Outliers: The Story of Success

I didn't expect this book to change my perspective on success the way it did. I like how Gladwell tells a lot of different succes stories from all kinds of fields (hockey, education, aviation, IT, to name a few) and highlights their hidden similarities. Once you know the pattern, it's quite obvious. Insightful and entertaining! ( )

There is good reason Malcom Gladwell is one of the most successful nonfiction writers of our time. The book was wonderful - I loved it. 4.5 stars.

In outliers he challenges the common assumption of success that people “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” In fact the stories of those most successful, people like Bill Gates or the Beatles are actually the convergence of several important factors, namely great opportunities, tons of hard work (to the sum of 10,000 hours), and luck. Environment, genetics, cultural heritage (or legacy) all impact us much more than we’d like to admit, or even realize. For instance, cultural factors, such as deference to authority and social hierarchy played a large role in airline Korean Air to have excessive accidents and deaths (in the past and now have been remedied). Honor and shame culture passed down resulted in excessive bloodshed throughout the Appalachian mountains that seem to even affect Southerners today. Hockey all-stars have a wild tendency to be born in January, February and March! Why? Because of birthdate cut offs as children... a phenomenon prevalent in many other areas of life. Also - have you ever wondered why Asians do so well at math? Well- you’ll have to read the book to find out. :) Fascinating (and convincing) theory. Related is the importance for your job to have autonomy, complexity and a direct relationship between effort and reward.

Gladwell also addresses the easiest pushback with not just one, but two chapters - what about geniuses?! He compares two unquestionable geniuses - Robert Oppenheimer and Chris Langan. The difference is that the former wound up overseeing the Manhattan project despite being wrongly qualified (and attempting to murder his advisor at one point) and the later failing to graduate college. It comes down to child upbringing and the massive differences between how socioeconomics affect child rearing practices.

Like I said above, overall I loved it. Gladwell combines research and intriguing stories like no other.

I’m sure people might complain that he cherry picks his stories. No doubt he does. This isn’t a peer reviewed journal article. He isn’t surveying all the possible studies on any given topic. We shouldn’t expect that.

Are all the examples bullet proof? Of course not. There are questions after each one and pushbacks. For one, in the chapter on genetic heritage (actually I don’t remember him using that phrase) - he makes the argument that Southerners today tend to toward quicker hostility when offended and this was seen even among metropolitan folks living in Michigan (but from the south). I had wanted so much more like, more studies and examples buttressing his argument ... but that would be a whole other book. Being from the south and questioning that tendency in myself before, I was astonished.

For what it is (popular psychology nonfiction), you can’t beat it. Highly recommended. Great food for thought, especially for parenting and how we understand success (and failure).

Why not 5 stars, you ask? In general I try to hold out a 5 star rating for books that I find truly great, specifically books I plan to read more than once or twice. Outliers does an exceptional job of telling stories to make the points, so well I can remember practically every story after hearing them just once. So it’s a one and done book, but I plan to read all his others soon. ( )

A fantastic read for educators and anyone else interested in the relationships between talent, intelligence, and success. ( )

This book was very interesting to me. I learned a lot about things I've never truly thought about, such as how birthdays affect your potential to be a successful person. How would anyone know that? Gladwell seems to disscuss this topic throughout the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about success along with how people achieve it.

Fascinating. Would recommend, especially to those with a mind tuned for scientific inquiry. ( )