Outliers: The Story of Success
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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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, November 2008: Now that he's gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "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 from Mozart to 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."
Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits 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, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. But there's more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples--and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps--Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential. --Mari Malcolm
From Publishers Weekly
SignatureReviewed by Leslie ChangIn Outliers, Gladwell (The Tipping Point) once again proves masterful in a genre he essentially pioneered—the book that illuminates secret patterns behind everyday phenomena. His gift for spotting an intriguing mystery, luring the reader in, then gradually revealing his lessons in lucid prose, is on vivid display. Outliers begins with a provocative look at why certain five-year-old boys enjoy an advantage in ice hockey, and how these advantages accumulate over time. We learn what Bill Gates, the Beatles and Mozart had in common: along with talent and ambition, each enjoyed an unusual opportunity to intensively cultivate a skill that allowed them to rise above their peers. A detailed investigation of the unique culture and skills of Eastern European Jewish immigrants persuasively explains their rise in 20th-century New York, first in the garment trade and then in the legal profession. Through case studies ranging from Canadian junior hockey champions to the robber barons of the Gilded Age, from Asian math whizzes to software entrepreneurs to the rise of his own family in Jamaica, Gladwell tears down the myth of individual merit to explore how culture, circumstance, timing, birth and luck account for success—and how historical legacies can hold others back despite ample individual gifts. Even as we know how many of these stories end, Gladwell restores the suspense and serendipity to these narratives that make them fresh and surprising.One hazard of this genre is glibness. In seeking to understand why Asian children score higher on math tests, Gladwell explores the persistence and painstaking labor required to cultivate rice as it has been done in East Asia for thousands of years; though fascinating in its details, the study does not prove that a rice-growing heritage explains math prowess, as Gladwell asserts. Another pitfall is the urge to state the obvious: No one, Gladwell concludes in a chapter comparing a high-IQ failure named Chris Langan with the brilliantly successful J. Robert Oppenheimer, not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires and not even geniuses—ever makes it alone. But who in this day and age believes that a high intelligence quotient in itself promises success? In structuring his book against that assumption, Gladwell has set up a decidedly flimsy straw man. In the end it is the seemingly airtight nature of Gladwell's arguments that works against him. His conclusions are built almost exclusively on the findings of others—sociologists, psychologists, economists, historians—yet he rarely delves into the methodology behind those studies. And he is free to cherry-pick those cases that best illustrate his points; one is always left wondering about the data he evaluated and rejected because it did not support his argument, or perhaps contradicted it altogether. Real life is seldom as neat as it appears in a Malcolm Gladwell book. (Nov.)Leslie T. Chang is the author of Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China (Spiegel & Grau).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Like his previous work, THE TIPPING POINT, BLINK is a thought-provoking, category-defying book. The audio is read by the author with care and conviction." (AudioFile Magazine )
Customer Reviews
Entrhalling
What I like about this book is that it explains concepts in stories. Some of the arguments and descriptions are surprising, and when you think about them you can see them acting out in your own life. Other arguments are less persuasive - but even these arguments are a fine read and very entertaining. All in all I found the book to be well balanced, well researched and well presented. The book is made to feel like a personal conversation between you and the author rather than an instructional or lecturing guide. You don't have to buy all the arguments, but you definitely should buy the book.
The book that worth your time and money.
"Outliers" is one of the best non-fiction books that I have read. "Outliers", according to Gladwell, are people who are hugely successful and are considered by most people as really different from the rest of the world in terms of talent, skills and abilities. But is it really the full story?
In his book, Gladwell is looking at "outliers" of our world and trying to understand the real reasons for their success. What really defines the future chances of any Canadian boy to become a famous hockey player? Is it talent, physical strength or... his day of birth? Is Bill Gates a one-in-a-million computer genius or was he simply incredibly lucky? Why so many children of Jewish immigrants in 1930s became famous lawyers? Is it simply a coincidence? There are many themes, examples and anecdotes in this small book; there is also a lot of research done on the related subjects - psychology, social studies, history and business - that is referenced in this book. Sometimes, Gladwell's conclusions are obvious common sense; sometimes, they are surprising. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for the people who still hadn't have a chance to read this book - and it has all the suspense of a good thriller (including a lot of airplane's crashes).
One thing that I can promise to any reader: this book will make you think. Also, you will want to re-read it - sometimes to find contra-arguments, sometimes to check the point. So far, all my friends and colleagues who read "Outliers", enjoyed it. What's more interesting, people have different angles and perspectives - so they apply the "outliers" logic to different situations: leadership in the company; importance of acknowledging cultural heritage; the different approaches to children's upbringing; the role of luck and opportunities in our life. And sometimes it may be just fresh unbiased look at the world around us.
You don't have to agree with Gladwell's conclusions - some of them are "far-fetched", even in my (biased!) opinion. Still, I think that any book that makes us to get out of our "box" is worth reading - if only to make our minds a little bit more open. And Gladwell is one of the best writers, who are able to do just that.
A Fun and Interesting Set of Stories About Success
Falling into the category of books that I like to call "Why things are/happen," Malcolm Gladwell lays out in Outliers a set of stories and studies about success, and it's antithesis failure, with a quick pace and interesting thesis--success is not necessarily the bastion of the smart or wealthy, but a combination of genius, culture, and timing.
Although I had initially thought Outliers would be a "how you too can get rich and be successful," I soon realized that while conclusions and policies suggestions might be gleaned from the chapters and stories, the book was more interesting for its pure explanation of seemingly inexplicable events.
For example: why are hockey players more likely to be born in January, February or March than September, October or November? Why are Asians better at math than Americans? How can knowing ones birth in New York predict ones profession?
Serious. And interesting. I could not put it down, and I found my mind stimulated from the first page to the last, and still I keep finding my mind returning to the ideas and possibilities it presents.
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