The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (2008)

I first read this book in January 2009 en route to Adelaide. I decided to read it again recently to refresh my memory on Gladwell’s theory of why certain individuals stand out from the crowd. His hypothesis?

“People don’t rise from nothing.  We do owe something to parentage and patronage.  The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves.  But in fact 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.  It makes a difference where and when we grew up.  The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It’s not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words.  It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.”

The first part of the book tries to show that success arises out of the steady accumulation of advantages: when and where you were born, what your parents did for a living, and that the circumstances of your upbringing make a significant difference in how well you do in the world.  The second part discusses that the traditions and attitudes we inherit from our forebears play the same role. 

Interesting insights from the book:

1. 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class expert – in anything.
2. Success is the result of what sociologists call “accumulative advantage”.
3. The sense of possibility so necessary for success comes not just from inside us or from our parents.  It comes from our time: from the particular opportunities that our particular place in history presents us with.
4. What truly distinguishes the histories of outliers is not their extraordinary talent but their extraordinary opportunities.
5. Intellect and achievement are far from perfectly correlated. Intelligence matters only up to a point, then past that point, other things (things that have nothing to do with intelligence) must start to matter more.
6. Concerted cultivation has enormous advantages. Heavily scheduled middle-class children are exposed to constantly shifting experiences and learn a sense of “entitlement”.
7. All of the advantages that wealthy students have over poor students is the result of differences in the way privileged kids learn while they are not in school.
8. Most people agree that autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward are three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.
9. If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and your imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.
10. No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.

Gladwell concludes with this statement: To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success – the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history – with a society that provides opportunities for all.

While I highly recommend this book, I still think that one must take it with a grain of salt.  I am sure that one can cite at least 10 cases to disprove Gladwell’s theory about Bill Gates, the Beatles, or Christopher Langan.  Gladwell builds a good case though and it will take one really good researcher/highly entertaining writer to convince me otherwise.

Especially that part on the 10,000 hours of practice to build a world-class level of expertise (the Little Pebble just gave me a good kick. I think the poor dear is starting to realize the enormity of 10,000 hours).