Malcolm Gladwell Outliers

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Malcolm Gladwell, best selling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, has a new book Outliers. Apart from being an excellent book on success, it may give insight on Gladwell himself, since he would appear to an outlier too.

After having a night to sleep on what I heard from Malcolm Gladwell here are my comments. Note, I have read all his books including Outliers and attended his early sold-out show in London on November 24.

Gladwell participated in a BBC Radio 4 show http://tinyurl.com/5584ra , one of the panelists singled out the aircraft story as exceptional.

Less than 12 hours later Gladwell stands before a packed house at London's Lyceum Theatre without a pre-planned theme or even topic. This point was well explored in Stephen Moss's guardian article. http://tinyurl.com/5cwq2e

Here are some points which strike me.

The radio show gave him the topic of his talk later that day. I believe it accounted for the material appearing slightly disorganized, however it was still entertaining.

His theme the "ethnic theory of plane crashes" pointed to the Outliers theme in a creative way.

Gladwell wove many stories, including 2 other airplane disasters around the main theme of the Columbian airline's Avianca 052 plane crash. This led the audience to almost forget that we are listening to a plane crash story.

Along the way we learned (and not necessarily in this order) that those who remain angry in the southern USA point to the belligerence their forebears displayed when they lived in England, Scotland and Ireland. Hundreds of years had not changed them.

We learned about power-distance index, where very few crashes occur when the co-pilot is flying the plane. Indicating you may be safer with the co-pilot in a disaster. This has widespread significance for all power relationships; husband-wife, student-teacher, boss-employee.

We learned that Jamaicans have more in common with Danes than say Barbadians. We also learned why.

We found out that Gladwell is English, a fact that the English struggle with to this day. In the UK unless all four of your grandparents are born in England and are white, you are not actually considered as English by many. You are British perhaps. Gladwell has a Jamaican mother and an English Father.

And finally we are faced with the fact that the Bush era is over. Outliers like Obama, Gladwell and most of his audience last night have been handed the keys to the world. And just like that, he crashed Avianca short of landing and exited stage left. London is still in shock!

• Category

  Science & Technology

[theolivetree95]

My father left Brazil at age 17 as a poor kid who'd never left home. Now he's the owner of a successful trucking company. Originally, I thought he did it all on his own, but, after reading this book, I went back and looked at his story and realized there were a lot of outliers that got him there. He's not saying they don't work hard, because if in the book he says they do, but there's a lot of factors that affect it.

[jml235]

Every successful person I know works extremely, extremely hard. It's 24/7, they don't seem to be able to turn it off. We play on Youtube, they keep acquiring more information, knowledge, skills. It's true that where you are and what resources you will have a large impact as well, but being hard-working is absolutely a prereq. Having connections isn't. My father was the son of two people who didn't finish high school. He's now a plastic surgeon. Work ethic matters more.

[jml235]

Yeah, i'm not sure you understood the methodology. The point was to use the most outrageously successful individuals to identify the factors of success at all levels, including the more humble achievements of only becoming a plastic surgeon instead of a multi-billion computer company. You should probably keep working on your reading skills...or you won't make it even to the lowly achievements of becoming a doctor while having neither parent graduate high school.

[Origamisarah]

don't insult people, that makes you sound stupid as fuck! Just because she didn't realize the the book was talking about more than just people that changed history, that doesn't mean, she is stupid, or she didn't read the book, or that she i arrogant. So stop talking shit yourself.

[cutiekiska]

yeah, but he is not telling us something new. Most people already know this. He just has good presentation, and that's why people are "wow"ed by him.

[awesome70477]

I read this book and was quite impressed..

[misfits12o]

your stupid as fuck. the book is not only about people who have changed history. the book is about how these people became successful and all the factors involved. a plastic surgeon is considered successful in this book. actually read the book before talking shit you arrogant fuck.

[Jessie Zhang]

Sorry to be rude, but the book is mostly about extremely successful people who changed history and affected our lives in ways no one else could, not plastic surgeons who gets paid well.

[linda weston]

he is basically saying that sucess dont come easy and if u want to successful in life it takes hard work.

[LovePink54322]

My favorite chapter was Rice Paddies chapter; I kinda wish I learned math in China haha! I'd probably have an A in algebra if I had!

[LovePink54322]

This is an INCREDIBLE book!!

[LovePink54322]

I had to read this book for comp II and it blew my mind! It is soo accurate!