Outliers: The Story of Success Outliers written by Malcolm Gladwell is a book written with the intent to inform or to guide your way of thinking about how success is actually achieved. The book defines outliers as “the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies” (Gladwell 3). Malcolm Gladwell is convincing in his writings by making you believe that success is not achieved by hard work or being naturally gifted, as most of us tend to believe, but rather by chance and favorable luck. Each chapter of the book has a different study. The chapters start off with a success story, whether it’s an athlete, business men, millionaires, and noble prize winners. Preceding each success story is a sequence
…show more content…
Gladwell writes about how education relies heavily on standardized testing and ultimately the students who score the highest naturally end up in the better schools. However, he feels that there’s a cap on how smart someone truly needs to be in order to be successful. Gladwell gives examples of the past Noble prize winners and the relation of the universities which they graduated from. Although some come from some of the schools you might expect like Harvard and MIT, others came from smaller universities. “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage” (Gladwell 79). Gladwell believes the difference comes down to how they were raised. He states that sociologist have studied how children’s upbringing has a direct correlation of how they act and behave as adults. Wealthier kids are encouraged, praised, and taught entitlement. These children learn to speak up if they are unhappy; they learn to customize their environment so that they can thrive. Gladwell also states that, poorer children are better at being more independent than wealthier children, but they receive less attention and praise. They learn to accept and cope with hardships instead of trying to change them. They learn from a young age that they are constrained, and they learn to accept
Gladwell writes about how education relies heavily on standardized testing and ultimately the students who score the highest naturally end up in the better schools. However, he feels that there’s a cap on how smart someone truly needs to be in order to be successful. Gladwell gives examples of the past Noble prize winners and the relation of the universities which they graduated from. Although some come from some of the schools you might expect like Harvard and MIT, others came from smaller universities. “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage” (Gladwell 79). Gladwell believes the difference comes down to how they were raised. He states that sociologist have studied how children’s upbringing has a direct correlation of how they act and behave as adults. Wealthier kids are encouraged, praised, and taught entitlement. These children learn to speak up if they are unhappy; they learn to customize their environment so that they can thrive. Gladwell also states that, poorer children are better at being more independent than wealthier children, but they receive less attention and praise. They learn to accept and cope with hardships instead of trying to change them. They learn from a young age that they are constrained, and they learn to accept