Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

“Outlier” is a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers, explains that no one starts with nothing. Self-made stories fool us because although they may be factually true — you may start your life poor and finish it rich — they leave out all the advantages of circumstances that contribute to success. Further, they make us believe that success is an individual achievement. But no one succeeds alone. In fact where you’re from and the opportunities you’re given matter as much as personal advantages such as talent and intelligence.

In two parts and nine chapters with many stories and researches, Malcom explained opportunity and legacy and how they contribute to success.

When or Where You Were Born

Where and when you were born can influence your luck/opportunity. In the list of the richest people in history, 14/75 are American’s born in the 1860’s and 1870’s. This was when the industrial revolution was taking off, and the railways were being built across America and Wall Street started up. The same happened in Silicon Valley. All the top IT entrepreneurs were born between 1953 and 1956.

How You Were Raised

In a research by Annette Lareau, she concluded that involved parents vs. non-involved parents was the key difference that led to an individual’s success in life. Involved parents talk to their kids more and critically provide more opportunity for them (by taking them to museums, putting them into summer school, helping them with their homework etc). They also develop a sense of ‘entitlement’, so less likely to settle with the first ‘No’.

The 10,000-Hour Rule

From tech entrepreneurs like Bill Joy and Bill Gates to a band like the Beatles, it necessary to have mastery over a skill and Malcom says that requires 10,000 hours of practice.

Legacy

Our values are often unconsciously handed down to us from generation to generation, and as such cast long shadows over our current behaviour.

Dutch Psychologist, Geert Hofstede analyzed different country’s cultural tendencies. He identified a number of different dimensions, such as Individualism-Collectivism (i.e. how much a country expects you to look after yourself), Uncertainty Avoidance (i.e. how well a country tolerate ambiguity) and Power-Distance Index (i.e. attitudes towards hierarchy). The Korean Air plane crashes of 1988–1998 was traced to the cultural legacies of the koreans.

Side Note

“A provocative generalization,” is what Anders Ericsson calls the 10,000 hour rule. And it was Ericsson’s research on expert musicians that Gladwell cites as a basis for the rule. Ericsson says the rule is an oversimplification, and in many ways, an incorrect interpretation of his research. The 10,000 Hour Rule: Catchy and easy to remember, but on some pretty shaky scientific footing.

First of all, Ericsson says, the number 10,000 is totally arbitrary. It’s catchy and easy to remember, but not really based on anything substantial. It’s the number of hours these promising violinists had put in by the time they were 20 years old. And even at 20, they were very good at playing the violin, and probably headed to the top of their field, but they were not yet experts.

On top of that, Gladwell misunderstood that 10,000 hours was an average, and not all the best violinists had put in this number by age 20. In fact, half of the best hadn’t put in 10,000 hours.