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Outliers: The Story of Success Review by Richard L. Weaver II, PhD. In his 320-page book (only 180 of text according to one reviewer's estimate), Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell, a professional writer, has woven together an exceedingly interesting story. He is a terrific writer, a fact well illustrated in both Blink and The Tipping Point. His thesis is that to be successful in life, upbringing, culture, luck, and privilege matter. He debunks the myth that high intelligence or where you were educated are of concern. Success has everything to do with "practical intelligence," along with your willingness to put in the 10,000 hours of practice required to reach mastery in your field. The information related to "practical intelligence" can be found in Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence (a book I highly recommend). If you aren't familiar with some of Gladwell's ideas or topics, you will find this book a good introduction or starting point. If you're looking for a book that includes original research, deep analysis, or the support of other writers and thinkers on the topic (e.g., opinions, quotations, testimony, or references), this is not the book for you because Gladwell is not a social scientist, nor is he a journalist or deep thinker. However, if its a light, fluffy read to which you are attracted, this might be a good choice.

I learned a great deal from reading this book. I teach business and economics at the university level. I will definitely use some of the material in this book in my freshman university lectures.

A great book that will make you think. Entertaining and inspiring at the same time

I'm still not completely sold on Gladwell's shtick, but I do love his anecdotes. In this book he attempts to trace success to environmental and cultural factors, and does quite a good job. Gladwell looks at oddities such as professional Canadian hockey players and their overwhelming tendency to be born in the first three months of the year. Why? Because at a very young age January 1st is the cutoff date and at that age the older kids have a significant size advantage. Since these bigger kids are selected for the better teams they go on to get better and more training as they progress through adolescence. Essentially, Canada is leaving out a large number of potential pro hockey players due to this early selection process. One of the more fascinating chapters in the book addresses why Asians are better at math than everyone else. Gladwell asserts that the reasoning for this is cultural and linguistically-based, I will just give a summary of the linguistic side. In Cantonese, for example, numbers take only 1/4 of a second to pronounce, but in English most numbers take 1/3 of a second to pronounce. Thus the average Cantonese speaker can handily remember ten numbers while the English speaker cannot. (we usually can absorb six or seven, hence telephone numbers). In English, our number system is not intuitive and does not make a whole lot of logical sense. We use a suffix on the numbers 13-19, and then when we get to twenty we use a prefix. In Cantonese, twenty-five would be something like "two ten five," which is much more systematic than logical than "twenty-five." Because of these differences young children in Asian-speaking countries can often count up to 40, whereas their American counterparts can only reach 15. Essentially we're a full year behind and in a critical development period. Gladwell also goes on to trace math skills back to Eastern versus Western farming techniques, but I won't spoil that for you. One criticism of this book I've heard is that Gladwell places too much emphasis for success on environmental factors. He does talk heavily about environmental factors, but he also never fails to state that hard work and determination by the individual is key to success. Recommendation: While Outliers isn't going to win you success, it's certainly an interesting look at the causes and factors that lead to success in our world.

gladwell destroys the concept of inherent abilities. as a black man this is important because we have been told for 400 years that we are genetically inferior in intelligence. Gladwell's study indicates that the intelligence factor plays far less a role than many other factors such as time spent on a skill, education, and one's cultural environment. his work is going to have a tremendous effect on the education of children. it will also lead many parents to place more emphasis on intervening in their children's development, especially in having them learn special skills at an early age. we know that tiger woods began playing golf as a toddler. parents will begin taking this concept more seriously than before. black parents will also begin to understand the relationship of culture to their worldview and resultant behavior, especially what they are teaching their children on a subliminal level. it is very critical reading for those of us who live in the black communities of america. this book will spawn tremendous activity and research.many more books will be written because of it.

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The common conception is that success is based upon intelligence: Orientals are more intelligent, therefore they excel in academics; the poor, living in slums, are not bright, therefore they achieve little or no success. Gladwell demonstrates with many examples that his notion is wrong. Scientists have found that the people of Roseto, Pennsylvania, for example, of Italian descent, live longer than their neighbors or their Italian ancestors because they socialize, and the socialization reduces their tensions. But, in another example, parents can affect children. A genius whose parents never taught him how to relate to other people and who never learnt it on his own, remained a farmer throughout his life, while individuals with much lower IQs accomplished much because they were taught how to deal with people. Similarly, descendants of feuding Appalachians absorbed their ancestors' manners and tended to become angry and aggressive and vindictive. Much more than IQ, persistence and practice lead to success. Gladwell shows how people such as Bill Gates, the Beatles, and even Mozart, despite their innate skills and intelligence, would not have been successful if they did not practice for some 10,000 hours. Similarly, studies have shown that by extending the daily hours of schooling of slum children, giving them three hours of homework after leaving school at 5 PM, and cutting down on their summer vacation, led to a sizable percentage of these children being able to attend college and secure good jobs. He shows also that Orientals do not have a higher IQ than other people. They are descendants of ancestors who worked on rice paddies virtually every hour of the day 360 days a year. The work required meticulous care. This way of acting and thinking affected their posterity and prompted them to achieve and seem smarter than others.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now Malcolm Gladwell points out the obvious. Or what should have been the obvious. Using statistics and a type of insight, he finds that to be successful there is a minimum of natural ability and downright luck. Even them it does not guarantee want Malcolm supposed success is. This book is a fun and easy to read book. But do not let it fool you into thinking that this is light reading or just the popular science of the day. There is a dead serious theory that appears to really apply (split infinitives allowed here.) Knowing this theory will help you to make the requirements for success instead of just guessing at them. At least I came away with a different paradigm, and now see everything in the world differently. It has been suggested that regardless of the factors in this book that one may be content with a job that fits his/her value-system. I must have been schizophrenic in a job sense. In the U.S. Army and Reserves, I well enjoyed being a mechanic and power systems maintenance sergeant. While at the same time, I was a business/engineering systems analyst in the civilian world. So this book helps me look back to see how I found myself in the situation. With a little bit of blooming luck. How to Lie with Statistics

This book should be read by everyone who wonders why some people succeed without apparent effort and others make great efforts and get nowhere. It helps to identify the hidden factors that affect everyone in their quest for success. Some cannot be overcome others may be but knowing of their existence helps salve the pains of the downtrodden.

One of the best books i've read ever. It's great how Malcolm Gladwell put research data and piece them together to make them relevant to the reader. Pol Madamba (Review For Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell)Outliers: The Story of Success