Gladwell's Argument In 'Outliers'

Malcolm Gladwell states in Outliers that 10,000 hours of practice in a sport or hobby or career, will propel one person over another. He tries to convince us with his argument by bringing up people like Bill Gates and the Beatles, stating that they spent more than 10,000 hours perfecting their craft. At first his argument seems pretty legit and holds merit, but then you begin to question. What if someone practices for 10,000 hours, but doesn 't put in much work? What if someone, who has spent few hours than 10,000 is excelling? Doesn 't age and intelligence, come into play or does the 10,000 hours rule apply to anyone? Malcolm Gladwell put the 10,000 hours rule back into play with Outliers, but soon followed many scientists, who disproved

Elements like diction and syntax plays an important role in the development of Malcolm Gladwell's thesis. This summary of his thesis is ‚We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and determine success. Gladwell uses diction and syntax to give depth and understanding to the target audience. In Outliers, Gladwell examines several different groups of people or individuals who went from rags to riches. Structure aids and diction help Gladwell describe the amazing chance that shows the outcome of Bill Gates. In chapter two describing these opportunities, Gladwell starts sentences with, "Opportunity number one", "Opportunity number two", and further on. For example Galdwell describes an amount of opportunities that "gave Bill Gates extra time to practice.

However, the novel implies that the opportunities given to a person lead to success,“But what truly distinguishes their histories is not their extraordinary talent, but their extraordinary opportunities” (Gladwell 51). Yet, others think that it is purely by talent. Both are wrong; it is a combination of both unprecedented talent and unrealistic opportunities that cultivate an extraordinary artist. True, one might be gifted, but unless someone comes along and offers an opportunity to develop that gift into more than a hobby, he or she will never be successful from

He describes a true outlier as someone who against all odds manages to be extraordinarily successful and remains a mystery in how that is achieved. In one chapter he talks about “The 10,000 hour rule” and how in order to master something you need to put in 10,000 hours of work to achieve that. While discussing Silicon Valley, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs he says, “The perfect age to be in 1975… old enough to be a part of the coming revolution… twenty or twenty-one, which is to say, born in 1954-1955.” (Gladwell 65) Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born in 1955, the perfect year to be right on top of the coming technology revolution. Bill Gates had access to so many different computers in a time when having access to just one was an anomaly, the opportunities he had were extremely rare but occurred because of when and where he was

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell teaches you the understanding of success. Malcolm Gladwell in the book Outliers uses logos, pathos, and ethos to get his argument across. Outliers was written for the purpose to show the audience that success isn’t all on how hard you work, raw talent, intelligence or personality traits. Success comes from your culture, who your parents are, when you were born and the opportunities you have been given. The argument by logic, emotion and character are all put into Outliers to convince the readers that success is what you make of it.

Success is a concept that is constantly altered and has a different meaning from person to person. The stereotypical definition of success would be someone who has a high-paying job or is in the upper-class. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers: The Story of Success, approaches the concept of success in a different and unique way. Gladwell discusses how opportunities, cultural legacy, and hard work all coincide with each other to produce real success. He uses mostly logic and multiple unrelated anecdotes to support and provide evidence for his statements. Gladwell 's main argument is that although hard work and talent are essential for success, one’s given opportunities and cultural legacy are what really drive them to the pinnacle of success.

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell challenges those who assume hard work is the only path to success. “It is not the brightest who succeed. Nor is success simply the sum of decisions and efforts we make on our behalf.” Gladwell states that success can happen through a series of different factors.

What if the phrase “practice makes perfect” wasn’t actually true? Malcolm Gladwell claims that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to perfect a skill, however, some people are starting to believe that may not be the case. “Your Genes Don’t Fit. Why 10,000 Hours of Practice, Won’t Make You an Expert”, argues that mastering a skill requires innate abilities along with practice.

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell uses the persuasive techniques such as figurative language, rhetorical questions, and analogies to persuade readers that the American view of success is wrong, and that success is the product of opportunities, hidden advantages, and hard work. In Chapter Two, these techniques are used to describe his idea of “The 10,000-Hour Rule” - that belief it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.

Intrinsic factors critically considered when people think about the main components of success. However, Malcolm Gladwell, a famous writer, contradicts this tendency through the book, Outliers. The book, Outliers insists that extrinsic factors define success rather than the intrinsic ones. Nonetheless, Gladwell himself goes against the topic of Outliers in his assertion: “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires (Gladwell, 2008).” The assertion implies that individuals could achieve success only with those intrinsic factors. Gladwell’s assertion is wrong because people can’t achieve success without an opportunity of relative age, an opportunity to have practical

behavior, learning and memory of an individual ( 1). While Dr. Noble noted the more affluent children possessed larger hippocampuses than their disadvantaged counterparts (Brain Trust 47), Hanson notes that the lifestyle of less affluent families affect the hippocampus negatively. For instance, maternal separation can negatively impact the hippocampus, I.e. working mother's. The lower the income a household has, the more stress it faces. Outstanding stress can have long-lasting negative effects on the hippocampus (1.). Hanson found that poor children had less gray matter within the hippocampus (5). Hanson concluded that “higher levels of chronic stress” could result in small hippocampal volumes into adulthood and other “early environment” factors, such as

Malcom Gladwell, the author of The Outliers, analyzes the factors to success based on real-life example. Through statistical facts and logical reasoning, he attempts to prove how success is more than just hard work and being intelligent. He supports his arguments with accurately calculated statistical facts to gain the trust of his audience and to work towards 2proving his points. Gladwell determines the reasons of success by comparing well-known successful people and finding commonalities between those people.

In "Outliers: The story of success", Malcom Gladwell explained and gave examples of ways to be successful. There are many ways that Gladwell mentioned, such as luck, practice, background, family, and culture. There are many more of course, but I will save time. There are three of which I think are the most important, these being Intelligence, Social Skills, and Location; and these are explanations as to why I think these are the most important.

Gladwell argues that our greatest strengths can also become our greatest weaknesses. I find Gladwell’s argument to be false based on the fact that the underdog doesn’t always win. He brings into question whether Goliath was actually a strong giant or an incapable underdog; Was David a dark horse or was he favored to win. Gladwell tells many tales in which the underdog faces obstacles they must overcome to succeed, but the underdog can’t always succeed. This is one of the flaws in Gladwell’s argument.

In the general perspective, a majority of people have come to believe that success derives within the personality and motives of the individual. In contrast, Malcolm Gladwell alleges in his bestselling non-fiction book Outliers that success is spawned by god-given advantages and opportunities that may not be welcomed to others by fate. Gladwell presents us with crucial evidence, such as the individual’s date of birth, the 10,000 hour rule, and their IQ, which has been proved to significantly increase their chances of success. Gladwell’s theory of success is credible and alluring because it belittles anyone who has not fallen into a blessed lifestyle. He admires those who have been born with opportunities clouding their life. Gladwell suggests