Outliers
BY: Malcolm Gladwell
Introduction
The Roseto Mystery
outlier: something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body — a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample
Roseto Valfortore is in the southeast of Rome in Apennine foothills of the Italian province of Foggia
people from Roseto immigrated to USA Pennsylvania
they grew a community there and name the city in Pennsylvania Roseto — had a church named our lad of lour Carmel that was a staple in the town
then Stewart Wolf a physician, fell upon this town and wondered why the people of Roseto were so healthy and had a much lower heart attack or other disease rate compared to the rest of America
brought in other physicians for study and ran multiple tests but it all led back to Roseto being an outlier
not the genes, food, exercise, etc — they visited the town to take in the culture and it was the community aspect
the town of Roseto was such a strong build community — their healthiness came from looking beyond the individual
Part One: Opportunity
Chapter One: The Matthew Effect
look into outliers, what they’re like and what kind of personality they have, or how intelligent they are, or what kind of lifestyle they have or any special talents
the talk of older kids playing hockey that were born the same year but one might be early in the year and the other might be at the end
the one that was born early on in the Walt will most likely get chosen on the rep team as they are more developed than the one born at the end of the year
maturity vs ability — if you put the older kids in the advanced teams they get better coaching and more practice meaning more chance of making the pro
this goes the same with the education system where most advanced programs the students in that year were born the earlier months
“accumulative advantage” = its the biggest and best students who get the best teaching and most attention in sports
that one kid just started out a bit better than that led to other opportunities that led to becoming an outlier
what happens here we personalize success and we miss opportunities to lift others into the top rung — we write off people as failures
we cling on to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit
Chapter 2: 10,000 Hour Rule
how outliers do it? maybe a combination of ability, opportunity, and utterly arbitrary advantage
is there such thing as innate talent? Yes achievement is talent plus preparation
a study was conducted with violinist where there were 3 groups one being seen as the ones most likely to play professionally, second were good and third were more like a music teacher — added the hours playing and the first group were at around 10,000 hours compared to the third group of 4,000 practicing
didn’t find any naturals where they effortlessly floated to the top nor any grinders where they put more practice but can’t get to the top
so the 10,000 hours of expertise shows great significance to mastery of anything
practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good
what’s interesting is that 10,000 hours is a lot and you would need support as a child and most likely be in a program that gives that support
willingness to learn aged the opportunity to learn how to be an expert
is the 10,000hr rule now a general rule for success? — Ex. The Beatles, they have been playing together before they got to America, they played together for hours roughly 8 straight in Hamburg for 7 days a week
Ex. Bill gates, dropped out of Harvard and starts computer company called Microsoft. Father was a wealthy lawyer and mother was daughter to well banker so he went to a private school that had computers not like any regular computers at the time — he lived in the computer room.
there were specific moments and opportunities that came to bill gates that gave him more time to practice on the computer thorough these series of events
what bill gates, bill joy and the Beatles and the hockey players all had in common that they were yes very talented but also they had extraordinary opportunities
there’s this hidden opportunity or unusual opportunity that’s not really a break but more of a common rule
examples with the time you were born, most of the richest people were born in America and at a certain time — ex when the tech and computer age was growing that 10 year span was the opportunity to seize
Chapter 3: The Trouble With Geniuses, Part 1
“knowlege of a boys IQ is of little help if you are faced with a forkful of clever boys”
there is nothing about an individual as important as his/her IQ, except their morals
extraordinary achievements is less about talent than it is about opportunity, need to look at the outlier in its purest form — the genius
the relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point, once someone reaches an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real world advantage
example: in basketball a 5’6 athlete probably won’t make it as you got to be at least 6’0 but past a certain point height stops mattering so much. A player who is 6’9 is not automatically batter than someone two inches shorter — they just got to be tall enough
intelligence has a threshold
good enough vs not good enough
the difference here now that peoples IQ are similar is what other aspects they are good at — example in basketball the difference would be ball handling, shooting touch etc
IQ tests usually are converge test where you choose the right answer — what about divergence test where it requires your imagination and different possibilities
example is to think of as many different uses that a brick and blanket can be used for
it’s not always about IQ that determines a Nobel prize winner
Chapter 4: The Trouble With Geniuses, Part 2
the story of Chris Langan — he was born with a rough childhood moving place to place with his biological father out of the picture, he always had a need to learn
wanted to get into higher academics had a scholarship but mother forgot to sign the papers, family didn’t have that support so he took on odd jobs and did a lot of reading in his spare time
Chris may have been considered a genius, however people didn’t see that in him
he didn’t necessarily have that practical intelligence — knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect
it’s about knowing how to do something without necessarily knowing why you know it or being able to explain it — practical in nature
it’s separate from your IQ, social savvy is knowledge, you have to learn that
example: 2 kids, one from a wealthily family and one from a poorer family. Wealthier kid may be taught to have conversations with authority adults and reasoning, have that sense of entitlement in a positive manner
the child from the poorer family may not have this and would again need to learn, but at a slight disadvantage as their parents may not have went through that before either
it’s the culture you find yourself in that sometimes determines what value
family background was a major finding on differences between children with starting high IQs but into adulthood was not as superior as others
in the Terman study the genius children that were followed up into their adulthood that didn’t really succeed were from low social and economic class — what they were lacking wasn’t something expensive
it’s something that could have been given to them if they’d only known they needed it = a community around them that prepared them properly for the world
can’t make it alone — not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, not even geniuses
Chapter 5: The Three Lessons of Joe Flom
Joe Flom is a law partner of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom — one of the biggest law firms in the world
but he grew up poor and couldn’t couldn’t get a job initially
success doesn’t happens to tag to riches all alone — where they come from matters, products of places and environments
there are always opportunities and help along the way — so what was it for Joe Flom
the world sometimes changes and you are ready — Joe Flom didn’t triumph over adversity, instead what started out as adversity ended up being an opportunity
had a skill that they been working on and it became valuable
Ex. Maurice Janklow was a Jewish lawyer and wasn’t very rich to start but had plans to start his own practice — to become successful. However, it did not happen and he has a son Mort Janklow and he became a lawyer as well and grew his success
so why the difference? Different generations — different opportunities
what your parents do for a living matters
Maurice was making his moves with the Great Depression underway and he had no family to fall back on
the sense of possibility so necessary for success comes not just from inside us or from our parents, it comes from our time
from the particular opportunities that our particular place in history presents us with
responsible for own decisions and direction is the key
autonomy, complexity, and connection between effort and reward — 3 qualities of work that has to have for it to be satisfying
not about how much we make that ultimately makes us happy between 9-5 but it’s the work that fulfills us
work that fulfills the 3 criteria makes it meaningful
hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning
if you use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires
when you look at the Jewish immigration family tree — you see doctors and lawyers as they immigrated to america, Jewish doctors abd lawyers did not become professionals in spite of their humble origins. They became professionals because I’d their humble origins
success is not a random act. It rises out if a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities
their world, their culture and generations and family history — gave them the greatest of opportunities
Part Two: Legacy
Chapter 6: Harlen, Kentucky
during the time in the 1900s in a small town in Harlen, there were a lot of grub fights especially between two families
when one family fights with another it’s a feud, when lots of families fight one another in identical little towns up and down the same mountain range it’s a pattern
why? ‘Culture or Honor’ — world where a man’s reputation is at centre of his livelihood and self worth
not just where you grew up or where your parents grew up but in terms of where your great grandparents and great great grandparents and great great great grandparents grew up
cultural legacies turn out to be even stranger and more powerful than that
2 physiologists did an experiment where they told participants control group to fill a questionnaire and walk down a tight hallway and drop it off. The other group did the same but had someone else there to take up space and called the participants an asshole to see if that provoked them
results is that people from the northern part of America laughed it off not much changed compared to people from the southern part where they wanted to start a fight
wonder why the southerners passes speech patterns and probably behavioural and emotional patterns
cultural legacies are powerful forces, as they persist through generations
Chapter 7: The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
Korean air has multiple crashes in a span of years and got demoted as a airline and USA and Canada were suspending them to landing but then the airline turned it around and became one of the safest airline
it did not write itself until it acknowledged the importance of its cultural legacy
planes crashes are not common like movies it’s usually a pile of small things
usually a combination of errors — teamwork and communication errors not really skill error
the reason for the main Korean air plane crash: fuel exhaustion — plane ran out of fuel rather than errors?
it’s the communication aspect that really makes the situation under control
mitigated speech = refers to any attempt to downplay or sugarcoat the meaning of what is being said
command, obligation statement, suggestion, query, preference, hint
a hint is the hardest kind of request to decode and easiest to refuse
power distance index = concerned with attitudes towards hierarchy — how much a particular culture values and respects authority
how frequently does this problem occur: employees being afraid to express disagreement with their managers?
our ability to succeed at what we do is powerfully bound up with where we’re from and being a good pilot and coming from a high power distance cultures is a difference mix
an opportunity to transform their relationship with work is key
Chapter 8: Rice Paddies and Math Tests
in south China villages rice is everything where they will sell for other needed things
Chinese speakers can have a stronger memory as their pronounced number and words are shorter
the numbering system with Asian countries follow a sequence whereas in English we have 21 but the teens we flip it 14
now this difference means Asian children learn to count much faster than American children
Ex. 37 + 22 (thirty-seven plus twenty-two) must convert words to numbers as 2 + 7 = 9 and 30 and 20 = 50 which makes 59 — OR three-tens-seven and two-tens-two then there’s no word converting = five-tens-nine
now to think Asian children don’t have a struggle learning as much that may lead to enjoyment of math and number which springs a cycle of positive feedback loop
being good at math may be rooted in a group culture
life of a rice farmer would normally put in 3,000hrs a year which is a large amount of time spent working
however the work was meaningful to the farmers — it was more than just playing and weeding, it was autonomous as it was their business — they had their choice
the hard work gave those farmers meaning in the midst of great uncertainty and poverty
Ex. A women in her mid twenties working on a math problem and couldn’t figure it out for 22mins but finally got the answer, all while the math prof was there watching
the whole time she kept at it and it’s the attitude that she adopted compared to others that makes the difference
effort and hard work and persistence can come a long way
Chapter 9: Marita’s Bargain
Marita is a young girl that attended KIPP academy the school that helps poverty children to stay in school longer and work a bit more compared to middle and higher class children
she explains her life to her friends that don’t go to the school and they think it’s too much work
but the bargain is great as it’s a chance for her to be the first to attend college in the family and be given opportunities
success follows a predictable course — it is not the brightest who succeeds — outliers are those who were given an opportunities and who has the strength and courage and presence of mind to seize them
we are so caught up in the myths of the best and brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth
Marita doesn’t need nice facilities, laptop, smaller classes, better teachers, a higher IQ, she just needed a chance!
Epilogue
A Jamaican Story
young women named Daisy gave birth to twin girls, Faith and Joyce with the husband being Donald in a small village called Harewood
Joyce met a man named Graham and got married and moved to Canada, had three kids — one being Malcom
shows the importance of his mothers many opportunities and cultural legacy
stories on stories on how she was able to take the opportunities presented to overcome obstacles
superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experiences but they don’t — they are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy
success is not exceptional or mysterious— it is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances some deserved some not, some earned some lucky
the outlier in the end is not an outlier at all