Outliers: The Story of Success

by Gladwell, Malcolm

Published: November 18, 2008

Read: May 12, 2018

★★★★★

Review

An amazing book that explores the idea that the truly exceptional were hard working AND extremely lucky products of their circumstances. The environment and circumstances play an incredibly huge role in what someone becomes. The author beautifully explores the ideas while citing specific evidence and examples. But, in countering the American idea that people deserve what they have, Gladwell showcases the opposite extreme while avoiding many of the counterarguments. But, I finished the book in a day because it was so in tune with how I believed the world works. On the one hand, it discredits natural genius, skill, and success in favor of hard work and circumstance. This is a powerful view for anyone that can soften boundaries between social classes, motivate people to not limit themselves, and make people thankful for what they have. Thus, a mandatory book for all.

Notes

#Book by [[Malcolm Gladwell]]

"There is something profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success."
Instead of looking at what people are like—their personalities, their lifestyles, and their innate talents—he suggests looking at their environment for "hidden advantages" and "extraordinary opportunities"
[[The Matthew Effect]]
- Success creates opportunity which creates more success
- [[Hockey]] has age cut off date on Jan 1st
  - From Professional Canadian Hockey, 40% of hockey players are born in Jan-Mar and just 10% in Oct-Dec.
  - Players born earlier are slightly older and so get more opportunity
- Similar in Europen [[Soccer]], American [[Baseball]]
- In the [[Education System]], "teachers are confusing maturity with ability" when choosing reading/math groups
[[Success]] has much more to do with practice and hard work than talent
- Practice isn't something to do once your good, it is the thing that makes you good
- [[10,000-Hour Rule]]: it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a complex task
  - It's an extraordinary amount of time, 416 24-hour days, often requires special opportunity
  - Early 1990s, Ericsson studies violinists and finds at 20 years old the best had 10k hours of practice, good has 8k hours, and teachers had 4k hours
- [[Beatles]] practiced in strip clubs 8 hours a day 7 days a week. That is insane, more than some bands perform in their entire careers
[[Success]] is not a random act it comes from a powerful set of opportunities and circumstances. A steady accumulation of [[Opportunity]].
- [[Bill Joy]] was at University of Michigan, one of the first colleges to get time shared computers.
- [[Bill Gates]] went to a fancy private school where they got a time-sharing terminal. Most colleges didn’t even have computer clubs. He and [[Paul Allen]] lived in the computer lab.
- Of the 75 wealthiest humans in history, 14 were born between 1831 and 1840.
  - [[J.P. Morgan]] (b. 1837), [[John D. Rockefeller]] (b. 1839), [[Andrew Carnegie]] (b. 1835), and [[Marshall Field]] (b. 1834)
  - They came of age just as the [[Industrial Revolution]] began in the 1860s
  - Young enough to embrace the changes in the American industry and old enough to take advantage of it.
- In Silicon Valley, the bedrock of the computing industry, the magic birth date is the mid-1950s.
  - [[Bill Gates]] 1955, [[Paul Allen]] (cofounder of Microsoft and Gates's childhood best friend) 1953, [[Steve Jobs]] 1955, and [[Bill Joy]] 1954.
  - Became 21 when personal computers come out in 1975
  - Not too old to be entrenched in IBM, but not too young to not be able to take advantage of it
- Many successful New York lawyers in late 1900s were poor Jewish immigrant parents who worked in the garment industry
  - Jewish lawyers weren't wanted at top law firms and took whatever they could get including "scandalous" hostile takeover which blew up in 1970s
  - [[Parenting]], child born during the birth rate drop of the Great Depression had less competition and more opportunity
  - Early 19th Century Garment Industry
    - Jewish came to new York with experience in garment industry.
    - Garment industry full of small [[Entrepreneurs]] because you only need sewing machines to start a business
    - [[Meaningful Work]] has complexity, autonomy, and relationship between effort and reward.
    - 1982 study by Louis Farkas found basically every garment industry employee had grandchildren who were doctors and lawyers
Study of [[Intelligence]] and [[Genius]]
- [[Genius]] defined as [[IQ]] of >140
- Terman from Stanford followed geniuses and most lived ordinary lives. Defining factor was socio economic class
- Sure 120 is better than 70, but after 120 the advantages fall away
  - Someone with an [[IQ]] of 130 is just "as likely to win a Nobel Prize" as someone with an IQ of 180. Randomly selecting from gifted group as good as choosing top .1 of .1.
  - [[IQ]] is like height in basketball. Can’t be 5’6”, but you just need to be smart enough. About more than IQ at that point.
- [[Christopher Langan]] tested at >190 IQ, Einstein at 150 and average 100
  - College dropout that spent most of his life working as a college bouncer and CTMU(Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe)
  - His problem is practical intelligence largely because of his upbringing in an abusive household
- [[Robert Oppenheimer]] the scientific director of the Manhattan Project
  - He wasn't any smarter than Langan, but "he possessed the kind of savvy that allowed him to get what he wanted from the world." After trying to poison tutor, only put on probation.
  - Upperclass upbringing
Power index difference/ respect for authority correlates with plane crashes
- High power index like [[South Korea]] or [[Columbia]]
  - Korean Air suffered 17 times more plane crashes than almost any other airline between 1988 and 1998
  - [[Mitigating Speech]]
    - In the 1997 Korean Air crash, "The weather looks bad ahead. We should go around," => "Captain, the weather radar has helped us a lot."
    - The first officer assumed the captain knew what he meant, but no
  - First officer too polite to correct authority of pilot
- Low power index like [[US]], [[Sweden]], and [[Austria]]
[[Asians]] are better at [[Math]]
- Asians numbers are more regular and short
  - English with its confusing teens
  - Asian children learn numbers faster and younger
  - Can memorize more numbers because it correlates to word length
- Rice farming is really hard! Hard, constant work and skill produce more rice, unlike other farmers. Hard work => [[Success]]
- TIMSS(International Math/Science Test) has an optional questionnaire before the test. The number of questions of answered strongly correlated to scores
Researchers theorize that upper-income and lower-income students would perform at the same academic level if schools were in session year-round.
- Summer vacation is the root of the "achievement gap," between upper-income and lower-income students.
- Both learn a lot during the school year, but the lower-income students don't retain as much of that knowledge over long summer breaks.
"The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all" much more based on environment and circumstance