The Matthew Effect By Malcolm Gladwell

In 2008, journalist Malcolm Gladwell published Outliers, a best-selling book about how we measure success as a society. Gladwell employs a conversational tone when discussing how we measure success, and touches upon common misconceptions regarding the matter. One chapter, entitled “The Matthew Effect,” highlights how individuals born on a certain year and month are able to take advantage of any given opportunities that were offered to them, varying on the year and month they were born in. Although some readers may disagree with the author, I believe Gladwell makes a valid point because individuals who are born earlier are able to receive better opportunities than those who are born later in the year. The main point Gladwell is trying to prove …show more content…
He uses the roster from the 2007 Medicine Hat Tigers team as an example to establish credibility over his claim. According to the roster, most of the players were born from January through March (Outliers 20-21), which indicates one example on how the author is attempting to establish credibility for his claim. The second example he provides is when he demonstrates the roster of the 2007 Czech National Junior Soccer Team, where yet again, the statistics show that most players were born from January through March (Outliers 27). Through these two examples that Gladwell provided to make his point valid that individuals, not just soccer and hockey players, who are born in an earlier month and year, I could say that the “Matthew Effect” is true because, in the case of the hockey players and the soccer players, they are able to mature quickly into successful players due to the advantage they have because they were born earlier, and players born later have a disadvantage because, as Gladwell puts it, these players have to “go home” after they were born after midsummer (Outliers 27), simply meaning that were not offered the advantages that earlier-born players have, and this applies to every individual who was born either earlier or …show more content…
I was born on August 10, 2001, which was after midsummer. I would like to provide an example as to how there would be a disadvantage regarding given opportunities. After high school, I would like to travel abroad alone, but however, that would be a disadvantage since I need to be a legal adult if I want to go independently, and by the time this happens, I would still be 17. That’s one disadvantage and one reason some would disagree with Gladwell’s claim, because they think they can take a wonderful opportunity, but find out that there are various disadvantages, not just age