Sunday 27 September 2009

Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers - the story of success


Just finished 'Outliers - the story of success' by Malcolm Gladwell.


While writing the book, Gladwell noted that "the biggest misconception about success is that we do it solely on our smarts, ambition, hustle and hard work."

On page 285, he sums it all up:
“Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience. But they don't. They are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky - but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all.”


His style does meander even if he does use some interesting case studies and even if the conclusions are self-evident . Quite a 'nice' read but a bit disappointing. Maybe it was more auto-biographical and self-referencing than intended - it was his journey he was analysing. Gladwell has created his own brand and followers and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very impressive. Writng in the future. How do you do that? I will reply on 27 Sept!
Jeremy

Anonymous said...

Yes - I read it and felt similar. His books always go on too long. Great idea for essays or even extended articles but somehow they can's sustain several hundred pages (in terms of keeping me engaged).

Tipping Point - simple idea. Some nice case studies. Why go on about it?
Blink - again a simple idea. Again some lovely case studies.

Having said that, he should be read as there is no-one else doing this kind of challenging stuff.

Madge

Anonymous said...

Yes. It is a book of nonsense, based upon empirical, American biased 'research' of the shoddiest sort.

Written for the American to take into the 'john' I think, not for serious knowledge.

SW

Anonymous said...

Good holiday reading (if you have nothing else to read).
WM

Unknown said...

Jeremy

Blogger account has been playing some interesting games with dates hence the published chronology and release of blogs has gone a bit peculiar. Sorry about that!

Robert

Patrick Jackson said...

He (MG) is an intellectual poser.
Patrick

Anonymous said...

Robert, what is your opinion on the Federation of Small Businesses lobbying and supporting for the compulsory retirement age being kept at 65?

Is this fair? Should the FSB be representing itself/ it's members in this way?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8274328.stm

Can we have a new posting with opinions from others who have experience employing retirement age workers and those who have been employed as such?

SW

Unknown said...

SW

Hmmm - I haven't got a considered opinion on this one but happy to throw the topic open to others. Will create a posting and it will be interesting to see what kind of response it does/doesn't get.

Robert

Anonymous said...

Like all the formula-driven books that come out of the states. See anything nic taleb, dan heath, chris anderson, timothy ferris, martin lindstrom and so on

It/They would have made a great full length magazine article (interesting and a little curious) but the idea doesn't stretch to beyond a couple of thousand words even with lots of data and case studies. Being good at googleing doesn't make you a great writer

peter von essen

Patrick Jackson said...

He (MG) is an intellectual poser.
Patrick

Anonymous said...

Good holiday reading (if you have nothing else to read).
WM