Are You an Outlier?

I read this book.

It was written by this guy.

You should read the book that guy wrote. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell was written around the question "Why do some people succeed far more than others?" Throughout the book, he investigates this question, using data from previous studies, facts he researched himself, and personal examples. He argues that, though talent and ability are necessary to succeed, people succeed more than others because they are provided with certain opportunities that place them at an advantage. Hockey players born in January have an advantage because they will be the oldest at the time to choose teams. Computer techies born in the mid-1950s have an advantage because they will start college just when computers start to become very popular. These opportunities are where the Olympic hockey players and Bill Gates and Bill Joy came from.

It matters what generation you were born in, what class you are, where your family came from and what your culture is. It made me question if I really was talented at what I do, or if I just think I'm good because of opportunities I've been given or lack of competition. Even though the book kind of makes you feel untalented, it makes you feel undoubtedly lucky becuase you have these opportunities to become famous or successful. For those reasons, it's a feel good book and I would highly recommend it.

Gladwell writes his book in an accessible way. Though it contains scientific research, it's not presented in some elite science review that makes it almost impossible for an average person to read it and understand it. For that reason, he doesn't include trivial facts experiments or intense vocabulary. He simply present the conclusion to allow regular people to understand it. His tone during the book isn't detatched because he likes what he is writing about, it's just not as fully involved becuase he doesn't have any personal relation to it yet. However, when he gets to the end, you realize that he wrote this book because of the lucky opportunities his mother got when she was a child. It was a nice way to end the book because it tied everything together.