Monday, August 16, 2010

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

This non-fiction book is along the same vein as Freakonomics. 

It looks at certain success stories, examines the circumstances behind each story, and highlights that factors that came into play.

For example:
- looking at professional sport leagues, a high proportion of players have birthdays at the start of the school year. This turns out to be, not that a certain star sign is better at that sport than others, but rather when these people were at a formative age, kids were selected for special programs based on intakes for a year level. But when kids are only 7-8, an eight year old can be a lot bigger and more coordinated than one who has only recently turned 7. And this compounds, with those selected for special programs getting more practice and encouragement etc, so that by the time they are in late high school and being checked out by talent scouts, those with birthdays earlier in the age bracket are more likely to be selected.
- talent versus hard work. Hard work and practise is far more important, no matter how talented you are. This is looked at in many ways... The Beatles and their seasons playing live in Hamburg prior to recording their first record; musicians at a music school and the hours they spend practising; cultural attitudes to hard work vs leisure time for kids. Examples also of successful school programs in disadvantaged areas.
- the actual opportunities to be leaders (and sometimes get rich) in your field are rare. One example is all the silicone valley success stories (Apple, Microsoft, Sun etc). The founders were all born around 1955. Had they been born earlier, computer science and programming would have been a boring and pedantic field of science to study. Had they been born later, they would have missed the boat. On top of that, they had a lot of opportunities to access computers, via a school or nearby university, to practice with PRIOR to the invention of the personal computer.

This book was interesting. My key thoughts:
- I wish I'd read this as a teenager, as it might have helped me to realise that I needed to work hard at things I wanted to be good at.
- Dismay, that my varied career is not helping me to become an expert in anything in particular.
- It has changed my attitude to kids being given homework right from the start of school, which is common now (as compared to "in my day" when you didn't get regular homework until late primary school).

A highly recommended book, even though the wrap-up chapter can be a bit corny.

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