review of malcolm gladwell's outliers

OUTLIERS: THE STORY OF SUCCESSA REVIEWBy Andrew Brown

Over the last decade the name Malcolm Gladwell has become synonymous with the genre of Pop-Sociology

Outliers fits snugly in this genre.

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD WORK OF POP-SOCIOLOGY?

Scientifically sound

Comprehensible to the target audience

Entertaining to the target audience

Relevant to the target audience

Well written

“Outlier” is a term used to describe things, people, or phenomenon that lie outside of normal experience.

This book is concerned with people who are outliers in terms of success.

WHEN YOUR BORN MATTERS

Of the seventy-five richest people of human history, fourteen were born between 1831 and 1840.

To become a Computer Mogul, a person needed to be born between 1952 and 1958.

10,000 HOUR RULE

To become an expert in something it takes 10,000 hours of practice

10,000 hours = 3 hours/day x 10 years

There are no prodigies

OTHER TOPICS

Chance

Cultural influences

Class Influences

Summer Vacation

STYLE

Series of anecdotes

Several Digressions per story that explain the underlying factors

Often within the digestions in a story there is other related stories

Towards the end it becomes a manifesto for the fostering of success

POSITIVE ASPECTS

Uses sound data from reputable sources

Covers a subject important to almost everyone, especially budding intellectuals about to start their careers.

Combines research from many sources and uses them to create a fresh portrait of something so basic and well studied

POSITIVE ASPECTS

It written plainly and clearly

It is quick moving and highly entertaining

Provides suggestions to increase the fostering of success

NEGATIVE ASPECTS

Lacks level of proof necessary for a scientific work

Some of the research is disputable

Due to anecdote-based style Gladwell jumps from one topic to another

Read It!

GETTING LUCKY *BELONGS BETWEEN 6 AND 7, PROBABLY WON’T BE SHOWN DUE TO TIME RESTRAINTS

Bill Gates had access to a computing terminal as an eighth-grader in 1968.

He lived a couple miles from the University of Washington as a teenager.