Finished Reading Outliers

Finished reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Outliers poses the question of why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many others never reach their potential? Challenging our belief of the “self-made man,” Gladwell makes the claim that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” Examining the lives of outliers like Mozart and Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”

I found Outliers to be a fascinating book full of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots’ culture impacts their crash record, and how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. Earlier in the year I read one of Malcolm Gladwell’s others books, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. I enjoyed Blink but I found Outliers to be really interesting. Now I need to look into his other book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference