Questions And Answers On George Gladwell's 'Outliers'

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.

One of the few negatives about book Outliers is that the author provides many arguments that an individual's success is influenced on situations in their lives that are inherited. For example one of the first examples Malcolm gladwell provides in the book is with hockey players. Gladwell explained that kids born in February have a better chance at playing professionally. This gave the impression that success is based more off of inheritance or ecology instead of individual merit and hard work.

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.

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.

Malcolm Gladwell insists that IQ is not the determining factor in one’s ability to achieve success because he believes that opportunity and chance play critical roles in one’s journey to achieve success. In Outliers, Gladwell includes Christopher Langan story growing up. Langan has an IQ of one ninety-five, “The average person has an IQ of one hundred… Einstein one fifty” (Gladwell 70). Langan is considered “the smartest man in America” and sometimes “the smartest man in the world”. He is also a college dropout, due to financial difficulty and other factors. Langan has a special ability, but his circumstances held him back from graduating college. Living in a life of poverty growing up, Langan did not have such opportunity that Gates had due to his circumstances. Langan has one of the highest IQ and that did not determine his success because he has not reach the level of success with his ability. What Gladwell means when he suggests that IQ reaches a point of diminishing returns after reaching 130 is after reaching 130 or surpassing it, IQ stop mattering. Having a higher IQ does not matter after 130, having enough does because intelligence has a threshold.

Success can come from many different variables, opportunities, and advantages. In Malcolm Gladwell’s novel, Outliers, Gladwell had popularized the theory that ten thousand hours of practice will eventually lead to success. Being the only factor, 10,000 hours of practice will not lead to success. In order to be elite and successful, you need other significant contributors in the equation.

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.

David Leonhardt’s “Chance and Circumstance” is an intriguing story about Malcolm Gladwell and his outstanding achievements in the field of journalism. He goes further into Gladwells childhood, being raised by some accomplished parents. “His mother was a psychotherapist, and his father was a mathematician.” (Leonhardt 579). Leonhardt imposes this certain idea to the reader, the idea known as “chance”. Considering how gladwell had successful parents influenced his way to becoming a successful journalist was evidently by chance. He also continues on this topic, stating that, “he is instead a talented person who took advantage of singular opportunities” (Leonhardt579). I see myself similar to Malcolm Gladwell not in a journalistic point of view, but in the art of music. Music has

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

Gladwell does not believe anyone can be a self-made man. He believes people are successful because of their families and circumstances while growing up. I understand how he would have formed this conjecture, but I disagree with his

Malcom Gladwell is author of Outliers The story of success. Gladwell speaks on success how circumstances may out come your success but that may not be that case. Tony Robbins a motivational speaker, author, and philanthropist. Robbins doesn’t see circumstances as a determined factor. He is a prime example of that.

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.

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.

Having an opportunity of practical intelligence is important for achieving success because people can change the situation to their desire by using practical intelligence. Even though asserting oneself is also an important requirement to succeed by appealing with confidence, better results of asserting yourself are guaranteed through capability of practical intelligence which is the ability to knows what, when, and how to say. In chapter 4 of Outliers, practical intelligence is mentioned as a key to success. For example, there is a case of Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer in outliers that shows the importance of practical intelligence. Even though they both have high IQ, Robert Oppenheimer succeed, but Chris Langan does not. For the difference, Chris Langan didn’t have the practical intelligence to change the world as he wanted, but Robert Oppenheimer possessed the practical intelligence that allowed him to get what he wanted from the world. Actually, Chris Langan couldn’t get a scholarship of college because he didn’t explain the circumstance properly which shows that he didn’t have the practical intelligence to change bad result to good result (Gladwell, 2008). Actually, Chris Langan just asserting himself. Meanwhile, using practical intelligence, Robert Oppenheimer persuaded the general Leslie Groves, who was in charge of

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