A fascinating read | Outliers: The Story of Success

As always..... | Outliers: The Story of Success | Malcolm Gladwell

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	• Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell Little, Brown and Company, 2008 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 804 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Deep Impact

This is a must read for any thinking person I believe. Gladwell makes his case very convincingly for lack of coincidences and what we call accidents in general. He is very quantitative, not surprising for an ex-editor of the NYT Science pages. The idea that significant events and developments in human history are rarely random is not very original of course. Gladwell on the other hand cleverly extends this concept to more daily events at more personal level, like how and why Gates was propelled to the pinnacle of success and riches as a result of not just his hard work and intelligence but also as a result of factors that came together beyond his control. Even in sports, the arena of ultimate individual talent and determination, we find that there are factors at play that determine the success of an athlete that have little to do with skill. Similar analysis is extended to other phenomna from aviation disasters to education.
The findings and conclusions are extremely interesting and thought provoking, maybe familiar concepts to scholars but told in a way that makes it very pleasant for the average reader. The writing is very good, though maybe some points are overdone, overall a catchy and entertaining book.

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A fascinating read

By now most communication professionals will understand The Law of the Few and know that to communicate change you need only to identify and connect with Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen, those few who can tip ideas into popularity (often unexpectedly). You'll appreciate that contagious behavior of little changes can have big effects that tip into a dramatic movement (the "tipping point").

Yes, Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point (Abacus, 2000) has been around a while now. It's essential reading for communicators as it explains how "ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do" (p.7).

Gladwell's second popular book Blink (Penguin, 2005) is a fun read about "those moments when we `know' something without knowing why". Experts can develop a "gut-feel" that goes beyond rational analysis. There's a lot of useful information of value to HR people (e.g. about making judgements of people), but it's not essentially about communication.

Outliers: The Story of Success (sold as Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don't in some markets) is Gladwell's latest social research effort. In this he thoroughly examines the reasons for the success of some famous people (e.g. Bill Gates, Robert Oppenheimer and The Beatles) and others who achieved great success although not so well known. He also explores why some clever and talented geniuses did not achieve success. He examines some ethnic traits and the importance of putting in hard work (10,000 hours to become expert), and discovers that being born at the right time in history helps.

There are ten chapters over 300 pages in two parts - "Opportunity" (about having the chance to succeed at the right time, and putting in the hours) and "Legacy" (about the impact of societal traditions you are subjected to). As with the other Gladwell books there is an excellent index and lots of additional notes.

It's a long while since I read a book so hard to put down. It's absolutely fascinating. It's not directly about communication and, yes, I know that research conducted in this way is not that rigorous (although he does quote some studies which are). But it is a great and convincing read, especially for HR people faced with decisions about people (e.g. how to develop high-fliers).
Outliers is strongly recommended.

Incidentally, I realise that some readers, like me, will have sat at Gladwell's feet and heard him explain his research and conclusions. If you get the chance to hear this very talented young genius I'd suggest you jump at it.

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As always.....

there are exceptions to the rules. The 10,000 hour rule is fascinating, and makes sense. Although, Malcolm uses Bill Gates and several other prominent masters of their fields, what's left out is that all of them had ACCESS. They were people who knew people, or by family proxy. Good for them, but sucks for the rest of us who don't have the hook-ups. One has to plow through all the nonsense to get ahead.

10000 Hours = 1.14079553 Years

Include sleeping and other activities (life in general), and you're looking at about 5 years to "master" something.

I'm gonna re-read it again, it's a pretty good read, but that last portion of the book is really boring, and low energy compared to the excellent first half, in my opinion.

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Interesting Studies But Not Sure How it Can Help

As many people at work were raving about this book I needed to read it for myself. I was a little reluctant at first because of some of the Amazon reviews saying that Gladwell culled information from a lot of studies and that the reader would be better served going to some of those studies themsleves.

Gladwell has done an excellent job of poring through mountains of data and presented many of these studies in a concise way that can be understood by any layman. Most of the information is presented in a logical and interesting progression. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it in the same way when I am flipping channels and I see something marvelous structure being built on a Discovery Channel show.

Though the information is fascinating and I enjoyed reading most of the book, I wonder if this is really a "self-help" book or not. The first few chapters talk about how successful people are made. Having not been born in the first three months of the year, I already missed the first level of success. Not having 10,000 hours available to master something new, I missed the next idea. I was not born in the ideal years for success in the computer field (1952-1955) and my parents were not clothing makers in Eastern Europe.

I was not born Asian so I will never have the mastery of math that someone that speaks and Asian language has from the time they started first learning numbers. Then the chapter on the likelihood of a crash based on ethnic background makes one be more frightened to fly on one of the airlines that may have a pilot and copilot from a "class-laden" country. I assume that the studies and new training methods have since reduced these risks.

What it all comes down to is that this is a fun read and I definately recommend the book because the reader will find most of it fascinating. But there is very little information that can be used for those that want a "self-help" manual to be successful.

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In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

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