Book review: “Outliers” from Malcom Gladwell
Ralf Haller
April 21st, 2009
Malcom Gladwell’s third book is another must-read. While his first two books “Tipping Point” and “Blink” described each an interesting phenomena his new book “Outliers” is full of great observations that make reading it an exciting experience.
No doubt he is a sharp observer, outstanding storyteller and btw also very funny public speaker as you can witness in his contribution to the TED event year in 2004:
Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce
Now what is Outliers about, Malcom?
In this book I’m interested in people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.
You can find stories on the success of e.g. Bill Gates who in public always says that he is a college dropout who worked his way up himself, but once you read the story you will see that he had like all the other “outliers” strong support from home, was able to collect a skill practicing it for 10,000+ hours, and then lastly had been very lucky to be at the right place at exactly the right time. Then very had work of course is still needed to make it. This is somehow not surprising but to back it up and compare with many other success stories is a great observation and educating as well as entertaining read.
In part 2 of the book Malcom looks at cultural phenomena and how they have a strong impact on people’s lives and work. E.g. how do communication and hierarchical cultures in S. Korea lead to 17 times higher airplane crash rates (something that has been fixed now fortunately). Or why do the Chinese with their experience in cultivating rice paddies have better mathematical skills compared with Western cultures? This book is fun to read and provides some good practical education as well.
Tags: Malcom Gladwell