Book Review- 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell

Answer this- What is the formula for the classic American success story?  Take a minute and answer.  It's probably some variation on the following....poor kid, came from nothing, born so far on the wrong side of the tracks that the right side of the tracks is virtually a mirage.  Kid has a dream constantly out of reach but has the drive to keep reaching.  He struggles, then struggles some more.  Maybe he has a dusting of success, then a setback, que more struggle, struggle, struggle.....and finally through sheer force of will and drive, the dream is realized and success is along for the ride.  It's the puritanical work ethic with a splash of over-reaching ambition and dusting of 'Rocky.'  Now forget all that garbage, because that's essentially what Gladwell does.

This isn't to say that the above scenario doesn't happen, but Gladwell's thesis is this- far more then we realize, people don't transcend their environment quite like we think.  Success across the board in any field, is often cultivated, albeit frequently unintentionally.  It is the biproduct of a unique combination of timing and environment with less Balboa then most of us think.  Success may be a fortunate accident, but it is not a mysterious coincidence. 

I'm assuming anyone who is reading this is about as good at math as I am.  Apart from low-balling any readers, this assumes you think the following- That if there are an equal number of children born in Canada in each month, it would stand to reason that each has an equal chance of being a pro hockey player.  Barring some weird mathmatical Canuck anomaly, that's has to be right?  Right?  No.  The cut-off for Hockey for our Neighbors to the North is December.  That means that the difference in age, maturity, and dexterity isn't a month, or even a week, but almost an entire year in some cases.  The January little maple leaf that could then starts with a head start, which produces more positive encouragement, which provides a better coach, which leads to more and more games because the kid is on a better team that plays more puck then the others.  Everything snowballs and it doesn't stop it continues on and on until- statistics show that more then half of profession, Canadian hockey players are born within the first three months.  January is best, followed by February, then March, and you can probably guess the rest.  As a matter of fact, if some poor bastard hoser has the misfortune of being born on the same day many of us were conceived- December 31st, they should put down the stick and gloves 'cause they're not playing hockey.  Even if his last name is 'Gretsky' his parents may as well give him the middle name of 'no chance.'.  I don't want to paraphrase too many statistics, but the results are staggering.

Bill Gates gives so much money to a Pacific Northwestern college not as so much because he wants more stuff named after him or he wants to further the education of minors or anything, but because there was some sort of beta program in place while his nerd genes were maturing.  He was given unlimited use to one of those pre-historic, giant computers that would cost anybody else tens of thousands of dollars, and that's assuming you could even get to one.  He had all the time he needed and could hit the thing with a rock from his house.  

Gladwell's book is essentially a compilation of stories like the above, which support his thesis.  As he typically does, the content and his writing ability make it so entertaining that it has a lot of the enjoyable components of easy-reading found in light or pulp fiction, but leaves you with an aftertaste of stuff you'll be curious about, feel smarter about, and wish to discuss with others.  

I'm probably a little too much a fan of Gladwell and look past the other side of the coin a reflexively though.  The hockey player example ties in to education and the argument that, 'why wouldn't you want to have your child stay back a year if they're on the border in order to give them the best possible chance at success?'  I'm haven't quite alienated all my family yet, but i do have several nieces and nephews and their parents are probably at the tipping point of telling me, 'blast off!  we're not holding back my kid because you read a book!!!'

Anyway, i encourage you to check this out, and if his book 'Blink' strikes you more, start there.  They're all fantastic, 'Blink' is probably the most entertaining, while 'Tipping Point' is often the most professionally rewarding and 'Outliers' probably most so personally.  

Gladwell thinks that oftentimes 'conventional wisdom' is widely accepted not necessairly because it is wise, but because it;s conventional.  Gladwell is constantly looking past convention in order to find wisdom.  You can argue the extent, but he's surely found it in all three of his books thus far.