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On OutliersMar 10, 2010
I'm still not completely sold on Gladwell's shtick, but I do love his anecdotes. In this book he attempts to trace success to environmental and cultural factors, and does quite a good job. Gladwell looks at oddities such as professional Canadian hockey players and their overwhelming tendency to be born in the first three months of the year. Why? Because at a very young age January 1st is the cutoff date and at that age the older kids have a significant size advantage. Since these bigger kids are selected for the better teams they go on to get better and more training as they progress through adolescence. Essentially, Canada is leaving out a large number of potential pro hockey players due to this early selection process.
One of the more fascinating chapters in the book addresses why Asians are better at math than everyone else. Gladwell asserts that the reasoning for this is cultural and linguistically-based, I will just give a summary of the linguistic side. In Cantonese, for example, numbers take only 1/4 of a second to pronounce, but in English most numbers take 1/3 of a second to pronounce. Thus the average Cantonese speaker can handily remember ten numbers while the English speaker cannot. (we usually can absorb six or seven, hence telephone numbers). In English, our number system is not intuitive and does not make a whole lot of logical sense. We use a suffix on the numbers 13-19, and then when we get to twenty we use a prefix. In Cantonese, twenty-five would be something like "two ten five," which is much more systematic than logical than "twenty-five." Because of these differences young children in Asian-speaking countries can often count up to 40, whereas their American counterparts can only reach 15. Essentially we're a full year behind and in a critical development period. Gladwell also goes on to trace math skills back to Eastern versus Western farming techniques, but I won't spoil that for you.
One criticism of this book I've heard is that Gladwell places too much emphasis for success on environmental factors. He does talk heavily about environmental factors, but he also never fails to state that hard work and determination by the individual is key to success.
Recommendation: While Outliers isn't going to win you success, it's certainly an interesting look at the causes and factors that lead to success in our world.
 developing a new worldviewMar 10, 2010
gladwell destroys the concept of inherent abilities. as a black man this is important because we have been told for 400 years that we are genetically inferior in intelligence. Gladwell's study indicates that the intelligence factor plays far less a role than many other factors such as time spent on a skill, education, and one's cultural environment. his work is going to have a tremendous effect on the education of children. it will also lead many parents to place more emphasis on intervening in their children's development, especially in having them learn special skills at an early age. we know that tiger woods began playing golf as a toddler. parents will begin taking this concept more seriously than before. black parents will also begin to understand the relationship of culture to their worldview and resultant behavior, especially what they are teaching their children on a subliminal level. it is very critical reading for those of us who live in the black communities of america. this book will spawn tremendous activity and research.many more books will be written because of it.
OutliersMar 09, 2010
I enjoyed reading about the inputs which might account for the success of an individual. Lots to think about, written in an enjoyable voice.
 Expected more.....Mar 09, 2010
I was excited to read this book, but was left diappointed. The data that the author uses is not thorough and leaves you to wonder the validity of the claims he asserts. I expected a more complete statistical analysis.
 Stories don't prove nothingMar 09, 2010
Exotic researchs and stories are tailored made to prove that success is basically sweat and family environment. It's pure nonsense. If somebody cherrypicks the right stories and selected researchs, it's possible demonstrate anything.
Malcolm Gladwell had an idea and has started to search everywhere for elements to strenghten his idea, fighting against the real and multifaceted world, that bravely tries to resist to that oversimplification.
According to Malcolm, successful people generally have strived hard. But how many people have strived hard and just fail ... But that people are invisible. The lights is on the winners. And how many people has a kind of talent and little bit of luck and go up on the podium, with no special effort. That stories are out of this book. It doesn't help to prove the author's hype.
At least I've laughed high: Malcolms argues that Beatles's success is basically because they have sweated in Hamburg.
Seriously, I believe that the success is a very complex question to be answered by an only book.
One book that shows part of this question is Leonard Mlodinow's "The Drunkard's Walk" that shows the randomness's influence in our world and in the people's fate
My belief is that there is no single recipe.
Success is work, talent, oportunities and cultural influences, but the proportions are not fixed. We can choose tons of stories that one component influences more than others.
Talent is other complex word that gathers many different features. Many researchs has confirmed that a part of talent comes from genetic, causing a range. The environment helps to determinate at which point one person reaches inside range.
For instance, it's not possible to generalize and claims that a very high QI cannot be useful in some achievements.
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based on 887 reviews
