Outliers: The Story of Success

Audiobook read by the author.
3.5***

Subtitle: The Story of Success.

Gladwell looks at hugely successful people who are “outliers” … far out of the norm. Examples include Bill Gates and The Beatles. He tries to explain how luck, opportunity, and the right birth year or month help these people succeed. Of course, ten thousand hours of practice is also a key element. (Not that I ever wanted to be a hockey star … being a girl from south Texas, I didn’t even see a hockey game until I went to college … but apparently, I was doomed from the start because I was born in December. So, if I HAD been interested, I would probably have been better off practicing the piano more often.)

I was interested in what Gladwell had to say and found the various essays easy to absorb and understand.

Gladwell narrates the audiobook himself. I cannot imagine anyone else doing a better job. However, the audio lacks the graphic depictions (charts, or sample IQ test questions), so I was glad I had a text copy of the book for reference. ( )

I found this book immensely readable, and like all of Gladwell's books, very interesting, and thought provoking. What made this such an engrossing read for me was Gladwell's use of antecdote, and following the stories of individuals. That said, I viewed some of his theories with a bit of skepticism, and other reviews I have read note that Gladwell definitely cherry-picks his sources and does not always demonstrate a good grasp of statistics. ( )

A friend lent me this book months ago, and I finally cracked it open, thinking I would give it 20 pages before giving up. I read over 200 pages in one sitting. Gladwell's research repeatedly blew my mind and had me thinking about my own life, full of happy accidents and luck that created the life I enjoy today. Fascinating read with important considerations for most of our social infrastructures (which, I realized, are often completely arbitrary and as such, completely boxing out deserving, talented, and capable people). Gladwell's vision for a richer society is contagious, but the pessimist in me is certain we are too entrenched in tradition and habit to see the change he advocates. ( )

3.5. Fascinating study but I liked David and Goliath better. ( )

I like the central messages of the book, that you don't get anywhere by yourself, that genius is a myth, that we all need luck.

I hope no one takes this to mean that the only way you can be successful is by being born in the right year to the right family in the right place with the right culture. He was talking about people who were off the charts. You don't need the full 10,000 hours to be amazingly good at something. You don't need to be one of the top 100 in your field to have a successful life, you don't need all the stars and constellations to be aligned perfectly on your birthday. That's just how certain legends are made.

Well he obviously cherry picks examples. That doesn't take from it.
Another thing was it kind of reminded me of a few essays I wrote in college: at the beginning I had no idea what the essay was going to be about, but I started writing some really interesting things I'd found. Then as I went to long I realized there was some kind of connection between them and I went back and put in a few lines to bring it all together.
It kind of feels like he had some leftover notes from Tipping Point and he just found an angle from which to present them. ( )