Comments on: Outliers: The Story of Success – Some thoughts about Malcolm Gladwell’s latest.

By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:34:35 +0000

Probably not…but can you give me an example or two? Just curious.

By: jason ayala

jason ayala — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:24:50 +0000

Am I the only one who thinks he goes into the subtlest, most unimportant detail about a mildly important fact concerning his current unnecessary anecdote to prove an only tangential point… in order to fill space?

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:29:21 +0000

I’ve gotta say I didn’t enjoy Outliers (and I waited months at my library to get a copy), though I liked Tipping Point and Blink and I tend to enjoy Gladwell’s pieces in The New Yorker. Perhaps his style doesn’t seem novel to me anymore, but I think what didn’t work for me about this book was the way Gladwell takes a single anecdote and uses it to generalize in order to define a cultural phenomenon. The chapters also didn’t seem cohesive to me. Like you, my favorite chapter was the one about the pilots, but in the larger scope of the book, it didn’t quite fit. I agree with his thesis: success is often less about one’s innate abilities and more about external variables, but his narrative strategy and his logic didn’t work for me this time.

By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:09:08 +0000

Right! Thanks for pointing that out Michelle. Interesting stuff indeed.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:02:56 +0000

He also talks about how it makes a difference with public schools- you’re put into kindergarten at a cut-off age too, and kids who are more developed, physically and mentally, have an advantage of being the older in their grade. It’s like a snowball effect- the older ones do great in early grades, get picked for gifted programs, are given more opportunities, and leave the younger kids in their grade in the dust.

Interesting stuff.

By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:16:59 +0000

You’ll have to read it to find out!

Nah…I’ll tell you…(if others want to wait for the read, stop reading HERE)

It has to do with pro athletes, specifically hockey players, but it probably also applies to other sports. When kids join up for teams/leagues they are signed up depending on the cut off date. Malcolm showed that the overwhelming majority of professional all-star players were born in Jan/Feb. Assuming a cut off date of Dec 31, this means they were the oldest kids in their age group.

Obviously this doesn’t matter a whole deal when you’re older, but when you’re a little kid, those months can mean a big difference in terms of your physical size and maturity. What happens – in a sport where size matters – is the bigger, more mature kids get selected for all-star teams and such, which sets them on a very different path in their career. They are given opportunities that the younger, smaller kids in the same group won’t get and this very much affects the development of the athlete.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:53:40 +0000

Carlo – I know you don’t have to answer this, but what is our birth month supposed to have to do with our chances for success?