, the reader discovers how unique and distinctive their lives were and the background factors that led them to triumph. One thing Gladwell could have elaborated on is the finesse that can be done for an individual to achieve success.
This novel included an array of different perspectives about success and how an individual does not usually succeed on their own. Success is a group effort and it is based on different contributions from many different people and the number of opportunities an individual is given.
Adrienne Cascioli
Does higher IQ, superior ability, constant effort, passion and ambition guarantee the success?
ReplyDeleteIs Bill Gates a computer genius? Was Mozart a prodigy in classical music? Why were they so successful than the others?
Malcolm Gladwell defines “outlier” as a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience. This book is about people who are outliers, people who have accomplished in extraordinary ways. Gladwell argues that there are important things we are missing beyond the typical stories of success.
Gladwell explains the readers that successes are often predetermined by the time and environment into which you are born. However, there are other factors such as the amount of time of practicing/studying and luckiness that affect the chances of being successful. Gladwell describes the outliers as people who have all of these conditions satisfied.
Bill Gates is a good example. Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle – the perfect timing to succeed in the computer field as 1975, the year Gates turns to twenty, was the most important year of the computer revolution history. His father was lawyer and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy banker. Thus, Bill could go to this private school Lakeside. In 1968, the Mother’s Club at school bought the latest computer, which was extraordinarily rare case at the time. Bill got addicted to this computer. He was also given chances to walk up and use computer at University of Washington. One day, Bill and his friends got offered a job as a developer while they were in grade 12, since they were the most experienced programmers at this time. He was born in the right place at the right time in the right family. Bill probably was the most experienced with the personal computer at the time in his age. If just one of them turned out to be false, Bill would not have been the “Bill Gates.”
Malcolm Gladwell has an amazing skill of writing clear and simple. At the same time, he has arranged the orders of the contents neatly. Also, he uses detailed data to prove his theories. Maybe all of these theories already existed before, and Gladwell made them easy to understand, interesting and entertaining.
I have never read or seen or heard about any books like Outliers. However, if you are looking for books about the ways to succeed or want to look at how others have accomplished, this book is going to refresh and change your mind towards the success.
Outliers is about the story of people who are confronted with extraordinary opportunities and are able to make the best of them, and shares how they came about to rise in such success. After reading the book, the reader becomes more aware of the different pathways to success; what are thought to be unique stories actually share many commonalities. Outliers is made up of various stories about people who have worked hard and were presented with opportunities to make them who they are today. Malcolm Gladwell also considers situations about people who were “supposed” to be successful but for specific reason were not, such as Christopher Langon.
ReplyDeleteSuccess is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky-but all critical to making them who they are. The reader concludes that outliers are not actually outliers at all. The study portrayed in the book comes to the conclusion that one requires a combination of events and variables to be crowned triumphant. The different variables include how hard one works, ones distribution of different brain power (analytical vs. Practical intelligence), heritage, when one is born, and of course opportunity. The book presents a bias because Malcolm Gladwell is the person choosing the life stories that fits his thesis best. Although I believe most stories of success follow his general outline, the stories in this book are carefully chosen for a specific reason.
Success is not always awarded to the hardest worker or the smartest person, it is taken by the people who seize the opportunities they are given. The ten thousand hour rule is a concept that scientists label as the point of expertise; after ten thousand hours of practise one is an expert in that field. The people that reach this achievement first, are the same people who are given the best opportunities early in their lives.
One of the books major strengths is the amount or statistical research that is presented. Throughout the chapters, every point that is brought up is supported in one way or another. Another major strength is the author’s ability to get the message across in and efficient way, while holding the reader’s attention. Outliers is a widely recognized and popular book, that intrigues all general audiences. It has been on the best sellers list for the reason that it gives critical advice to those who want to seek success. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to broaden their perspective on the topic of success.
Jamie Hood
Have you ever considered what Bill Gates and the Beatles have in common? If your child was born in the last quarter of the year, would you consider holding them back from school until the next year? Have you ever wondered why Asians are brilliant in math? If any of this intrigues you, consider reading, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers-The Story of Success.
ReplyDeleteGladwell describes an Outlier, whose achievements and success fall outside of normal experience. Gladwell provides a fresh perspective to explain the underlying reasons for success through the use of stories and anecdotes. Current theories of success assume that an individual’s characteristics and personality are the main factors. Gladwell challenges those theories and offers a broader theory of success. He argues that success is not determined by personality alone but rather, by factors beyond the individual. The culture, community, family, generation, birthdates and opportunities, all matter in the formation of an Outlier.
It is how Gladwell presents his arguments with stories and anecdotes that reach his audience and leave a memorable impression. In Part One of the book, Gladwell provides evidence for “opportunity” which he defines as hidden advantages that are unique to some. His example of professional hockey players shows that a disproportionate number of them are born in the first few months of the year. This opportunity for increased strength and size leads to further opportunities that eventually cascades to success. Part II offers the explanation of cultural legacy as a success factor. Gladwell takes the simple theory of effort leads to reward, and brings it alive through his example of rice paddy farming, which produces a culture of mathematical brilliance.
While these stories are interesting and thought provoking, they are not necessarily scientifically sound. Gladwell’s sources are from sociology, history and economics studies but are not necessarily from academic scientific studies. Gladwell offers correlation versus causation and anecdotes versus evidence. Although an academic may criticize Gladwell’s propositions, the book is well written for a larger mass of mainstream society who find this “pop sociology” fascinating. Gladwell succeeds with this book because he takes on a complex topic and creates simplified explanations through memorable stories, something academics often have difficulty doing.
The book is not only entertaining, but it is also inspiring. It gives us hope because we realize we have more control over our success than originally thought. Success is not based solely on our innate characteristics but also on other factors including effort (10,000 hour rule) and the contribution from our families, culture and society.
Gladwell achieves his goal of explaining the success of extraordinary people in a different light than what we might expect. He also challenges us as members of society to take part in creating many more Outliers. If the world had allowed many more teens to access computer terminals in the late 1960s and early 1970s, “how many more Microsofts would we have today.”
Outliers is a book about success and why some people have more success than others. Gladwell follows many success stories and conducts interviews to find out why and how they became successful. He finds out that most success stories aren’t about being the under-dog and fighting your way to the top. Though the people he talks about may have worked hard to get where they are today many had help from things that were out of their control. Gladwell found that where you are from, your background, your parent’s background and many other sociological factors determine whether or not one will be successful.
ReplyDeleteGladwell’s thesis in the book is that success has many factors than just hard work. You have to work hard, the 10,000 hours chapter proves that but there are many other factors to take into consideration. Gladwells thesis states that other than hard work there are many sociological factors such as: where you are from, your background, the wealth of your parents and when you were born just to name a few.
There are three main arguments made through out the book. The first what kind of home you grew up in financially this is seen mostly in the “The Trouble with Geniuses” when it compares to people that have around the same IQ test scores. The first couldn’t go to a good and prestigious university because he couldn’t afford it. Which in turn caused no one to take any of his ideas and opinions seriously. Where as the second man who lived a successful life regarding his career because he went to a creditable university. The second is that success can depend on your background. For instance in the chapter “The Three Chapters of Joe Flom” follows a man from who was from Poland and his wife who was from Hungry. They moved to America and were searching for work. Shortly after moving they realized that they could make aprons like they had when they were in their home country and soon they were earning a decent living. None of this would have happened if they hadn’t learned the skills that were so prominent in there native country. The final argument was when you were born. In “The Mathew Effect” Gladwell proves that in professional sports most players are born earlier in the year. This is because when they were younger and getting scouted for teams there would be kids who were born in December playing against kids who were born in January of the same year. Meaning that they had a full year of growth on the other kids when if counted most.
The book was well written and captured your attention from the vary start. Using the cause and effect style of writing he explains and proves his arguments effectively. However, after a while Gladwells arguments started to seem repetitive. He used many different examples that proved the same point. Though examples are good to ensure that the reader understands what the author is saying there is also a line that Gladwell came close to crossing.
Many people think that success is working hard. If you just keep working then you will eventually be successful. This is true to a certain point. This book contributes a new dimension of looking at success and successful people. It is different from what you usually see in the movies where there is an under dog and against all odds he/she is successful. Though it is possible for the under dog t be successful it is not because they worked twice as hard as everybody else it is because of many factors that they couldn’t control but were working for them anyway. This book is different from other success stories in a way that is gives you a different and more realistic look at success.
History is full of successful people. Many people have their own views on how success is achieved, and how one can reach this point in life. Malcolm Gladwell’s novel Outliers took me on a journey of success. Outliers, was a very intriguing novel, describing how individuals reach an optimal point of success in their life. Gladwell clearly states several theories as to why he believes successful people have made it big in the world today. In Gladwell’s thesis, he states that there are several factors that affect success rather than just hard work.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm Gladwell looks beyond a normal human being’s capacity at success, and does not focus on mere talent. Gladwell dissects an individual’s tactics and dedication, and provides the reader with insight on their birth dates, family views, cultures and even the environment they live in.
Gladwell presents his premise in different ways with each of his arguments being linked to the idea of success. Gladwell teaches the reader of the “Matthew Effect”, which is the idea that the month an individual is born in can affect their success in life. For example, the Matthew Effect states that individuals born in January, February, and March are more likely to succeed in professional sports. In later chapters of the book Gladwell also explains that the number of hours spent practicing a specific task is crucial to an individual success rate.
Malcolm Gladwell uses the cause and effect feature throughout the novel to thoroughly state his facts and theories to the readers. However, throughout the novel I found that Gladwell used some of the same material in too many areas that I almost became uninterested in the repetitive stories. It was quite clear that Gladwell’s main point of the novel is to fill the reader with many valuable points and statements about success, however Gladwell almost portrayed that point in a way that was almost too much for the reader to clutch.
The novel Outliers was a very interesting read. I found myself reading page after page, not wanting to put the book down. The novel captured my idea of success and I gained a sincere appreciation for the many successful people of the world. I also learned not to judge a book by its cover and always look for a deeper view of an individual. Most people believe that successful people are just born successful. Gladwell points out a new understanding of success in the novel, and explains that there are many obstacles that one must face in order to make it big. Hours and hours of practice are necessary for success in a specific area. Individuals who spend hours a day focusing on their specific activity tend to stand out a lot more than others, and this is both admirable and inspiring.