Outliers-Jewish Lawyers, Asian Mathematics, and Kentucky Feuds

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While there are those who don’t like Malcolm Gladwell’s analyses of everyday life, I have found them useful over the years to help make sense of the world. Yes, they are theories and we need to be open to the possibility that they could be wrong, but The Tipping Point and Blink have given me mental constructs that I find useful.

So, it is no surprise that I really liked Outliers, his newest book.

What makes him so special..he’s hyped, but deserving, is not so much that his insights are brilliant (though they may be), it’s that he’s just a really, really, (did I say really?) good storyteller.

On my bedstand now, I have 7 or 8 books that people have sent me or I’ve taken out of the library.

I’m at the point now where time is too valuable to wade through a book that doesn’t capture my attention (hey, it’s an attention economy, right?). I feel like I should give them a chance, but if after 40 or 50 pages, I find myself bored, it’s game over.

Well, Outliers didn’t have that problem.

I had the other problem…not being able to put it down.

In short, he says that our basic understanding of success is flawed. It’s not as simple as someone works hard and makes it.

Rather, there are a multitude of factors that affect that, including history (rice paddy management is more intensive than wheat farming which leads to a stronger Asian work ethic…which directly leads to mathematical achievement.)

As a history major, I liked the holistic approach to analyzing the situations.

Also, it made me ask…what are the confluence of events which have put me where I am and, since the book is about success, how can I maximize the benefit of those events (some earned, some not, some of my own making, some luck)?