Outliers: The Story of Success Paperback – Jun 7 2011

Some people may read this book and see success as a series of being born at the right time, being given the right opportunities, and having the right supporting cast growing up. For me it was more of a wake-up call to be wary of the opportunities you yourself may be given and be willing to take those opportunities, work hard, and one day be able to do something great for the world. Maybe this is because I feel that I am in the sort of position these people once were with respect to my current career path but I think the main point is just to gain awareness of the obstacles some of us may have to overcome, whether its surrounding ourselves with better people or searching for opportunities in a field that is important to us. Some things we can change and some we can't, so we might as well work with what we can change and control.

Excellent book. Had many principles I was able to look at in more depth after for graduate work. He makes some very interesting points about how outliers in data analysis and observation can actually be potentially new trends or tell the story for which the researcher is really looking. He talks about the 10K hour rule and how successes can be discovered. Classic Malcolm Gladwell. I've read it several times now.

One of those books that subtly changes you and your outlook on the world. Using anecdotes, riveting details, and data, Gladwell has planted the idea in my head that the world we have is not by coincidence or sheer dumb luck. We have the ability to change ourselves and our world, and become outliers too. There is no magic secret. It means looking at ourselves, at work habits, our cultural legacy and asking ourselves some hard questions. Gladwell's thesis is inescapable and puts the responsibility on each of us to create a better world and a better self.

A masterful analysis of the critical factors which determine individual success in almost any field or endeavor. Gladwell as usual poses the conventional wisdom and then proceeds to tear it to shreds in example after example of how famous people have obtained success. He boils the potential for success down to two temporal factors: when a person is born in relation to major social or technological changes and how much time it takes to become very proficient at something. While native intelligence is important, it is not the critical factor in determining the potential for success. Over and over, Gladwell provides examples which show that luck, being at the right place at the right time and spending an inordinate amount of time perfecting a task are the determinants of success.

Gladwell is an excellent writer who is able to combine facts and weave it into a story. I had read several of his books. However, this one was my personal favorite. The only real critical review of this book written by reviewers was that there are no women, I was not bothered by this as a female. It is not an overly intellectual read, more something to read quickly for fun.

The most amazing thing about this book is the near-total lack of pat answers, cliched figures, cheap opinions, and the like. It's as if the writer was truly interested in presenting an unbiased and factual look at a meta-understanding of sorts concerning his subject.

It was well worth reading, and has stayed with me since doing so - I recommend it to anyone concerned with understanding the realities of success as defined economically.

Gladwell exposes something I've long held to be true myself: great success requires great luck. It also requires great talent and effort to capitalize on that luck, but luck is just as necessary. For example, if you're not born in the first few months of the year, your chances of being a pro-hockey player are dramatically reduced. Based on your astrological sign! That's not because of astrology, its because kids are ranked by year of birth, and those born earlier in the year are bigger, faster, and more coordinated on average because they're just older. And that means they're more likely to be chosen on special teams, where they get special coaching, further emphasizing their initial difference. That continues over the years until there's a tremendous gap between them and other, later-born children. Is that fair? No. It's just luck and the way the system is currently set up. Intriguingly, Gladwell suggests that these kinds of systems essentially miss 50% of a population's talent because they shunt out all those born in the later part of the year. That's a really interesting idea- a population could increase its pool of elite athletes (or students) by breaking them into 6-month groups, rather than 1-year groups.

For other kinds of success, especially financial, its often a matter of being at the right place, at the right time, with the right skills, to catch and ride an emerging trend in the financial world (e.g., railroads in 1850, clothing in 1930, software 1970, hostile take-overs 1980, etc.). Gladwell is clear that the leaders in these areas were all talented, driven people. But that doesn't change the fact that born five years earlier or later, they'd probably be nowhere near as successful as they are today. While he doesn't mention him, I like Darwin as an example. He was brilliant and hard working, but Alfred Wallace came up with (virtually) the same idea of evolution as he did. And Darwin was big enough at that time that Wallace sent him a draft copy to review. If Darwin had come along later, he would have been scooped. If he hadn't been as big as he was in biology then (thanks to non-evolutionary work), he would never have seen the manuscript. As it turned out, he gave Wallace co-credit, but that's another story. The point is that coincidental circumstance played as big a role in who published the theory of evolution by natural selection, and when it was published, as the characteristics of Darwin himself.

For me, the bottom line is that hard work and talent are very important, but so is looking out for those unique trends that might allow you to catch a wave and do something extraordinary with your life. Whether or not that will happen is a function of luck, but it's certainly important to be prepared should you ever get the chance. Overall, the book is very easy to read, and full of really good ideas. I found the last couple of chapters on math to be the weakest, but it's still a great book to read. Highly recommended.

Great read! You should read Peak by Anders Ericsson, the man behind the 10 000 hour rule. According to Ericsson's research it does not take 10 000 to reach optimal level.

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