Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story Of Success

Improved Essays
Practice makes perfect. People who spend 10,000 hours of practice are more likely to be greater than someone who does not. In Malcolm Gladwell’s text “Outliers: The Story of Success,” he focuses on three things: people that do not practice as much, the rule applies to multiple sports, and people who are “developed late”. First, the author uses sufficient evidence by emphasizing people that do not practice as much, are not as good. “By contrast, the merely good students had totaled just over eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just over four thousand hours” (Gladwell). The people who practice longer are more likely to be professionals, then people who barely practice. “The professionals,

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Malcolm Gladwell in chapter one of Outliers convincingly describes that some people are more advantageous than others due to when they are born. In this case, Gladwell talks specifically to rule creators and authorities of sports leagues and elementary schools, because they have the power to make adjustments to unfair advantages. By unfair advantages, hockey leagues in Canada fixed an age cut-off date for incoming players, and elementary schools positioning the oldest students within a class to higher academic levels. Overall that signifies the older, the more prestige a person gets. To prove his point, Gladwell implied in a simple and understandable statement that "players are judged on their own performance" (pg.17), but rebutes his claim…

    • 213 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People have different understandings and definitions of what an outlier is. According to the dictionary, outlier means a person or thing situated away or detached from the main body or system. If you ask me, an outlier is someone who figures out the solution to a problem that someone else couldn’t. Malcolm Gladwell’s definition of an outlier is a person that works hard to be successful and its intelligence is far above than an average person. In The Outliers, Gladwell shows us his beliefs by giving us a short summary of his chosen outliers.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    On November 18, 2008 Malcolm Gladwell originally published Outliers which is a book about where success originates from. In the book, Gladwell discusses how success comes from where you are from, when you are born, in addition who your parents are. These are his ideas of where success comes from also that everyone has different opportunities and are more fortunate than others. Malcolm Gladwell's theory, where you are from determines success comes from the introduction The Roseto Mystery.…

    • 272 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Success can have different meanings to different people, Malcolm Gladwell suggest that “success is a function of persistence and determination and the willingness to work hard to make sense of something others may give up on” (Malcolm Gladwell Outliers). He explores his idea of success in the book Outliers: The Stories of Success offering readers ways to achieve success. In fact, he credits opportunity, skills, social responsibilities, and creativity as contributions towards success. Gladwell uses the term “outliers” to represent two things which are: 1. “Situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body (Gladwell, p. 6)” 2.…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, explains that “The students who would end up the best in their in their class began to practice more than everyone else…” (38). “The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires critical minimum level of practice surface again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours,” (Gladwell 40).…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He does this by using a researcher's study and comparing talent to success. The author states, "All of the violinists were then asked the same question: over the course of your entire career, ever since you first picked up the violin, how many hours have you practiced?"(Gladwell 2). This supports the claim because it shows how hours of practice controlled by one can led to success. Also, Gladwell states, "The idea that excellence at preforming a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise" (Gladwell 6). To further support the claim Gladwell states, "In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number to true expertise: ten thousand hours" (Gladwell 6).…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In chapter 4 of Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. Its Grown. Here’s How, Coyle articulates a conversation he had with a teenager, John Crawford, about the concept of deep practice. Crawford described the moment that he truly began deep practicing as “clicking in.” (87).…

    • 1927 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Most people assume that success is a result of hard work and natural talent. In Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, he claims that success is not achieved by what is conventionally believed. Success, according to Gladwell, is earned because of “opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot” not self-made accomplishments, intelligence, or skills. I agree with Gladwell’s argument that it is wrong to “assume that it is those personal qualities that explain how that individual reached the top”, in reference to the personalities and characteristics of a successful person. There is more behind a person’s prosperity than personal traits and talents.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Outliers Gladwell

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages

    10,000 hours of practice alone is not enough for expertise or excellence, in fact an article published in the journal Intelligence, by psychologist David Hambrick suggested that practice explains only about a third of success among musician and chess masters (Hambrick). With so many conflicting conflicting studies on the topic, what is to be believed? Gladwell says in an interview, “There is a lot of confusion about the 10,000 rule that I talk about in Outliers.... practice isn't a SUFFICIENT condition for success. Unfortunately, sometimes complex ideas get oversimplified in translation.”…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Well-known journalist and author, malcolm gladwell, in his introduction of outliers, describes the anomaly of a small city named roseto. Gladwell's purpose is to impress upon the readers the idea that outliers do not start out as outliers and to understand their success, one needs to look beyond their intelligence and ambition and their personality traits and examine their culture, their family, and their generation. He employs the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos and logos. These combined with his friendly tone creates an effective argument for his idea.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In today’s society, what makes a person an outlier? How do people become outliers? In the novel Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, these questions are discussed and answered throughout the entire novel. The sole purpose of this novel is to discuss how some of the many people in today’s society and in the past can be defined as “outliers” and how they obtained that title. During the novel, the author discusses how people who are successful are only successful due a great opportunity, lots of hard work, and a good amount of luck.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being persistent is a great quality to have and aim for because it means that you do not quit easily no matter how difficult the circumstances that may come your way are. Gladwell even implies that persistence is automatically good throughout chapter 8 of “Outliers” by using the rice farmers in China as an example; however, there are situations when persistence causes problems. When a person is too persistent, it comes off as annoying. For instance, when a man is courting a girl and she turns him down or gives hint that she does not see him the way he sees her, it is irritating on the girl’s part; however no one is to blame for this because we cannot alter our emotions in an instant even if we wanted to; it takes time. We shouldn’t be apologetic…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Presumption of Being Heard from Concerted Cultivation In Outliers, Gladwell presents the concepts of concerted cultivation and the presumption of being heard, which allowed Billie Jean King to have more confidence going into her success as an athlete and leader in the feminist movement. Concerted cultivation leads to presumption of being heard because it is this sense of entitlement that leads children to voice their opinions. Gladwell claims, “Concerted cultivation has enormous advantages. The heavily scheduled middle-class child is exposed to a constantly shifting set of experiences. She learns teamwork and how to cope in highly structured settings.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    10, 000 Hour Argument

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages

    10,000 Hour Argument Practice makes perfect, or so they say, but is that really true? There are conflicting opinions on how much practice it takes to master a skill. In the novel Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. In the article “Your Genes Don’t Fit: Why 10,000 Hours of Practice Won’t Make You an Expert” the author says that 10,000 hours of practice is not the only thing that it takes to master a skill. I agree with the author who says 10,000 hours of practice is not the only factor to consider when it comes to mastering a skill.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Malcolm Gladwell's, “Outliers: The Story of Success” illustrates the illusion and the blind luck of the “self-made man”. The idea of the self-made man has been alive and well in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people immigrate to the U.S. every year on the dream of a new life full of opportunity and subsequently, success. What Gladwell argues is that there is never any success without ample opportunity. There is no such thing as a real self-made man.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays